La Matanza
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

( Spanish for 'The Massacre') refers to a
communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...
- Indigenous rebellion that took place in
El Salvador El Salvador, officially the Republic of El Salvador, is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south by the Pacific Ocean. El Salvador's capital and largest city is S ...
between 22 and 25 January 1932. After the revolt was suppressed, it was followed by large-scale government killings in western El Salvador, which resulted in the deaths of 10,000 to 40,000 people. Another 100 soldiers were killed during the suppression of the revolt. On 22 January 1932, members of the Communist Party of El Salvador (PCES) and Pipil peasants launched a rebellion against the Salvadoran military government due to widespread social unrest and the suppression of democratic political freedoms, especially after the cancellation of the results of the 1932 legislative election. During the rebellion, the communist and Indigenous rebels, led by Farabundo Martí and Feliciano Ama, respectively, captured several towns and cities across western El Salvador, killing an estimated 2,000 people and causing over US$100,000 in property damage. The Salvadoran government, led by General Maximiliano Hernández Martínez, who had assumed power following the 1931 Salvadoran coup d'état, declared
martial law Martial law is the replacement of civilian government by military rule and the suspension of civilian legal processes for military powers. Martial law can continue for a specified amount of time, or indefinitely, and standard civil liberties ...
, and ordered the suppression of the revolt. Most of the people who were killed during ''La Matanza'', which has been described as an
ethnocide Ethnocide is the extermination or destruction of ethnic identities. Bartolomé Clavero differentiates ethnocide from genocide by stating that "Genocide kills people while ethnocide kills social cultures through the killing of individual souls". ...
, were Pipil peasants and non-combatants, causing the extermination of the majority of the Pipil-speaking population, which led to a near total loss of the spoken language in El Salvador. Many of the rebellion's leaders, including Martí and Ama, were executed by the military. The government's repression also forced several communist leaders to flee the country and go into exile.


Background


Social unrest

Social unrest Civil disorder, also known as civil disturbance, civil unrest, civil strife, or turmoil, are situations when law enforcement and security forces struggle to Public order policing, maintain public order or tranquility. Causes Any number of thin ...
in
El Salvador El Salvador, officially the Republic of El Salvador, is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south by the Pacific Ocean. El Salvador's capital and largest city is S ...
began to grow in the 1920s. El Salvador had three distinct
social class A social class or social stratum is a grouping of people into a set of Dominance hierarchy, hierarchical social categories, the most common being the working class and the Bourgeoisie, capitalist class. Membership of a social class can for exam ...
es: the upper class, made up of wealthy landowners; the middle class, composed of politicians and soldiers; and the lower class, which was composed of mostly
peasant A peasant is a pre-industrial agricultural laborer or a farmer with limited land-ownership, especially one living in the Middle Ages under feudalism and paying rent, tax, fees, or services to a landlord. In Europe, three classes of peasan ...
s and workers. In 1920, a group of
communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...
and
socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...
students, teachers, and artisans, established the Regional Federation of Salvadoran Workers (FRTS), El Salvador's first
trade union A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...
to organize rural and urban workers. One of the rural leaders of the FRTS was Farabundo Martí, who, together with Miguel Mármol, founded the Communist Party of El Salvador (PCES) in 1930. Between 1928 and 1932, Martí fought alongside
Augusto César Sandino Augusto César Sandino (; 18 May 1895 21 February 1934), full name Augusto Nicolás Calderón Sandino, was a Nicaraguan revolutionary, founder of the militant group EDSN, and leader of a rebellion between 1927 and 1933 against the United Sta ...
in
Nicaragua Nicaragua, officially the Republic of Nicaragua, is the geographically largest Sovereign state, country in Central America, comprising . With a population of 7,142,529 as of 2024, it is the third-most populous country in Central America aft ...
against the United States' occupation of the country.


Economic problems

In the late-19th and early-20th centuries, the Salvadoran economy was heavily dependent on exporting
coffee Coffee is a beverage brewed from roasted, ground coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content, but decaffeinated coffee is also commercially a ...
and coffee beans, which accounted for 75 to 95 percent of all of El Salvador's exports by 1929. Most of the coffee plantations, and the profits made by the plantations, were owned by the so-called " Fourteen Families". Due to the collapse of coffee prices worldwide as a result of the
Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...
in 1929, coffee producers were unable to cover the cost of producing coffee or pay their workers, leading to various coffee plantations failing and many workers to go
unemployed Unemployment, according to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), is the proportion of people above a specified age (usually 15) not being in paid employment or self-employment but currently available for Work (hu ...
. As a result of the reduced exports, national income fell 50 percent from the year prior, decreasing from US¢40–50 per day to only US¢20 per day.


Political situation


Meléndez–Quiñónez dynasty and the 1931 election

On 9 February 1913, Salvadoran President Manuel Enrique Araujo died to his wounds after being attacked by three farmers with
machete A machete (; ) is a broad blade used either as an agricultural implement similar to an axe, or in combat like a long-bladed knife. The blade is typically long and usually under thick. In the Spanish language, the word is possibly a dimin ...
s in
San Salvador San Salvador () is the Capital city, capital and the largest city of El Salvador and its San Salvador Department, eponymous department. It is the country's largest agglomeration, serving as the country's political, cultural, educational and fin ...
during an
assassination Assassination is the willful killing, by a sudden, secret, or planned attack, of a personespecially if prominent or important. It may be prompted by political, ideological, religious, financial, or military motives. Assassinations are orde ...
attempt. After Araujo's death, he was succeeded by a political dynasty; Araujo's
vice president A vice president or vice-president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vi ...
, Carlos Meléndez Ramírez, his younger brother, Jorge Meléndez Ramírez, and their brother-in-law, Alfonso Quiñónez Molina, held the
presidency A presidency is an administration or the executive, the collective administrative and governmental entity that exists around an office of president of a state or nation. Although often the executive branch of government, and often personified b ...
of El Salvador from 1913 until 1927 in the so-called "Meléndez–Quiñónez dynasty". The political dynasty ended when Quiñónez Molina chose Pío Romero Bosque as his successor, as there were no other family members who were willing to assume the presidency. During his term, Romero Bosque lifted restrictions on the existence of political parties in opposition to the ruling National Democratic Party (PDN). In 1931, a
general election A general election is an electoral process to choose most or all members of a governing body at the same time. They are distinct from By-election, by-elections, which fill individual seats that have become vacant between general elections. Gener ...
was held in the country, which is considered by historians to be the first free and fair election in Salvadoran history. The three primary candidates in the election were Alberto Gómez Zárate, the minister of national defense during Romero Bosque's presidency, Arturo Araujo, an engineer and coffee planter who was a distant relative of Manuel Enrique Araujo, and Maximiliano Hernández Martínez, a military officer. Araujo and Hernández Martínez eventually ran together on a joint ticket and defeated Gómez Zárate, although they did not attain a majority of the vote. Despite the
military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. Militaries are typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with their members identifiable by a d ...
's support for Gómez Zárate and belief that they would reject the results of the election, the armed forces upheld them. The Communist Party of El Salvador won several municipal elections.


Military coup and the canceled 1932 election

During Araujo's administration, El Salvador was still struggling economically as a result of the Great Depression leading to social unrest across the country. In an attempt to improve the economy, Araujo reduced the military's budget and ordered some military officials to retire. His efforts were strongly opposed by the military, which staged a coup on 2 December 1931, deposing Araujo and establishing the Civic Directory. The military government was dissolved two days later when Hernández Martínez was declared as the country's acting president, however, his government was not recognized by the
United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
. The December 1931 coup began a period of forty-eight years of military rule in the country. In the few days after the coup, the Communist Party of El Salvador was "cautiously optimistic" about the coup, writing an
open letter An open letter is a Letter (message), letter that is intended to be read by a wide audience, or a letter intended for an individual, but that is nonetheless widely distributed intentionally. Open letters usually take the form of a letter (mess ...
to Hernández Martínez's government through its ''Estrella Roja'' newspaper, stating that the coup was "heroic and necessary" while also believing that his government would reimpose an exploitative capitalist system. Before Araujo was deposed, municipal and legislative elections were scheduled for 15 December 1931, but after his government was overthrown, the military rescheduled the municipal elections for 3–5 January 1932 and the legislative elections for 10–12 January 1932. When the communist party began to win several municipal elections in western El Salvador, the government canceled the results of all of the municipal elections. The legislative elections proceeded on 10 January, and despite early polling returns indicating a communist victory in
San Salvador San Salvador () is the Capital city, capital and the largest city of El Salvador and its San Salvador Department, eponymous department. It is the country's largest agglomeration, serving as the country's political, cultural, educational and fin ...
, a delayed official result announced that three non-communists won the three seats of the San Salvador department. Violence occurred throughout the electoral process, and at least thirty communists were killed in Ahuachapán.


Preparations for revolt


Planning and attempt for compromise

Due to the result of the elections, communist party leaders believed that they could no longer come to power through legal means, as Hernández Martínez's government effectively canceled the elections. The Communist Party of El Salvador was led by Martí and Mármol. Other communist leaders included Mario Zapata, Alfonso Luna, Rafael Bondanza, and Ismael Hernández. Hernández, who was a member of the International Red Aid, believed that the United States would support the rebels and mistake it as a pro-Araujo counterrevolution. The communists' primary inspiration for revolution was the
Bolsheviks The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...
' 1917
October Revolution The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (in Historiography in the Soviet Union, Soviet historiography), October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was the second of Russian Revolution, two r ...
. According to Abel Cuenca, a Salvadoran communist and participant in the rebellion, the rebellion was not planned until after the municipal election results were canceled, with actual planning beginning on 9 or 10 January 1932. In contrast, according to Jorge Schlesinger, a Salvadoran writer, Martí began planning the rebellion in mid-December 1931 while in Puerto Cortés,
Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Ocean at the Gulf of Fonseca, ...
. His claim, however, has been essentially discredited as his piece of evidence for his claim, a letter allegedly written by Martí discussing the rebellion, was dated to 16 December 1932, rather than 1931. In a final attempt to avoid a violent rebellion, the communist party sent a political commission consisting of Zapata, Luna, Clemente Abel Estrada, Rubén Darío Fernández, and Joaquín Rivas to the National Palace to enter into negotiations with the government. The commission was not allowed to meet directly with Hernández Martínez, instead being directed to Colonel Joaquín Valdés, the minister of national defense, where the commission demanded "substantial contributions to the welfare of the peasants" in exchange for a cessation of illegal activities, threatening to revolt if the demands were not met. Reportedly, Luna told Valdés, "the peasants will win with their machetes the
rights Rights are law, legal, social, or ethics, ethical principles of freedom or Entitlement (fair division), entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal sy ...
you are denying them", to which Valdés responded, "you have machetes; we have machine guns". The meeting ended with no
compromise To compromise is to make a deal between different parties where each party gives up part of their demand. In arguments, compromise means finding agreement through communication, through a mutual acceptance of terms—often involving variations fr ...
being met.


Government knowledge of the rebellion

Just before the rebellion, Juan Pablo Wainwright was arrested in
Guatemala Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...
. Wainwright was a communist party member who was rallying support from communists in Guatemala to invade El Salvador to overthrow Hernández Martínez's government, and his arrest ended the possibility of a foreign invasion force from aiding rebels in El Salvador. On 18 January, Martí, Luna, and Zapata were arrested by the Salvadoran government, but the arrests were not made public until 20 January, and plans to attack the barracks in San Salvador were captured by the army. On 21 January, the government instructed newspapers in the country to report that a rebellion was planned to occur the following day. Cuenca theorized that Hernández Martínez intentionally allowed the revolt to happen by preventing the opportunity for social and political reform to occur. The theory asserts that the intention of letting revolution occur was to crush it forcibly, as he believed the movement was doomed to fail, and that the suppression of the communist uprising would help him gain support and recognition from the United States. Dr. Alejandro D. Marroquín argued that Hernández Martínez actually feared a potential attack from Araujo's Labor Party from Guatemala, rather than the communist rebellion itself. He argued that Hernández Martínez allowed the rebellion to occur and crushed it by force to deprive Araujo of an armed movement to help bring him back to power.


Rebellion

In the late hours of 22 January 1932, thousands of peasants in the western part of the country, armed with sticks, machetes, and "poor-quality"
shotgun A shotgun (also known as a scattergun, peppergun, or historically as a fowling piece) is a long gun, long-barreled firearm designed to shoot a straight-walled cartridge (firearms), cartridge known as a shotshell, which discharges numerous small ...
s, rose up in rebellion against Hernández Martínez's regime. According to General José Tomás Calderón, an estimated 70,000 to 80,000 rebels were involved in the uprising. Rebels led by attacked telegraph offices, their primary target, in Juayúa at 11:00 p.m. and eventually took control of the city due to a lack of a military presence. The rebels attacked the home of Emilio Radaelli, a coffee merchant referred to as the "richest man in town", and assassinated him, along with his son and wife, who was also raped. Radaelli's house and two of his stores were burned, with many more stores being looted. Colonel Mateo Vaquero was also killed by the rebels and several civilians were tortured and murdered. Miguel Call, the mayor of Izalco, Rafael Castro Cármaco, a politician from Chalchuapa, and General Rafael Rivas, the military commander of
Tacuba Tacuba is a district in the Ahuachapán department of El Salvador. Church Of Tacuba It is located in Villa of Tacuba. It is head of the municipality of the same name in the department of Ahuachapán, at about 14 Kilometers of the city of Ahuac ...
, were also killed by the rebels. Businesses and homes were destroyed by rebels, with the total property damage inflicted being estimated at around SVC₡300,000 (approximately US$120,000 in 1932). Much of the damage was inflicted against property owned by wealthy individuals and families. Eventually, the rebels captured the towns of Colón, Juayúa, Nahuizalco, Salcoatitán, Sonzacate, and Tacuba. Additionally, Pipil rebels led by Feliciano Ama supported the communist rebels and captured the town of Izalco on 23 January. Ama was an influential Indigenous leader in Izalco, and believed that joining the rebellion would help him gain political office. Meanwhile, the majority of the Pipil rebels were sympathetic to the communists' ideals, and believed that they possessed a "secret weapon or magic" which would assure victory. Despite efforts to prevent communication with the military garrisons in Ahuachapán,
Sonsonate Sonsonate () is a city and district of El Salvador, of which it is also its municipal seat. It has an estimated population of 71,980 inhabitants for the year 2020. Sonsonate is the second most important city in western El Salvador. The town was ...
, and Santa Ana, Izalco managed to send a telegram to Sonsonate warning the military garrison there of the rebel attacks before the telegraph office was destroyed. The warning was received by the military garrison in Sonsonate, and in response, Colonel Ernesto Bará sent an expeditionary force under the command of Major Mariano Molina to crush the rebellion on 23 January. Molina's soldiers first clashed with the rebels outside of Sonzacate, and after engaging in hand-to-hand combat, the rebels retreated to the city proper. Casualties from the battle included fifty to seventy dead rebels, five dead soldiers, and half a dozen more soldiers wounded. The Canadian warships HMCS ''Skeena'' and HMCS ''Vancouver'' were docked at the Port of Acajutla, and the ships were requested by the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
to protect any British citizens in the country. Ships from the United States arrived shortly after and the ships offered to assist the Salvadoran government in quelling the rebellion, however, Calderón turned down the offer, stating: On 23 January, Hernández Martínez published a manifesto in the '' Diario Oficial'', the official national newspaper of El Salvador. The manifesto read: Quickly after the uprising in 24 January 1932, the government declared
martial law Martial law is the replacement of civilian government by military rule and the suspension of civilian legal processes for military powers. Martial law can continue for a specified amount of time, or indefinitely, and standard civil liberties ...
and mobilized the military to crush the rebellion by force. Soldiers under the command of Colonel Marcelino Galdámez marched into the departments of
Sonsonate Sonsonate () is a city and district of El Salvador, of which it is also its municipal seat. It has an estimated population of 71,980 inhabitants for the year 2020. Sonsonate is the second most important city in western El Salvador. The town was ...
and Ahuachapán and captured Izalco that same day. Nahuizalco, Salcoatitán, Juayúa were all captured the next day, and the rebellion was fully crushed by the afternoon of 25 January 1932. Around 100 soldiers were killed during the rebellion's suppression.


Subsequent government killings

On 25 January 1932, reinforcements under Calderón arrived in Sonsonate and began reprisals against peasants, especially against ethnic Pipils, in western El Salvador, indiscriminately killing thousands of civilians in the process. In several towns, the entire male population was gathered in the town's center and killed by machine gun fire. The killings persisted for two weeks until February 1932 when the government decided that the region had been sufficiently "pacified". René Padilla Velasco, Martí's
lawyer A lawyer is a person who is qualified to offer advice about the law, draft legal documents, or represent individuals in legal matters. The exact nature of a lawyer's work varies depending on the legal jurisdiction and the legal system, as w ...
during his
show trial A show trial is a public trial in which the guilt (law), guilt or innocence of the defendant has already been determined. The purpose of holding a show trial is to present both accusation and verdict to the public, serving as an example and a d ...
, argued that Hernández Martínez forced Martí to launch the rebellion as a final "desperate" effort to prevent him from consolidating dictatorial control of the country. Martí, Luna, and Zapata were executed by a firing squad on 1 February 1932. Ama and Sánchez were captured by the army in Izalco on 25 January 1932; Sánchez was executed by a firing squad that same day, while Ama was lynched in a plaza in the city on 28 January 1932. Many refugees attempted to flee the country to Guatemala to escape the government's repression, however, Guatemalan President Jorge Ubico closed the
border Borders are generally defined as geography, geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by polity, political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other administrative divisio ...
and handed over those who tried to flee back to the Salvadoran Army. On 11 July 1932, the Legislative Assembly passed Directive 121 which officially declared an end to the rebellion. It also granted "unconditional amnesty" ("") to anyone—rebel, military, or otherwise—who committed crimes of any nature in order to "restore order, repress, persecute, punish, and capture those accused of the crime of rebellion" ("").


Aftermath


Death toll

Estimates of the exact death toll of the rebellion and subsequent government killings vary greatly; the figures most commonly estimated are between 10,000 and 40,000 dead. According to a Sonsonate resident interviewed by journalist Joaquín Méndez, the rebels killed approximately 2,000 people. Colonel Osmín Aguirre y Salinas, the chief of the National Police, stated that no more than 6,000 to 7,000 people were "executed". According to John Beverly, around 30,000 people—four percent of the population—were killed by the government. As a result of the large scale of the killings, the event has since been referred to as ''La Matanza'' ( Spanish for "The Massacre").


Political effects

Following the mass killings, Hernández Martínez solidified his rule when the legislature confirmed his presidency in 1932. He also sought to legitimize his rule via presidential elections in
1935 Events January * January 7 – Italian premier Benito Mussolini and French Foreign Minister Pierre Laval conclude an agreement, in which each power agrees not to oppose the other's colonial claims. * January 12 – Amelia Earhart ...
,
1939 This year also marks the start of the World War II, Second World War, the largest and deadliest conflict in human history. Events Events related to World War II have a "WWII" prefix. January * January 1 ** Coming into effect in Nazi Ger ...
, and
1944 Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January 2 – WWII: ** Free France, Free French General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny is appointed to command First Army (France), French Army B, part of the Sixt ...
, in which he was the only candidate. He exercised control of the country through force via the army and through friendly relations with the country's landowners and elites. Hernández Martínez was the country's longest serving
president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...
, serving from 1931 to 1944 when he resigned following an attempted coup and a series of mass protests against his government. Hernández Martínez's government was not recognized by the United States after it came to power in 1931 due to the 1923 Central American Treaty of Peace and Amity which mandates its signatories shall not recognize any government which came to power via a coup d'état. Mauricio de la Selva, a Salvadoran poet and communist writer, theorized that Hernández Martínez crushed the rebellion with such violence as to appear to the United States as a "champion of
anti-communism Anti-communism is Political movement, political and Ideology, ideological opposition to communism, communist beliefs, groups, and individuals. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia, and it reached global ...
". The United States did eventually recognize Hernández Martínez's regime on 26 January 1934, not because of his government's anti-communist ideology, but because the United States perceived his government as bringing stability to the country. Most of the surviving leaders of the Communist Party of El Salvador fled the country, primarily to
Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Ocean at the Gulf of Fonseca, ...
and
Costa Rica Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in Central America. It borders Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, as well as Maritime bo ...
. The communist party itself was not banned, and it remained active in El Salvador throughout Hernández Martínez's presidency. The party even supported the mass protests which led to Hernández Martínez's resignation in 1944. In 1980, various left-wing militia groups of the
Salvadoran Civil War The Salvadoran Civil War () was a twelve-year civil war in El Salvador that was fought between the government of El Salvador, backed by the United States, and the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), a coalition of left-wing guer ...
joined forces and formed the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), named after Martí. The FMLN continues to exist as one of El Salvador's major political parties.


Effect on Indigenous communities

Some scholars label the mass killings of Pipil as an
ethnocide Ethnocide is the extermination or destruction of ethnic identities. Bartolomé Clavero differentiates ethnocide from genocide by stating that "Genocide kills people while ethnocide kills social cultures through the killing of individual souls". ...
, since the army used Indigenous appearance, dress, and language to help designate who should be targeted. As a result, in the decades that followed, Salvadoran Indigenous peoples increasingly abandoned their native dress and traditional languages for fear of further reprisals. The events brought about the extermination of the majority of the Pipil-speaking population, which led to a near total loss of the spoken language in El Salvador. Many of the Indigenous people who did not participate in the uprising stated that they did not understand the motivation of the government's persecution. Over the years since ''La Matanza'', the recorded population willing to self-identify as Indigenous has fallen to about 10 percent in the 21st century. In the decade following the uprising, military presence in the area was persistent with the objective of keeping the peasants under control so that the events did not recur. After the dictatorship of Hernández Martínez, the method of preventing peasant discontent changed from repression to social reforms which benefitted them.


Commemoration

In the town of Izalco, the uprising is commemorated annually on 22 January. Media coverage is moderate, but the commemoration is supported by municipal authorities who pay tribute to all who were killed during the event. Speakers include people who lived through the event, and relatives of Ama. In 2010, President
Mauricio Funes Carlos Mauricio Funes Cartagena (18 October 1959 – 21 January 2025) was a Salvadoran politician and journalist who served as the 79th president of El Salvador from 2009 to 2014. Funes won the 2009 presidential election as the candidate of t ...
, the first Salvadoran president to be a member of the FMLN, apologized to the Indigenous communities of El Salvador for the brutal acts of persecution and extermination carried out by previous governments. In a statement made during the inauguration of the First Congress of Indigenous Peoples, he stated, "In this context and this spirit, my government wishes to be the first government to, on behalf of the State of El Salvador, of the people of El Salvador, and of the families of El Salvador, make an act of contrition and apologize to the Indigenous communities for the persecution and extermination of which they were victims during so many years" (""). The Jeffrey Gould directed 2002 film ''1932: Scars of Memory'' describes the events of the uprising and subsequent massacre.


See also

* Anti-communist mass killings *
Guatemalan genocide The Guatemalan genocide, also referred to as the Maya genocide, or the Silent Holocaust (, , or ), was the mass killing of the Maya peoples, Maya Indigenous people during the Guatemalan Civil War (1960–1996) by successive Guatemalan military go ...
*
History of El Salvador The history of El Salvador begins with several distinct groups of Mesoamerican people, especially the Pipil people, Pipil, the Lenca and the Maya people, Maya. In the early 16th century, the Spanish Empire conquered the territory, incorporating ...
* List of massacres in El Salvador * List of peasant revolts


Notes


References


Citations


Bibliography


Books

* * * * * * *


Journals

* * * * * * *


Web sources

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


Further reading

* * * *


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Matanza 1930s murders in El Salvador 1932 in El Salvador Conflicts in 1932 Mass murder in 1932 January 1932 20th-century rebellions Communist rebellions Communism in El Salvador Peasant revolts Wars involving El Salvador Pipil Genocide of Indigenous peoples of North America 20th-century mass murder in North America Political history of El Salvador Massacres in El Salvador Anti-communist terrorism Ahuachapán Department La Libertad Department (El Salvador) Santa Ana Department Sonsonate Department Democratic backsliding in El Salvador Politicides Reprisals Massacres of Indigenous North Americans