SUMMARY
FMLN (Frente farabundo Marti para la liberación nacional, Farabundo Marti Front for National Liberation) was an armed umbrella organization active in the Salvadoran intrastate conflict over government. Following El Salvador’s independence in 1856, land ownership and income were concentrated in a small economic elite, commonly referred to as the “los catorce” (“the Fourteen”) oligarchy. Likewise, political power was monopolized by a small authoritarian and exclusionary regime, which was more or less dominated by the Salvadoran military. El Salvador’s political leadership was also geared towards protecting the interests of the economic oligarchy, rather than those of the broader population. In 1932, Salvadoran peasants led by Agustín Farabundo Martí rose up against the government in protest against this system; despite being brutally crushed, the 1932 uprising came to serve as a role model for subsequent leftist movements in El Salvador. The enduring oligarchic control over El Salvador’s economic and political spheres made the country susceptible to revolutionary leftist currents, which led to the establishment of several armed groups during the 1970s; it was in this context that FMLN eventually emerged. Ideologically, the group was described as revolutionary Marxist-Leninist, and it claimed to represent El Salvador’s economically and politically marginalized rural and working class population. FMLN’s primary goal was to overthrow the Government of El Salvador, but it also aimed to create a proletarian unity party, which would form the basis of a “peoples’ state” after it had won the war.
FMLN was created on 22 May 1980 - then under the name Direción Revolucionaria Unificada (DRU, Unified Revolutionary Directorate) – following the merger of FPL, ERP, Partido Comunista de El Salvador (PCS, or Communist Party of El Salvador), and Resistencia Nacional (RN, National Resistance). The primary purpose of the merger was to launch a “final offensive” against the Salvadoran government; DRU adhered to the Marxist-Leninist strategy of “prolonged popular war”. DRU was then reorganized into the FMLN on 10 October 1980; a fifth revolutionary group - Partido Revolucionario de los Trabajadores Centroamericanos (PRTC, Revolutionary Party of the Central American Workers) – joined the organization in December that year. However, the process that eventually led to the establishment of FMLN had begun already in mid-1979, as FPL, PSC, and RN initiated talks – mediated by the Government of Cuba – intended to facilitate the creation of a joint coordination platform. The talks resulted in the formation of a platform named Political-Military Coordination (CPM) in December 1979. CPM thus served as the precursors to FMLN.
The creation of FMLN was not only intended to coordinate the military efforts of the Salvadoran revolutionary groups, but also their political fronts. FMLN’s constituent groups adhered to a principle where the armed group was complemented by an affiliated or integrated political wing. For example, FPL was the name used by both the group’s armed and political wings, while ERP had a separate political wing called Partido Revolucionario Salvadoreño (PRS, Salvadoran Revolutionary Party). Therefore, FMLN also maintained a joint political wing called Frente Democrático Revolucionario (FDR - Democratic Revolutionary Front). FDR was created as the political fronts associated with the armed revolutionary groups within FMLN converged with various political groups from the “mainstream” centre-left opposition movement, themselves organized into the Frente Democrático Salvadoreño (FDS, Salvadoran Democratic Front). While FDR was thus not only comprised of the political wings of the armed revolutionaries, it came to function as FMLN’s political wing.
At the time of FMLN’s creation, many Latin American revolutionary groups also maintained popular (or “mass”) organizations intended to support the “core” group. As such, FMLN’s constituent groups also facilitated the coordination of their affiliated popular organizations. This process had begun already when CPM was formed, as the popular organizations of FPL, PSC, and RN - Bloque Popular Revolucionario (BPR), Unión Democrática Nacionalista (UDN), and Frente de Actión Popular Unificada (FAPU) respectively – were joined in a cooperation scheme called Revolutionary Coordination Committee of the Masses (CRM). Following the formal creation of the FMLN umbrella organization, the mass movements of ERP and PRTC - Ligas Populares de 28 de Febrero (LP-28, 28th of February Popular Leagues) and Movimento de Liberatión Popular (MLP, Popular Liberation Movement) respectively – were also incorporated into CRM.
Organizationally, the highest executive organ within the group was the Comandancia General (General Command); FMLN also relied on the creation of various “commissions” to organize its joint activities. While the FMLN (including FDR and CRM) provided extensive coordination of its constituent factions, it should be noted that all groups maintained their own separate military, logistic, and command structures. A full merger of the groups was prevent by ideological as well as strategic and tactical differences between the constituent factions. For example, all constituent factions favored their own interpretation of Marxism-Leninism, and saw themselves as the true vanguard of the Salvadoran revolution.
In the early 1980s, FMLN’s combined armed forces was comprised of 5000-8000 troops, with some sources claiming numbers as high as 12 000; by the end of 1980s and the early 1990s, the group had around 6000-7000 fighters. FMLN was also able to group its forces into larger military formations, some being of battalion or even brigade size. FMLN also divided El Salvador into four separate geographic regions (“fronts”) in order to structure its militant activities; as a rule, fighters from all constituent factions were present in most of these regions. In areas where the group managed to achieve territorial control, it set up its own governance structures; by 1983, FMLN controlled as much as one third of El Salvador’s total area. FMLN would also on occasion collect “war taxes” in parts of the country.
FMLN was a recipient of support from leftist governments all over the world. For example, the group received weapons and other forms of materiel from the Soviet Union, Cuba, Vietnam, and Nicaragua. Most of the arms shipments were conducted via Cuba and Nicaragua. The Soviet Union, Cuba, and Vietnam also provided economic support and training to the FMLN forces. There was also significant political support throughout the Eastern Bloc.
On 16 January 1992, FMLN and the Government of El Salvador signed the Chapultepec Peace Agreement in Mexico City. The agreement was the culmination of several rounds of negotiations and agreements, and it included extensive reforms that settled the incompatibility. After this, FMLN agreed to lay down its arms, and was subsequently transformed into a legal political party; the group thus ceased to be active in the UCDP data.
