El Salvador Civil War — US-Backed Junta vs. FMLN
El Salvador's civil war began in earnest following a military coup in October 1979 that displaced a right-wing dictator but failed to prevent the polarisation of Salvadoran society. The Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), a coalition of five leftist guerrilla organisations, launched a major offensive in January 1981 and waged a twelve-year insurgency against successive US-backed governments. The United States provided over $4 billion in military and economic aid to El Salvador during the 1980s, making it the largest recipient of US aid in Latin America, and sent hundreds of military advisors. The war was marked by extreme violence from both sides, but particularly from US-trained Salvadoran military units and right-wing death squads linked to the security forces. The massacre at El Mozote in December 1981 — where the US-trained Atlacatl Battalion killed approximately 800 civilians, mostly women and children — was one of the worst atrocities in modern Latin American history; the Reagan administration suppressed the reports. Archbishop Óscar Romero was assassinated in March 1980 while saying Mass after he had appealed to the US government to halt military aid. The war ended in 1992 with UN-brokered peace accords; an estimated 75,000 people had died.
- Year: 1979 CE
- Category: Military
