by David Palacios
Abstract
This project examines the attack on Salvadoran peasants in 1932 known as La Matanza. Using a range of source material, I seek to understand the causes and consequences of the massacre as well as its long-term implications for the Civil War in the 1970s and 1980s. In 1932, local landlords began oppressing their peasant workers by denying them a livable wage leading these workers to accumulate debt on the land. As this debt grew to unmanageable amounts, peasants looked towards the Salvadoran Communist Party hoping to lead an uprising against the landlords and the government. As retaliation, the military regime led by General Maximiliano Martinez orchestrated La Matanza to continue to hold power and remove the peasant threat in El Salvador.