1902

Presidential election (Escalón)

Vidal 1972: Names candidates (page 351).

1903

Haggerty 1990: "Regalado’s peaceful transfer of power in 1903 to his handpicked successor, Pedro José Escalón, ushered in a period of comparative stability that extended until the depression-provoked upheaval of 1931-32" (page 12).

Webre 1979: "From 1903-1927, presidential elections in El Salvador were staged performances organized by the government in power for the purpose of installing its chosen candidate" (page 5).

1906

Larde y Larin 1958: Escalón dies in war with Guatemala in 1906, is succeeded by General Fernando Figueroa (page 43).

Vidal 1972: General Figueroa elected president (page 355).

1911

Presidential election (Araujo)

Vidal 1972: Gives candidates for president. "Triunfó por mayoría abrumadora el doctor Araujo" (page 359).

Williams 1997: "(I)t was the civilian government of Manuel Enrique Araujo (1911-1913) that proceeded to organize a modern professional military structure in El Salvador. [Araujo] created the Guardia Nacional, the rural police force that remained in existence until the 1992 peace accords eliminated the military’s role in public security" (page 14).

1913

February 4: President Araujo is assassinated

Haggerty 1990: President Manuel Enrique Araujo is assassinated in 1913 (page 12).

Vidal 1972: Araujo is assassinated February 4, 1913 (page 362). He is succeeded by Carlos Meléndez, who is himself a candidate for the presidency and who passes the provisional responsibility to Alfonso Quiñónez Molina.

1914

Vidal 1972: Carlos Meléndez "electo popularmente" (page 362).

Webre 1979: "Before 1931, the families that in effect owned the country also governed it...This trend reached its ultimate expression under the Meléndez-Quiñónez ‘dynasty.’ Carlos Meléndez (1912-1919) passed the presidency to his brother Jorge Meléndez (1919-1923) and in turn to his brother-in-law Alfonso Quiñónez (1923-1927)" (page 4).

1917

Anderson 1971: "The first steps toward popular organization in El Salvador were taken with the formation of Liga Roja in 1917. Although ostensibly a labor organization, the league was deeply political in purpose, and while it appeared from its title to be a first cousin of the Bolshevik party, it was in fact a means of manipulating the lower classes for the benefit of the old crowd already in power. The organization was the brain child of Dr. Alfonso Quiñónez Molina...who became the brother-in-law of President Carlos Meléndez" (page 22).

1919

Anderson 1971: "Through its votes and strong-arm methods, the organization [Liga Roja] helped to elect Carlos’s brother Jorge Meléndez in 1919, despite his being a very unsavory politico with no record as a friend of labor" (pages 22-23).

1923

Alvarenga Venutolo 1996: "(L)os indigenas habían sido buenos aliados de los Meléndez Quiñónez...(A) partir de la disolución de las Ligas Rojas, se incrementó la presión ladina sobre los focos de poder local...(E)sta medida coincidió con un debilitamiento de los lazos de alianza entre los indígenas y el Gobierno" (page 308). Author describes efforts of Indian community to get their mayoral candidate elected over the ladino candidate.

Anderson 1971: "...in 1923, it [Liga Roja] was used to propel brother-in-law Quiñónez Molina personally into office. By this time the politicos had begun to feel that the league had served its purposes anyway...There was, after all, always the danger that this curious example of Salvadorean Zubatovism, in which the state became the leader of the revolution, might deviate from its projected course when the agricultural workers who made up the bulk of the organization’s membership discovered there was nothing for them in cooperation and decided to turn on their masters. It is hardly surprising then that Quiñónez Molina, safely in office, harassed the officials of the league, broke up its meetings, and eventually smashed its organization" (page 23).

1927

Presidential election (Romero Bosque)

Alvarenga Venutolo 1996: "En las elecciones de 1927 los indios de Nahuizalco recuperaron el poder. Pedro Mauricio, un líder indígena que pertenecía al partido oficial, fue electo alcalde" (page 310). The ladinos ask that the election be annulled and it is, on the grounds that Pedro Mauricio cannot not read or write.

Webre 1979: "Oligarchic domination of Salvadoran politics began to weaken during the administration of Quiñónez’s chosen successor, lawyer Pio Romero Bosque" (page 5).

1930

Anderson 1971: "Even before the great crash, coffee prices had started downward. With the start of 1930 this downward trend grew markedly worse and most producers preferred to let the harvest of 1930 rot in the fields...Some 28 percent of the coffee holdings in the country changed hands during the early years of the depression, the small growers generally suffering more than the large" (pages 8-9).

May 1

Anderson 1971: "On May Day, 1930, the communists staged an eighty thousand-man parade through the streets of San Salvador. Official announcement of the party’s foundation had come in March" (page 25).

November: Presidential election (Araujo)

Baloyra 1982: Gives total valid votes and votes for the top three candidates (page 9).

Bland 1992: "In November 1930, five political parties competed in a reasonably free election and the winner, Arturo Araujo, became president the following spring" (page 165).

Caldera T. 1983: "En 1930 apareció en el escenario político el Ing. Arturo Araujo hombre educado en Inglaterra, admirador del partido laborista inglés y fundador en El Salvador de un partído a semejanza de éste. Dicha agrupación captó rápidamente una gran simpatía popular, logrando el apoyo del partido comunista--uno de los más antiguos de América Latina, de posición de avanzada y que creó grandes espectativas en la población--así como del presidente en funciones, Dr. Pío Romero Bosque, quien al observar la avalancha de popularidad en torno a Araujo, se abocó a prepara las condiciones para que se realizaran elecciones libres" (pages 3-4).

Lungo Uclés 1996: "Labor candidate Arturo Araujo won that year with the backing of popular organizations, including the recently established Communist Party. This occurred during a time that was shaped by a temporary fracture in the hegemony of the oligarchy" (page 114).

1931

January 20: Presidential election (Araujo / Labor Party)

Anderson 1971: Gives votes received by top five candidates (page 47). No simple majority is won, so on January 20, 1931 the election goes to the Assembly which elects the winner of the popular election.

Grieb 1971: "The elections of January 1931 served to intensify political maneuvering. Incumbent governments normally controlled elections with the president selecting his successor, and the various parties acquiesced in this system to perpetuate control by the oligarchy. President Pío Romero Bosque declined to designate an heir, producing a welter of candidates" (page 152). "The Araujo-Martínez ticket scored impressively, but the multitude of candidates prevented it from securing a majority. Araujo entered the Assembly ballot with the prestige of having garnered 101,000 votes as opposed to 64,000 for runner up, Gómez Zárate...The newly elected Assembly consisted predominantly of Araujo supporters, and this, together with the prestige of the popular vote, enabled him to assume the Presidency when the Legislature convened on 12 February 1931" (page 153).

December 2: Government overthrown, vice president General Hernández Martínez takes power

Bland 1992: "The depression doomed many a democratically elected regime in Latin America. El Salvador under Arturo Araujo was no exception. The price of coffee dropped by 45 percent in six months...Araujo, a landowner with progressive ideals, had the misfortune of taking office in spring 1931, in the midst of massive labor and student strikes. Martial law was declared, and soon the military, upset about not having received its pay and supported by the oligarchy, which distrusted Araujo, easily overthrew his government after nine months" (page 166).

Dur 1998: "The United States, however, was determined to break the revolutionary habit in Central America by denying recognition to ‘de facto’ presidents...[Martínez] refused to yield to diplomatic pressure exerted principally by the United States, in concert with El Salvador’s neighbours, the other four Central American republics...The United States forbore closing its legation in San Salvador, but normal diplomatic relations between the United States and El Salvador, uninterrupted since their inception in 1863, were suspended for more than two years from December 1931 to March 1934" (pages 96-97).

Eguizábal 1984: "El régimen del General Hernández Martínez marca el rechazo de la oligarquía agraria salvadoreña a resolver el problema de la tierra y su decision de mantener su dominación por la fuerza" (paage 18).

Haggerty 1990: "The 1931 coup represented the first instance when the Salvadoran military took direct action as an institution to curtail a potential political drift to the left. This watershed event ushered in a period of direct and indirect military rule that would last for fifty years" (page 15).

Williams 1997: "The Hernández Martínez regime came into existence precisely as a reaction to liberal, electoral democracy. The peasant rebellion of 1932 only hammered in that point and made order and discipline the regime’s bywords. While electoral events continued to occur as mandated by the constitution and various by-laws, the regime viewed organized political activity as a threat to the country’s economic and social stability" (page 27).

1932

January 3-5: Municipal election

Alvarenga Venutolo 1996: "Cuando el Estado, hacia mediados de la década de 1920, empezó a favorecer a los ladinos en detrimento de los indígenas, estos últimos buscaron nuevas alianzas políticas. Al iniciarse el año de 1932, miembros de comunidades indígenas ya tenían una considerable experiencia política...La creciente hegemonía de la ideología radical y los cambios en las relaciones entre indígenas y el Estado, empujaron a los caciques a adoptar la ideología comunista" (pages 315-316).

Anderson 1971: "The government promised complete freedom in these elections and invited all parties, including the Communist party of El Salvador, to participate...In order to vote, one had to be registered in the books kept by each ‘municipio,’ where one inscribed his name and that of his party. Allowing the Communist party to register presented the government with a list of its adherents" (page 88).

Lazo 1992: "Para las elecciones municipales que se dieron en enero de 1932, los partidos populares, entre ellos el recién creado Partido Comunista (marzo 1930), fueron claros ganadores en muchos lugares, pero el régimen les negó el reconocimiento, dando inicio con ello a los fraudes electorales en contra de la voluntad mayoritaria de la población" (page 26).

Lungo Uclés 1996: "(T)the Communist Party won many predominantly indigenous municipalities in western El Salvador, these elections were quickly annulled by the new dictatorship of Martínez" (page 114).

January 10-12

Anderson 1971: "The conservative Partido Fraternal Progresista boycotted the elections in the capital department on the grounds of electoral fraud. And in the department of San Salvador early returns...indicated a possible Communist party victory...Voting, it might be noted, had been extremely light, with only a few hundred votes cast in the capital city" (pages 90-91).

January 22: Indian and peasant uprising in the western zone leads to "La Matanza"

Alvarenga Venutolo 1996: Although the Indian communities were the targets of the repression, the National Guard also executed ladinos suspected of being Communist sympathizers. "Apoyar la ideología comunista se convirtió en un crimen que debía pagarse con la vida...Precisamente en 1932 fue creada una nueva identidad nacional basada en el anticomunismo" (page 326).

Bland 1992: "The ‘matanza’ of 1932--the massacre of 10,000 to 40,000 peasants in response to an uprising organized by Communist leader Augustín Farabundo Martí...was a central turning point in the history of the country, an event that deeply influenced the Right and the Left’s view of their enemies in the violent decades to come. The massacre demonstrated the brutal lengths to which the regime that was established over the preceding decades would go to defend the status quo and also instilled a reactionary fear of communism in those who were determined to preserve their societal status" (page 167).

Byrne 1996: "The modern Salvadoran political system dates from 1932 and the defeat of a peasant revolt inspired by the Communist Party under the leadership of Farabundo Martí" (page 23).

Caldera T. 1983: "Para 1932 se produjo con el apoyo del partido comunista un levantamiento armado de los campesinos indígenas de la zona occidental del país, exigiendo la restauración de las tierras comunales y mejoras en las condiciones socio-políticas" (page 4).

Grieb 1971: "Successful suppression of the rebellion won the Martínez government broad s support... Military dissension was forgotten in the effort to deal with this serious threat..Martínez’s strong stand also won him the gratitude of the politically powerful landowning classes, thus adding significant support from the civilian sector to his base. The congressional elections which followed on the heels of the uprising resulted in a complete sweep by the adherents of the ‘de facto’ regime" (page 163).