Abstract
This chapter analyzes the actions and strategies undertaken by the Salvadoran armed left from its birth to the creation of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) in 1980. Revolutionary violence emerged in the early 1970s in the context of an authoritarian political regime that went to inordinate levels of repression against any expression of dissidence—even against those who attempted to dissent through purely peaceful methods. Drawing on internal documents and a database of armed actions built by the authors, this work clearly identifies different patterns of use of revolutionary violence by the Salvadoran Left along the decade under study. These patterns are in turn linked to the different stages of development of the armed organizations, to the changing domestic and global political context and to the strategy developed by each group.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Bibliography
Abrams, Philip. 1982. Historical sociology. Somerset: Open Books.
Allison, Michael, and Alberto Martín Álvarez. 2012. Unity and Disunity in the Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional. Latin American Politics and Society 53(4): 89–118.
Almeida, Paul D. 2011. Olas de Movilización Popular: Movimientos Sociales en El Salvador, 1925–2010. San Salvador: UCA Editores.
Bataillon, Gilles. 2008. Génesis de las guerras intestinas en América Central. México: FCE.
Byrne, Hugh. 1996. El Salvador’s Civil War. A study of revolution. Boulder: Lynne Rienner.
Campos, Ana María. 2011. 170 años de limitaciones económicas. El Universitario 13(17): 24–27.
Cardenal, Ana S. 2002. La democracia y la tierra. Cambio político en El Salvador. Madrid: CIS.
CECADE. 2013. Tiempos de Audacia. Los Mass Media de una Guerrilla. San Salvador: CECADE.
Chávez, Joaquín Mauricio. 2010. The Pedagogy of Revolution: Popular Intellectuals and the Origins of the Salvadoran Insurgency, 1960–1980 (Ph.D. thesis. New York: New York University).
Dunkerley, James. 1982. The Long War. Dictatorship and revolution in El Salvador. London: Junction Books.
Gordon, Sara. 1989. Crisis política y guerra en El Salvador. México: Siglo XXI.
Grenier, Yvon. 1999. The emergence of insurgency in El Salvador. Ideology and political will. Pittsburg: University of Pittsburg Press.
Kruijt, Dirk. 2008. Guerrillas. War and peace in Central America. London/New York: Zed Books.
Lindo Fuentes, Hector, and Erik Ching. 2012. Modernizing minds in El Salvador: Education reform and the Cold War, 1960–1980. Alburquerque: University of New Mexico Press.
Martín, Alberto, and Eudald Cortina Orero. 2014. The genesis and internal dynamics of El Salvador’s People’s Revolutionary Army (ERP), 1970–1976. Journal of Latin American Studies 46(4): 663–689.
Martín Alvarez, Alberto. 2010. From revolutionary war to democratic revolution. The Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front in El Salvador. Berlin: Berghof Conflict Research.
Martín Álvarez, Alberto, and Jorge Juárez Ávila. 2014. Del partido a la guerrilla. Los orígenes de las Fuerzas Populares de Liberación Farabundo Martí (FPL,). In Historia y debates sobre el conflicto armado salvadoreño y sus secuelas. El Salvador: Fundación Friedrich Ebert/Unidad de Investigaciones sobre la Guerra Civil Salvadoreña/Instituto de Estudios Históricos, Antropológicos y Arqueológicos de la Universidad de El Salvador.
McClintock, Cynthia. 1998. Revolutionary movements in Latin America. El Salvador’s FMLN and Peru’s shining path. Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace Press.
Montgomery, Tommie S. 1982. Revolution in El Salvador. Origins and evolution. Colorado: Westview Press.
Paige, Jeffrey M. 1996. Land reform and Agrarian revolution In El Salvador: Comment on Seligson and Diskin. Latin American Research Review 31(2): 127–139.
Torres-Rivas, Edelberto. 2013. Revoluciones sin cambios revolucionarios. Guatemala: F y G Editores.
Turcios, Roberto. 2003. Autoritarismo y Modernización. El Salvador 1950–1960. San Salvador: Concultura.
Viterna, Jocelyn. 2013. Women in war. The micro-processes of mobilization in El Salvador. New York: Oxford University Press.
Wood, Elisabeth J. 2003. Insurgent collective action and Civil War in El Salvador. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2017 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Álvarez, A., Orero, E. (2017). The Salvadoran Armed Left and Revolutionary Violence (1970–1980). In: Politics and History of Violence and Crime in Central America. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95067-6_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95067-6_6
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-95066-9
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-95067-6
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)