El Salvador, the full story

The resistance to General Matrínez in El Salvador orchestrates several important elements to a resistance movement. From examining the course of events, and tactics of El Salvador’s struggle for democracy we learn a lesson about resistance. By contrasting the violent and nonviolent movements we see that it is important to gain popular support for a movement, the importance of striking at the power structure of a regime, and the importance of knowing one’s opposition’s strengths. By examining the conflict in El Salvador I will attempt to illustrate these lessons.
In nonviolent movements tragedy often plays an important role. For example, the Civil Rights movement in the United States often used children in its protests because they could go to jail and not have to worry about making money to support their families, and because images of children being sprayed with fire hoses caught the attention of the foreign press, and unified the movement through shared hardship. While it may seem wrong to knowingly use tactics that will bring great violence upon your movement, these tactics are nonetheless essential to the success of the movement. Increasing media exposure is an important tool, it detracts support from the oppressive party, and gains support for the movement. The brutality endured by a movement also has a unifying element, and creates a survival mentality, which can be important to the success of the movement.
September 1941 marked the creation of the Acción Democrática Salvadoreña (ADS). From the beginning of ADS members were divided as to whether nonviolent or violent tactics should be used. The ease with which nonviolent resistance can be utilized made this their first course of action. The ADS, through their leaflet campaign, made little impact, until April 2nd, 1944. April 2nd, Palm Sunday, started with captured elements of the Salvadoran Air Force buzzing the city of San Salvador, and the First Infantry, and second artillery regiments spearheading decisive attacks on the state radio station, the telegraph office, and the airfield. As military regiments defected, the rebels broadcasted the news of their victories to the citizens of El Salvador. The people of Santa Ana elect a new city council, and rebel forces swell as the people take to the streets. The Coup is initially very successful. Most Salvadorians are away from the cities for the holiday so innocent casualties are few, and the government officials are scattered and slow to react. However, these initial successes will be the downfall of the rebels, as they excitedly report too much information. Martínez, simply by listening to the radio, is able to determine which regiments are still loyal to him, and orchestrates an effective resistance. The insurrection is over by the 4th.
Despite its failure, the Palm Sunday insurrection is the first decisive action by the ADS, and for their treason, the people of El Salvador would pay dearly. Martínez’s secret police begin to round up thousands of citizens, there are reports of torture, all opposition newspapers are shut down, mutual aid groups and unions are outlawed, and restrictions on travel in and out of the capital are restricted.
The international press pounces on the news of the insurrection and the subsequent reprisals. The Salvadoran government loses credibility in the international community. Venezuelan Chamber of Deputies, Mexican labor leaders, and the United States all formally declare their disapproval of the Salvadoran administration. The lack of support threatens El Salvador’s ability to trade with the rest of the Allied powers. Just as the southern state governments would feel the pressure from the international press, and the federal government as news of their abuses went public, so did the government of El Salvador.
The state of the people of El Salvador is tragic, but the actions of the government will be its downfall. The reprisals affect all Salvadorans: thousands of innocent people are killed or tortured, newspapers are shut down, workers lose what little rights they had, businesses are unable to conduct their work, and the entire country begins to believe that either they remove Martínez, or he will kill them. For the first time all citizens are united by their suffering, not even the coffee elites are safe because of the travel restrictions. The ADS begins to create a new plan: one that is nonviolent, and includes all elements of society, not only the military and intellectuals, but the workers, businessmen, doctors and students. It becomes quite clear that while the coup was a flop, it proves its value as a unifying force for the country.
In late April thru early May of that same year the ADS would get its second chance at overthrowing Martínez, and it would be a success, however short lived. In a nation-wide general strike Salvadorans would make the demand that Martínez step down and leave the country. The ADS has learned from its mistakes: Martínez is simply to strong and ruthless to tackle head on. Instead the ADS implements their huelga de brazos caidos, or strike of fallen arms. The strategy here is simple: a general strike where no one does anything, people stay inside and do not enter the streets. The strike begins with the students, but the need to gain support from all people is recognized from the beginning, so with the help of children, news spreads of the strike, businessmen, immigrants, railroad workers are some of the first to join the strike, but within days nearly the entire country is on strike. Nonviolence was a perfect strategy here. The people had seen what could be achieved when they organized, but not everyone was able to take up arms, and so, could not participate in an armed insurrection. However, everyone could lay down their anatomical arms and do nothing.
Protestors continued to remain out of the streets for fear of being attacked by police. However, eventually there would be a confrontation between the people and the police. This confrontation came when several youths gathered in the street and were fired upon by the police. One young man, and U.S. citizen, José Wright was killed. This proved to be a unifying factor for the strikers, and the last straw for the Martínez regime. Under pressure from the strikers, and the U.S. government several Salvadoran ministers resign. It was only a matter of time before Martínez himself would resign and leave the country.
The movement was at least successful in that respect. However, the ADS would be missing support from one important national group that was present in the insurrection, but not in this second campaign: the military. If we examine the power structure of El Salvador we see that there was Martínez at the head, and the coffee elite and military directly below him. As Dr. Robert Burrows suggests “These sources of power, in turn, depend on the obedience and cooperation of the people. The relationship between command and obedience is an interactive one, and elite control can be exercised only with the active or passive compliance of subject peoples and particularly the compliance of key specialist groups (1996).” In El Salvador the above-mentioned groups are these “key specialist groups,” and without their full cooperation, no resistance will be successful. El Salvador is an example of this. The insurrection had the support of the military but not the support of the coffee elites, and as a result, was unsuccessful. Furthermore, the subsequent nonviolent movement had the support of the coffee elites, but lacked the support of the military. As a result of this, the ADS would be successful in overthrowing Martínez, but would not be able to change the military system that continued to subjugate them until 1990 when they would finally have their freedom.
El Salvador is a brilliant example of violent and nonviolent tactics. We saw the how difficult it is to succeed against a government through violence methods. We also see how difficult it is to win a true victory through nonviolence. We also see the importance of addressing and combating the power structures of a regime. El Salvador shows the importance of gaining popular support, and combating violent regimes in ways that limit their abilities to utilize their strengths.