Salvadoran Civil War: The FMLN launches its first major offensive, gaining control of most of Morazán and Chalatenango departments
The Farabundo Mart National Liberation Front (Spanish: Frente Farabundo Mart para la Liberacin Nacional, FMLN) is a left-wing political party in El Salvador.
The FMLN was formed as an umbrella group on October 10, 1980, from five leftist guerrilla organizations; the Fuerzas Populares de Liberacin Farabundo Mart (FPL), the People's Revolutionary Army (ERP), the Resistencia Nacional (RN), the Partido Comunista Salvadoreo (PCS) and the Partido Revolucionario de los Trabajadores Centroamericanos (PRTC). The FMLN was one of the main participants in the Salvadoran Civil War. After the Chapultepec Peace Accords were signed in 1992, all armed FMLN units were demobilized and their organization became a legal left-wing political party in El Salvador.
On March 15, 2009, the FMLN won the presidential elections with former journalist Mauricio Funes as its candidate. Two months earlier in municipal and legislative elections, the FMLN won the majority of the mayoralties in the country and a plurality of the National Assembly seats. Funes is now wanted by the Salvadoran authority for corrupt actions, such as illegally money laundering more than $700,000 in his personal bank account and was found guilty of illegal enrichment by the Supreme court. Funes and his son fled to Nicaragua, where they were granted political asylum by Daniel Ortega and became citizens.
The Salvadoran Civil War (Spanish: guerra civil de El Salvador) was a twelve year period of civil war in El Salvador which was fought between the government of El Salvador and the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), a coalition or "umbrella organization" of left-wing groups. A coup on 15 October 1979 followed by government killings of anti-coup protesters is widely seen as the start of civil war. The war did not formally end until 16 January 1992 with the signing of the Chapultepec Peace Accords in Mexico City.The United Nations (UN) reports that the war killed more than 75,000 people between 1979 and 1992, along with approximately 8,000 disappeared persons. Violations of the most basic human rights – particularly the kidnapping, torture, and murder of suspected FMLN sympathizers by state security forces and paramilitary death squads – were pervasive.The Salvadoran government was considered an ally of the U.S. in the context of the Cold War. During the Carter and Reagan administrations, the US provided 1 to 2 million dollars per day in economic aid to the Salvadoran government. The US also provided significant training and equipment to the military. By May 1983, it was reported that US military officers were working within the Salvadoran High Command and making important strategic and tactical decisions.Counterinsurgency tactics implemented by the Salvadoran government often targeted civilian noncombatants. Overall, the United Nations estimated that FMLN guerrillas were responsible for 5 percent of atrocities committed during the civil war, while 85 percent were committed by the Salvadoran security forces. Accountability for these civil war-era atrocities has been hindered by a 1993 amnesty law. However, in 2016 the El Salvador Supreme Court ruled that the law was unconstitutional and that the Salvadoran government could prosecute suspected war criminals.