The Root of El Salvador's Problems
Much of El Salvador's problems come from a long time ago, mostly beginning in the 1930's. From the 1930's until about the 1960's and 1970's much of the problem in El Salvador was about the land and the economy. From the 1960's and 1970's through 1992 most of the problems consisted of battles between government and opposition groups and basic denial of human rights. It's through this time that religion begins to play a role in the problem of El Salvador. It's during much of the late 1970's and early 1980's that many people of El Salvador lost their lives. In the following text I will discuss more thoroughly in detail the problems of land, economy, government, and human rights in El Salvador.
It was in 1932 popular unrest from peasants and land workers made a collapse in the coffee market sending us them into a worldwide depression. At this time General Maximiliano Hernandez Martinez was in power and he responded to this depression with fire and bloodshed. This slaughter cost thirty thousand peasants their lives. "La Matanza", Spanish for massacre, is one of the biggest massacres in El Salvador. The uprising was blamed on a party known as the Communists Party and was started because of low wages. The leader, Agustin Farabunduo Marti, was arrested and executed for supposedly setting it up. A historian from the massacre describes the event as follows:
Almost of the rebels, except the leaders, were difficult to identify, arbitrary classifications were set up. All those who were found carrying machetes were guilty. All those of a strong Indian cast of features, or who dressed in a scruffy, campesino costume, were considered guilty. To facilitate the roundup, all those who had not ...
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Before reading this, I, like I am sure so many others, had no idea of the magnitude of injustices that can occur during these conflicts. Also, this was not very long ago, nor far away, and it speaks volumes of the differences in government ideology and politics. El Salvador is an extreme case of how a government will treat its citizens. Massacre at El Mozote truly was an eye-opener and I doubt I will soon forget it.
The war on crime is constantly being fought in El Salvador. El Salvador is one of the
Affairs 12.3/4 (1971): 378-415. Jstor.org. Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Miami. Web. 13 Apr. 2014.
The Civil War in El Salvador lasted from 1980 to 1992, and the El SAlvadoran government was doing their best to minimize the threat of their opposition. Their main opposition, The Frente Farabundo Marti Para La Liberacion Nacional; otherwise known as the FMLN, was a guerrilla group that was organized to fight the corruption in the country. 175). One of the main goals of the organization was to create a new society that is not degrading its citizens and promotes equality. Throughout El Salvador’s history, one organization to the next would run the country through repressive actions and social injustice. One of the main reasons that the FMLN fought the acting government were due to these social restraints on the lower- class citizens in El Salvador.
Gleijeses Piero. Shattered Hope The Guatemalan Revolution and The United States, 1944-1954. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991.
Lundahl, Mats, and Lundius, Jan. Peasants and Religion: A socioeconomic study of Dios Olivorio and the Palma Sola Movement in the Dominican Republic. New York: Routledge: Taylor & Francis Group, 2000.
Guatemala held democratic elections in 1944 and 1951, they resulted in leftist government groups holding power and rule of the country. Intervention from the United States and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) backed a more conservative military minded regime. A military coup took place in 1954 to over throw the elected government and install the rule of Carlos Castillo Armas. Carlos Armas was a military general before the coup and with the CIA orchestrated operation he was made President from July 8th 1954 until his assassination in 1957. Upon his assassination, similar militant minded presidents rose to power and continued to run the country. Due to the nature of military dictatorship, in 1960, social discontent began to give way to left wing militants made up of the Mayan indigenous people and rural peasantry. This is the match that lit Guatemala’s Civil War, street battles between the two groups tore the country and pressured the autocratic ruler General Miguel Ydigoras Fuentes to fight harder against the civilian insurrection. Similar to the government Abductions th...
Throughout centuries man has witnessed some of this worlds greatest tragedies; the destruction caused by the bubonic plague, the bombing of Pearl Harbour and the Rwandan Genocide. However, none of these can compare to the devastation caused by world dictators. The lives taken at the hands of these tyrannical rulers is unbelievably distressing, and ex-Dominican president, Rafael Trujillo is no exception. Throughout his thirty year reign over the Dominican Republic he is thought to be responsible for the lives of over 50,000 innocent people, none of these devastating losses, however, compare to the tragedy of the Mirabal sisters; three honourable women who did nothing but have a voice. The level of political misconduct and unjustified action was unbelievable and lead the sisters to drastic measures, Patria saying "We cannot allow our children to grow up in this corrupt and tyrannical regime, we have to fight against it, and I am willing to give up everything, including my life if necessary.". In their efforts to try and overthrow the totalitarian they found themselves trapped in a situation where the lives of them and their families were constantly at risk, and in the end it was through their tragical ...
This does not, however, dismiss the reality of torture in Chile nor soften Cavanaugh’s criticisms of “distinction of planes” ecclesiologies. Church paradigms such as Maritain’s New Christendom have led Catholics in Chile and elsewhere to buy into a “devil’s bargain” wherein the Church confines itself to the social, or spiritual, realm and allows the state to dominate in the political, or temporal, realm (196). Such ecclesiologies simultaneously facilitate the Church’s disappearance as a societal body and strip the Church of any tangible ability to counteract the actions of oppressive governments. The Chilean church’s ecclesiology had real, disastrous consequences for Chileans under the Pinochet regime – consequences that perhaps could have been mitigated under a different ecclesiological
The world in the 1940’s was not the ideal place for anyone to be living. Hitler’s Nazi movements being one of the catalysts for World War II, the citizens of the world were flung into an era of disarray and discontentment in the early 40’s. After Japan’s surprise attack on the U.S., forcing the Americans into war, it soon became a whole differnet ball game. In 1941, the United Nations was formed comprised of the inter-allies and its goal to "work together, with other free peoples, both in war and in peace". Now, all corners of the world were being affected. The history of Central American countries particularly, Nicaragua will be examined in this reading. This reading will focus specifically on the history of Nicaragua from 1945 to the early 2000’s. A critical analysis of how Nicaragua and its leaders handled certain situations and whether or not the situations were handled well. In addition, only Nicaragua’s more significant events will be regarded and analyzed chronologically and collectively, while trying to avoid going in depth as to why certain events occurred as that is for another time. This paper will represent the stance that Nicaragua’s leaders handled certain situations in a manner that was not very beneficial to Nicaragua and its citizens but beneficial to those in power up until the Sandistina government took over and began to make decisions beneficial to Nicaraguans however, hindered by opposing powers.
The Che Guevara of Latin America is currently more present than ever. The ideals he pursued will forever affect some people. Guevara’s fight was for the oppressed, the exploited; he was the voice of the people with no voice. His image quiets any person who tires to continue oppression or the unmeasured gain of wealth.
The city that I want to focus is Concepcion Quezaltepeque, Chalatenango El Salvador, which is the city I lived for many years in my life. This is one of the cities that is located in one of the smallest countries of Central America. Many years ago this city was in very bad shape, its infrastructures were weaker and the economy was too, but then a lot of people decided to travel to the United States in order to help their families to have a better life and to improve their houses, some of them even made new homes for their love ones. Also, around five years ago a new mayor was elected by the people, and this mayor and his colleagues did many good things for the city. For example, it created a program to give people materials that were used to
The utter enormity of deaths, disappearances, torture and human rights violations against Central American migrants in Mexico continues to be one of the most unrecognized crisis in this hemisphere. The likelihood of Salvadoran women being raped, forced into sexual trafficking by gangs and drug lords, and/or losing their lives riding on freight trains in Mexican territory discussed in Leisy J. Abrego’s On Silences: Salvadoran Refugees Then and Now is a byproduct of the greedy alliance Mexico has formed with the United States to decrease central american migration and in return stimulate better negotiations. A connection can be drawn to George Lipsitz’s warning against a culture being driven to jeopardize the fate of another in pursuit of white acceptance in The Possessive Investment in
“The Killing Machine: Che Guevara, From Communist Firebrand to Capitalist Brand.” Llosa, Alvaro Vargas. The New Republic. July 11, 2005.
The first Catholic priests came to South America with the conquistadors and through social and political force superimposed 16th century Catholicism upon conquered peoples and in subsequent generations upon slaves arriving in the New World. Catholicism has, likewise, frequently absorbed, rather than confronted, popular folk religious beliefs. The resulting religion is often overtly Catholic but covertly pagan. Behind the Catholic facade, the foundations and building structure reflect varying folk religious traditions. (2)