Salvadoran Civil War

Every government has to take decisions, whether they are good or bad the people is responsible to categorize it, for some people what is wrong could be right. The role of a government is to support their people but when an economic deficit is on their way they can't help everyone as they wished to which makes some people to feel resentful. The people has the right to protest, to have the freedom of speech and to raise up against their government to fix their problems and to defend the human rights, but sometimes it gets worse than that because their discontents become fights and revolts that almost in every case it leads the people to a civil war in which the people take violence as a way to reach their desires and dreams or to change their ways of life. A civil war is commonly a fight between the people of the same country but there are cases in which another countries get involved; this is the case of El Salvador in which the United States had a big role during the Salvadoran civil war where they helped the government economically, sending military troops, and training their soldiers in exchange of political influence.

The Salvadoran civil war would not have been so prolonged if the United States had not been economically funding the Salvadoran government. Research states that: "the United States approved an economic aid package that by 1980 had become the largest among western hemisphere recipients" ("military"). El Salvador was not a very rich country; they were having problems with their economy that in the major part depended in their coffee plantations. The Salvadoran government would not have resisted the twelve years of conflict against the guerrillas if it had not been receiving economic aid packages from the United States. Research also states that the congress of the United States did not agree to increase the levels of military and economic aid to El Salvador but they increased it substantially after reconsidering the idea ("military"). As we know the conflict was being managed by the United States government. Although at the beginning the congress did not want to increase the aid packages because not every citizen agreed with the intervention of the U.S. in a civil war. The discussions in the government of the United States ended up with President Carter announcing "the approval of $5 million in "nonlethal" military aid, an additional $5 million was authorized four days later" ("military"). The United States president Carter with the congress decided to convert the economic aid packages into military support. One of the most important reasons to do so was because they knew that the guerrillas in El Salvador were also receiving aid packages from supposedly "communist" countries, it is why the U.S. intervention of their military power became imminent, but they never stopped the economic support. The United States as a powerful country had another reasons to help the Salvadoran government to win the war. One of the most relevant conclusions was that they did not want that the domino effect which was a plan to spread political from the Soviets all over America to reach the United States and fight against their democracy.

The Salvadoran army would not have resisted the war without the military aid from the United States. Researchers state that: "although the United States temporarily suspended funds after the rape and murder of the church woman in 1980, apparent growing socialist support in Nicaragua encouraged President Reagan to reactivate support for El Salvador. Military and monetary aid supporting the Salvadoran government from the United States continued until 1990, during the height of war, aid averaged 1.5 million dollars a day" ("civil war"). The United States realized that they were not the only ones supporting the civil war in El Salvador, in the other hand; the guerrillas were being supported by socialist countries such as Cuba. Researchers found that: "the United States attempted to strengthen its Central America ally El Salvador by granting unprecedented amounts of economic and military aid to this small nation. This policy proved to be the largest and longest lasting of the many anti-communists projects of the United States in the Americas, as late as 1992 over fifty U.S. military advisors still served in El Salvador. Indeed, stopping communism in El Salvador would prove to be the largest project of this type in the entire period after the end of the Vietnam War" ("El Salvador"). The United States had the power to intervene in a country, as we know the Vietnam War was fought to gain political influence and defeat the communist people. The support from the United States had specific reasons, which were more than only support; their intervention was of their own interest. Research from reporters and their personal experiences proves that: "other graduates including the Atlacatl Battalion which was a rapid response counter insurgency team that was directly trained by the United States military and responsible for El Mozote massacre of 1981 where at least 500 non- combatants of the area were indiscriminately tortured and murdered. Officials of the Reagan administration as well as accuracy in Media, a conservative press watch group vehemently denied the accuracy of reports about El Mozote coming from New York Times correspondents" ("peace and conflict"). The United States military training to the Salvadoran army was a rigorous training that converted the soldiers in machines to kill. Almost every citizen who spoke against the government was considered a rebel communist and they were instantly killed. The plan of the United States to get rid of all rebels and all the people with communist political views was working in El Salvador and the political influence