This is a long one:

“A small nation of little inherent strategic or economic importance, El Salvador seldom attracted much attention in Washington. Bilateral relations were ordinarily governed by regional policies the United States fashioned in response to exigencies elsewhere. The result was not always wholly sensible. When counterinsurgency was thought to be the antidote to Cuban-style revolution in the 1960’s, the United States lavished military assistance on Latin America. El Salvador received some $4 million of this aid between 1961 and 1970, even though it had no revolutionaries to speak of at the time. Naturally, the military government perceived the flow of arms as an endorsement.

Military assistance to El Salvador was interrupted when the Congress introduced human rights concerns into the allocation of foreign aid. In early 1977, El Salvador joined Guatemala, Brazil, and Argentina in rejecting further militaryassistance rather than submit to an evaluation of their human rights records. Previously authorized aid continued to flow, but now authorizations were made until 1979. Economic aid was by half, from approximately $20 million to $10 million annually.”

William M. Leogrande. Our Own Backyard: The United States in Central America, 1977 – 1992.

I’ve taken up an interest in the mid-20th Century political history of El Salvador. This isn’t just some weird academic “Gee, I wonder what obscure point in history I can make myself the leading expert in.” My mom is from El Salvador and the family moved here because of the political turmoil of the ‘6os. I’m happy that events happened as they did, since I wouldn’t be here otherwise, although…

If the U.S. had minded its own business in 1960, most of the shit that happened in El Salvador since then probably wouldn’t have happened, out of fears of Big Red Cuba led it to intervene in a democratic movement of the people out of fear of the spread of Communism and the whole country was unstable ever since.

That is my two cents and I stick by it.

This particular book didn’t have much of what I was looking for. Except for the above mention, there was nothing related to the government of the ’50s leading up the 1960 Junta. THAT is the focus of information I’m looking for. So…

If you have any information, or can lead me to any information, directly related to the regime of José María Lemus and the Military Coup that followed, let me know.