Table Of ContentMATANZA
The 1932 "slaughter"
that traumatized a nation,
shaping US'Salvadoran policy
to this day
THOMAS P. ANDERSON
ORRADRE LIBRARY
SANTA CLARA UNIVERSITY
SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA
C U R B S T O N E PRESS
Second EDITION, 1992
Originally published by the
University of Nebraska Press
Copyright © 1971 by the
University of Nebraska Press
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Cover design by Les Kanturek
Printed in the U.S. by Princeton University Press
Curbstone Press is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit literary arts organization
whose operations are supported in part by private donations and by
grants from the ADCO Foundation, the Connecticut Commission on
the Arts, the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Literary Publishers Marketing
Development Program administered by CLMP, the LEF Foundation, the
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts,
and the Plumsock Fund.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Anderson, Thomas P., 1934-
Matanza / Thomas P. Anderson — 2nd ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1-880684-04-7
1. El Salvador — History — 1838-1944. 2. Communism — El Salvador.
I. Title.
F1487.5.A67 1992
972.8405 — dc20 92-24610
distributed in the U.S.
by InBook
P.O. Box 120261
East Haven, CT 06512
CURBSTONE PRESS
321 Jackson Street, Willimantic, CT 06226
Contents
Preface to the Second Edition 9
Preface 12
I The Political and Social Background 13
II The Rise of the Left 39
III The Election in Arturo Araujo 61
IV Araujo’s Presidency and the Coup 71
of December 2
V Marti Organizes the Masses 89
VI The Communist Revolt Begins 113
VII The Revolt in Juayúa and Nahuizalco 131
VIII The Revolt in Other Areas 143
IX The Attack on Sonsonate and 157
the Repression
X The Trial and Execution of Marti, 179
Luna, and Zapata
XI El Salvador since 1932 191
Bibliography 207
Index 215
Map of San Salvador in 1932, page 82
Map of main area of the revolt, page 140
Preface to the Second Edition
It has now been twenty years since the publication of Matanza.
It has been in print almost continuously since that time and was
published in Spanish by EDUCA, Costa Rica. From this it
might be gathered that the book struck a responsive chord, but
this is probably not due to the book itself so much as to the
dramatic events which unfolded over the last two decades in El
Salvador. In this brief space I should like first to say a few
words about the book, and then something on the subsequent
events of Salvadorean history.
It is the nightmare of every historical writer that some sharp
scholar will find fatal flaws in his work that will prove that he
was either a fraud or a fool, but Matanza appears to have
largely stood the test of time. Indeed, it is disconcerting,
especially as you grow older, to be frequently told that your
first book was your best. However Professor Kenneth J. Grieb
did point out in his review in The Americas that I had overlooked
certain State Department files that proved that Jefferson
Caffery was actually trying to remove Martinez from power
(p.62). I suppose I was fooled by the opposite impression he
gave the Salvadoreans, as well as by having overlooked certain
files.
1 have also been called to task for calling it a “communist
revolt” in the title. This matter was brought up at a symposium
on the book at Universidad Centroamericana in San Salvador
some years ago and more recently at a New York University
conference. I believe that I did emphasize the Indian element in
the uprising and the peasants’ general discontent, but there is no
denying that the revolt was led by men such as Agustín
Farabundo Marti who were indeed communists, and while the
revolt came prematurely, they were planning an uprising.
Therefore, there are rhree_£jgments to the revolt, indigenous
resentment of the ladinos, more generalized peasant resistance to
oppression, and communist leadership"-
9
Lastly, there is the matter of the body count. At the UCA
Symposium, my low figure of eight to ten thousand campesinos
killed was also questioned. Many people claim more, but a
friend of mine, who was born in Santa Ana and lived in the area
of the revolt most of his life, pointed out that, if such a vast
number of people were killed, they ought to find remains all
over the place, but they don’t.
As for El Salvador itself, my impression when I first went
there for research in 1969 was that the country desperately
needed a revolution. The outrageous poverty, the arrogance of
the wealthy, the ubiquitous armed repression all seemed to
point to revolution. I have not changed my mind. The memory of
1932 for a long time frightened the populace into docility. Then
things began to change, the fraudulent election of 1972, when
José Napoleón Duarte was robbed of the presidency appears to
have been a turning point. Peaceful change, always the hope of
many, now seemed no longer possible. Armed Marxist
insurgent groups began to appear. Thanks, to liberation
theology, much of the Catholic Church joined the opposition to
the regime and many priests and nuns were martyred. In
October, 1979, a junior officers’ coup toppled the Party of
National Conciliation, but the military repression and the death
squads continued, and the pallid reforms that the junta led by
Napoleón Duarte undertook did not satisfy the revolutionaries.
The result would be more than a decade of civil war between
the Farabundo Marti Front of National Liberation and the
government.
Despite their many mistakes, the revolutionaries could have,
indeed should have, won in early 1984 when they were at the
peak of their power, but their revolution was not convenient for
United States foreign policy during the Cold War, and the
result was massive aid to the government which succeeded in
producing the current stalemate.
Today, in the four fifths of the country under government
control, a situation curiously like that of pre-1930 El Salvador
prevails. Alfredo Cristiani of the right-wing ARENA party
presides over a liberal government (in the nineteenth century
sense) run by and for the entrepreneurial elite.
10
Unions are repressed, sometimes by violence and the
modest land and banking reforms of the late President Duarte
are annulled while the death squads are given free rein. But the
modern business elite has a partner the old Fourteen Families
would have shunned: the office class. Bloated by the war and
incredible amounts of United States aid, the military has
become a major business institution. The senior commanders
may not know how to beat the insurgents, but they certainly
know how to turn a buck.
The situation is volatile, peace negotiations are continuing,
but, for the moment, El Salvador seems to have come full circle,
and, aside from the increased role of the military institutions,
be where it was before the election of Arturo Araujo. So much
was hoped for in 1930, so much became tragedy. One can only
hope that sometime soon El Salvador can waken from its
reoccurring nightmares.
Thomas P. Anderson
Eastern Connecticut State University
October, 1991
11
