International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest

Extract

Agustín Farabundo Martí was a communist leader and social protester in El Salvador. Today he is one of the most popular icons among the Salvadoran left. While studying political science and law at the University of El Salvador, he participated in a student protest against the government of Jorge Meléndez in February 1920. Meléndez was one of the presidents during the so-called Meléndez-Quiñónez dynasty, which governed the country between 1913 and 1927. Police suppressed the protest violently and arrested 20 students, including Martí, who was deported to Guatemala. There he abandoned his studies and began work, obtaining jobs in breweries and also working as a bricklayer, a day laborer in the countryside, and a private teacher. When German coffee planters accused him of being an agitator, Martí went to Mexico, returning to Guatemala in 1923. Two years later he co-founded the Central American Communist Party, which continued until 1927. In 1925, like many revolutionaries during this time, Martí was deported from Guatemala back to El Salvador. There, President Alfonso Quiñónez Molina banished him from the country and sent him to Nicaragua, but a few days later Martí returned to El Salvador clandestinely. He joined the Regional Federation of Salvadoran Workers (Federación Regional de Trabajadores Salvadoreños, FRTS), a huge Salvadoran labor union founded in 1924. Between 1925 and 1928 ... log in or subscribe to read full text