Impact of civil war in El Salvador on women. The civil war in El Salvador lasted from the mid-1970s to 1992, with much of the fiercest fighting taking place in the 1980s. Revolutionary forces led by the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (Frente Farabundo Marti para la Liberacion Nacional, FMLN) battled the U.S.-backed military governments that ruled the country. Women played active roles in both the FMLN and the mass organizations that emerged during this time.
The FMLN was formed in 1980 when five leftist guerrilla groups merged. By the late 1980s, the FMLN controlled regions of El Salvador and established locally run governments. The FMLN opposed the lack of participatory democracy that characterized the country and the abysmal living conditions in which the majority of Salvadorans lived. For example, in the 1970s, more than 40 percent of the rural population was landless, and 60 percent of Salvado-ran children died before age 5. According to a 1988 study, 2 million Salvadorans out of a population of 5 million lived in extreme poverty (Golden 1991).
Nazi Shutzstaffel Einsatzgruppen (SS mobile killing squads) line up Jews to execute them before a ditch, Babi Yar Massacre, Ukraine, 1941.
The poverty directly affected many Salvado-ran women, who were primarily responsible for taking care of their families. In some of the poor neighborhoods in San Salvador, the capital, women headed 40 percent of the households in the 1970s, a figure that rose perhaps as high as 70 percent by the late 1980s (New American Press 1989). Many Salvadoran women became politically active through their involvement in the Christian Base Communities (CBCs) that spread through poor urban and rural areas in the late 1960s and 1970s. The philosophy of the CBCs reflected the changes then taking place in the Catholic Church throughout Latin America. Calling for a preferential option for the poor following the 1968 Catholic Conference in Medellin, Colombia, much of the work of the church focused on seeking social justice for the poor and marginalized. Women played an important role in the CBCs; they learned to read, discussed theological interpretations of the Bible, presided over meetings, and assumed leadership positions. These activities offered them concrete organizational experience, a new role for themselves as community leaders, and an identity that extended beyond the four walls of their homes (Golden 1991).
In the 1970s, women joined mass organizations that worked to alleviate poverty and obtain a higher standard of living for the population. One of the most significant of these groups was ANDES, the teacher’s organization headed by Melida Anaya Montes. Montes subsequently became the second in command of one of the five organizations that made up the FMLN. Women also formed their own organizations that operated in conjunction with the various organizations that made up the FMLN. One of the first groups was AMES, the Association of Salvado-ran Women, which formed in 1978. In the FMLN-run parts of the country, AMES participated in organizing the local governments, set up child care and health care projects, worked in food production, and helped to defend the area (Golden 1991). The military government targeted these groups, along with the other mass organizations that worked with the FMLN. Between 1979 and 1981 the U.S.-financed military disappeared and/or murdered tens of thousands of Salvadorans in an effort to eliminate opposition (New Americas Press 1989). As a result, many of the women (and men) active in the public movement went underground, fearful that their continued public activity signified a death sentence.
While some women continued their mass work clandestinely, others fled the cities and towns and joined the FMLN. During the 1980s, the FMLN distinguished itself by having a large percentage of women combatants; women made up 29 percent of the fighting forces and 36 percent of the political personnel. Women occupied positions at all levels within the FMLN. They were military and political commanders; they operated radios, became demolition experts, conducted political education classes, offered logistical support, carried out propaganda actions, and practiced battlefield medicine (New Americas Press 1989; Hipsher 2001). Women planned and fought in many of the major military operations carried out by the FMLN.
Women’s participation in the FMLN and mass organizations, combined with the need to involve greater numbers of women in the struggle against the government, led to increased attention to and questioning of gender roles. AMES, for example, supported the collectivization of activities such as child rearing and food preparation to allow more women to join the political struggle.The main motivation behind these changes, however, was to enhance the ability of the population to fight the government, not to challenge male domination.
As in most war situations, women were frequently the victims of rape by the military. Captured activists were often subjected to savage torture. The Salvadoran military applied electric shocks to the most sensitive parts of her body, beat her repeatedly, and raped her (Martmez 1980).
In 1992, the FMLN and the military government signed the peace accords that effectively ended the war. The accords, however, made no mention of women’s needs or demands. Dissatisfied with the lack of recognition they received and drawing on the political experience they had gained during the civil war, some women formed their own autonomous organizations in the 1990s to address the specific needs and concerns of women (Hipsher 2001).
