Background

• El Salvador is a small country in Central America bordered by Honduras, Guatemala, and the Pacific Ocean. In 1979, a military Junta overthrew Uthe government. The Junta promised to improve El Savlador, but did not. Five guerrilla groups United in the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front.
• 1980- civil war began
• Government was supported by the military and targeted anyone suspected of supporting social and economic reform.
• Ended in 1992- 75,000 dead

Why Did the U.S. Help?

• El Salvador needed the U.S. Help, the civil war would not have lasted as long as it did because el Savlador exhausted its resources by fighting itself. 
• We were involved with the El Salvador right hand government before war
• U.S. Saw the spread of communism as a threat, so began to invest heavily in El Salvador War.
• Civil relations in El Salvador intensified after 1981
• El Salvador turned to the U.S. for help when guerrilla warfare broke out.
• Administrations of Jimmy Carter & Ronald Reagan responded to El Salvador's appeals.
• Total US aid increased from $264.2 mil (1982) to $557.8 mil (1987)

Aid Policies

• ESF- Economic Support Funds, intended to provide balance of payments to pay for non food imports
• Food aid- Public Law 480, direct donations of food items
• Development aid administered by United States Agency for International Development- agriculture, population planning, health, education, and training
• During President Carter's administration the U.S. Invested $7 billion in a 10 year aid package, which ended in George W Bush's administration.
• Presdient Carter sent 19 soldiers to train other soldiers there
• During the height of the war- aid averaged 1.5 million dollars a day

Mozote Massacre

• January, 1981, approximately 1000 people, almost the entire population of Mozote was tortured and slaughtered
• Men, women, children, and the elderly were separated in groups the town plaza
• Men were tortured and shot
• Women were tortured and shot
• Young women were taken up a hill, raped and then shot
• 146 children, ranging from ages 3- 14 years were brutally murdered
• Soldiers smashed the skulls of small babies and decapitated the older children
• Pregnant women were shot or had large rocks dropped on their stomachs to kill the unborn babies
• Soldiers set fire to the church.

U.S. Critics

• Critics in the U.S. Fought to end our forgein aid to El Salvador
• They argued that America was pouring money into a cause that committed horrible violations against human rights
• The U.S. Denied many of the horrors committed during the war
• For example, the murder of Archbishop Romero along with other clergy members.

The Peace Settlement

• Chapultepec Peace Accords 1992
• Brought peace after almost a decade of war
• The treaty was negotiated by representatives of the Salvadoran government, the rebel movement FMLN, and political parties, with observers from the Roman Catholic Church and United Nations.
• Final agreement signed Janurary 16, 1992 in Mexico City at Chapultepec Castle.
• 9 month cease fire took affect February 1, 1992 and is yet to be broken.