Revolutionary Government Junta of El Salvador

The Revolutionary Government Junta (, JRG) was the name of three consecutive joint civilian-military dictatorships that ruled El Salvador between 15 October 1979 and 2 May 1982.

The first junta, from 1979 to 1980, consisted of two colonels, Adolfo Arnoldo Majano and Jaime Abdul Gutiérrez, and three civilians, Guillermo Ungo, Mario Antonio Andino and Román Mayorga Quirós. The second junta, from January through December 1980, consisted of Majano and Gutiérrez, and José Antonio Morales Ehrlich, Héctor Dada Hirezi, and José Ramón Ávalos Navarrete. The final junta, from 1980 to 1982, consisted of Gutiérrez, Morales Ehrlich, Ávalos Navarrete, with José Napoleón Duarte as the junta's president.

The Revolutionary Government Junta was the source of many human rights violations that were committed across the country during its rule.

Background and coup

The National Conciliation Party (PCN) ruled El Salvador from 1962 to 1979 as an effective one-party system. The PCN had diplomatic support from the United States and the CIA trained and funded the Salvadoran Armed Forces. The party maintained control of the country through fraudulent elections, political intimidation, and state-sponsored terrorism against civilians and leftist groups.

In March 1979, President Carlos Humberto Romero had soldiers crush protests and strikes against his government to prevent a revolution in El Salvador from starting, similar to the revolution in Nicaragua which had begun the previous year. The eventual overthrow of Nicaraguan President Anastasio Somoza Debayle in September 1979 prompted many military officers to remove Romero and replace him with a stronger government which was able to prevent such a revolution. The military gained the support of the US government and organized itself under Colonels Adolfo Arnoldo Majano and Jaime Abdul Gutiérrez.

The military launched a coup d'état on 15 October 1979 and forced Romero to resign and go into exile. Many high-ranking military officials who were loyal to Romero, such as the Minister of National Defense and the Director of the National Guard, also resigned and went into exile. The coup is often cited as the beginning of the Salvadoran Civil War.

First Junta

thumb|right|The first junta. Left to right: [[Jaime Abdul Gutiérrez, Mario Antonio Andino, Román Mayorga Quirós, Guillermo Manuel Ungo, Adolfo Arnoldo Majano.]]

Three days after the coup on 18 October 1979, Majano and Gutiérrez established the First Revolutionary Government Junta. It consisted of two military officers (Majano and Gutiérrez) and three civilians; Guillermo Manuel Ungo Revelo, a democratic socialist politician from the National Revolutionary Movement (MNR), Mario Antonio Andino, the ex-vice president of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of El Salvador (CCIES), and Román Mayorga Quirós, a rector of the Central American University.

The junta styled itself as a "reformist junta" which rose to power via a "reformist coup" led by "reformist officers" in the military. During the abolition of ORDEN, the paramilitaries themselves were not dissolved, however, and they operated independently and committed various atrocities during the civil war. Archbishop Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez cautiously endorsed the coup and the junta stating that the goals and reforms were good-willed.

The junta immediately faced problems from both the political right and left. They also demanded that the junta follow through with their promises of reform and also include wage increases, lower consumer prices, and public trials of military officers who had previously committed human rights abuses against the people.

The leaders of the junta attempted to cater to the left to prevent an uprising by raising wages 30% and attempting to implement agrarian reforms by bringing members of the agriculture and reform bodies together to plan and then execute the reform. Despite ambitious beginnings the reform as laid out failed however some successes did result and Phase I, dealing with land over 500 hectares, mostly succeeded: "By the end of 1986, ISTA had expropriated 469 estates throughout the country." Montero says that co-operative members report: "On March 5th, we went to sleep as poor colonos [sharecroppers]. On March 6th, we woke up rich, as landholders." Velis Polío wrote that: "The reform was an economic, political and social earthquake in the countryside...Landholders saw before their eyes something that they never imagined could possibly happen on the lands that they had always governed absolutely." Overall "Approximately 20% of all of El Salvador’s farm land was expropriated during Phase I of the agrarian reform. This expropriated land made up 14 percent of total coffee land, 31 percent of cotton land, and 24 percent of all sugarcane land in El Salvador. Roughly 31,000 working families, or one-fifth of agricultural laborers, in El Salvador, benefited from the land reform." Martin Diskin indicates that by 1984 "only 63,611 have thus far applied" Regions under military control experienced smoother transfers but widespread evictions by landlords of potential claimants occurred including intimidation by paramilitaries although the military did provide protection and restorations occurred to varying degrees of success. Diskin in 1984 indicates that "the typical beneficiary of Phase III...quite closely fits the description of the "rural poor" done by the AID in 1977." because "...analysis of the EHPM income data revealed that farmers who own 1 manzana or more of land earn incomes that match or exceed those who have steady jobs in the industrial sector."

Second Junta

thumb|left|The second junta. Left to right: [[Jaime Abdul Gutiérrez, José Ramón Ávalos Navarrete, Adolfo Arnoldo Majano, Héctor Dada Hirezi, José Antonio Morales Ehrlich.]]

The Second Revolutionary Government Junta was formed on 9 January 1980. He was replaced by José Napoleón Duarte, another member of the PDC and former presidential candidate of the National Opposition Union (UNO) during the 1972 presidential election. According to the Salvadoran Human Rights Commission, the National Guard killed 67 people and injured 250. Around 250,000 people attended his funeral on 30 March and around 40 were killed by gunfire which is believed to have come from the National Guard. Majano, gave press statements stating that Interpol had the list of suspects in Romero's murder and that he would give that report to the judge assigned to the case, the Fourth Judge of Criminal Atilio Ramírez Amaya. The judge was nearly assassinated when armed men arrived to kill him at his residence. An agenda of Captain Álvaro Saravia was seized under the name "Operation Pineapple." The group was named after Augustín Farabundo Martí Rodríguez, the communist leader of the 1932 uprising. However, due to pressure from Gutiérrez and the United States to step down, Majano resigned from the junta entirely on 13 December 1980, effectively ending the second junta. The junta then filed a warrant for Majano's arrest.

Third Junta

thumb|right|The third junta. Left to right: [[José Ramón Ávalos Navarrete, Jaime Abdul Gutiérrez, José Napoleón Duarte, José Antonio Morales Ehrlich.]]

After the resignation of Majano on 13 December 1980, the Third Revolutionary Government Junta was formed. It consisted of the members of the previous junta: Gutiérrez, Duarte, Morales Ehrlich, and Ávalos Navarrete. The United States, under President Ronald Reagan, continued economic aid and diplomatic support to the junta.

The FMLN launched the "Final Offensive" to overthrow the government and take control of the country on 10 January 1981. The junta contained the offensive, and by the end of January, the offensive ended in a strategic failure for the FMLN, but they did prove that they were a capable fighting force.

On 17 March 1982, 4 Dutch journalists and 5 FMLN guerrillas were ambushed by the army near the town of Santa Rita, Chalatenango, with 8 being killed in the attack. The attack outraged many, especially in the Netherlands, where people demanded the removal of the junta from power. Duarte stated that it was not an attack but instead simply an accident and that the journalists were caught in the crossfire between army soldiers and FMLN guerrillas. The PDC, PCN, and minor Democratic Action (AD) joined in a coalition and elected Álvaro Magaña as president, defeating ARENA candidate, Hugo César Barrera, by a margin of 36 to 17 with 7 abstentions.

The assumption of Magaña ended the rule of the Revolutionary Government Junta of El Salvador. Because the death squads were made up of army soldiers and the United States was funding the army, the United States was indirectly funding the death squads as well. The battalion committed two of the deadliest massacres during the civil war: the El Calabozo massacre and the El Mozote massacre. Meanwhile, the National Guard, the No. 1 Military Detachment, and paramilitaries that were formerly a part of ORDEN committed the Sumpul River massacre on the Honduran border.

References

External links

El Salvador Civil War – Military Junta – Salvadoran Civil War – TV Eye – 1981