El Salvador

This set of documents focuses on United States policy toward El Salvador and events in El Salvador from the Carter Administration's formulation of a new Central American policy in January 1977 through the Salvadoran Presidential elections of May 1984 that brought Jos ̌Napolen̤ Duarte to power. Major events in the period include: the military coup of October 1979; the agrarian reform efforts launched in 1980 and 1981; significant labor and peasant protests followed by a growing number of guerilla actions by leftist organizations; a series of political slayings widely attributed to government affiliated forces including those of Archbishop Oscar Romero, the majority of the leadership of the Democratic Revolutionary Front (FDR), four American churchwomen, and three land reform proponents, of which two were American Institute for Free Labor Development consultants; the shift of U.S. policy brought about by the Reagan Administration; U.S. Congressional inquiries into El Salvadoran government human rights abuses, the investigations of the political slayings under American government pressure, the Constituent Assembly election of 1982; the promulgation of a new Constitution in December 1983.