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Copyright by Aldo V. García Guevara 2007 The Dissertation Committee for Aldo Vladimir García Guevara certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Military Justice and Social Control: El Salvador, 1931-1960 Committee: Virginia Garrard-Burnett, Supervisor Toyin Falola Charles Hale Seth Garfield Mauricio Tenorio Military Justice and Social Control: El Salvador, 1931-1960 by Aldo Vladimir García Guevara, B.A.; M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin May 2007 Dedication To Maya and Eva Acknowledgements Most of those listed below enabled this dissertation to begin, and other allowed it to finish. Others helped in the creation and production of the written work. Whatever the weaknesses of this dissertation, they would have been far greater without the assistance and support from the many people listed below. First, I would like to thank the University of Texas, School of Liberal Arts, Graduate School, History Department and LLILAS as well as the Tinker Foundation, for providing the monetary resources that made this research possible. Thanks to the many faculty members who supported me along the way, particularly Ginny, who was there from the very beginning, Mauricio who assured me that I might succeed at this endeavor, and to Dr. Miller, without whom I would not have continued. My research trips to El Salvador were made comfortable by being able to visit with Tío Mario and Tía Noemí whose warm welcomes and hearty meals made the county my home once again. Your house always feels like home and I hope to see you again soon. Thanks to the wonderful staffs at the many archives in El Salvador including the AGN, the AGA in San Salvador and the Archivo Judicial in Sonsonate. Special regards to the three directors of the two archives that provided me with more flexibility and v generosity than I expected. Thanks to my colleagues in El Salvador, particularly the fabulous faculty at the UNES and UCA. Through discussion and exchanges, I was reminded that there are different perspectives than from the North looking southward. Immeasurable thanks to Karl Brown and Ruth Haber who read the manuscript in its rough form, and helped me bring some shape and coherence. Of course, all remaining errors remain my own. Finally, I would like to thank my family in the states. Thank you, mami, for your support in every way across the decades. Claudia, thanks for motivating me in my efforts to prevent my far younger sister from becoming doctored first. Mahala, you are truly the best ex-wife ever, and most directly, your support enabled me to complete this dissertation and still provide our wonderful daughters with their parent’s love. And Eva and Maya, thanks for motivating me to work more efficiently so I could lead a history lesson, play ball or go to Deep Eddy. vi Military Justice and Social Control: El Salvador, 1931-1960 Publication No._____________ Aldo Vladimir García Guevara, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2007 Supervisor: Virginia Garrard-Burnett Between 1931 and 1960, Salvadoran praetorian regimes combined repression and reward to convince the public, nationally and internationally, that they were best equipped to rule the tiny nation. Shortly after taking power, in 1932 the military repressed a peasant rebellion, killed 10,000 people and blamed rural oligarchs and Liberal demagogues and communist agitators for the revolt and massacre. Both the regimes of General Maximiliano Hernández Martínez (1931-1944) and those of Colonels Oscar Osorio and José María Lemus (1948-1960) of the Revolutionary Party for Democratic Unification (PRUD) provided rewards for their political clients and repressed their enemies, who they often labeled Communists and subversives and linked with the chaos of the 1932 rebellion. In order to marginalize political opponents and centralize rule, they aggressively repressed “plots” against the regimes to reassign, exile, beat and sometimes kill their enemies. By manipulating newspaper coverage they also portrayed a social order that despite not matching the lived reality of Salvadorans contrasted with the chaos of 1932. vii Because the country changed dramatically, growing in population and rapidly urbanizing, political leaders under the PRUD allied themselves with different groups than did Martínez, or in the martinato,. Under the martinato, peasants and indigenous Salvadorans provided tacit support but the Revolutionary Party was much more focused on the cities. Fearing an urban opposition, they reorganized the police, but neither regime convinced the public of their goodwill. Despite their inability to substantively reduce crime or juvenile delinquency, the military convinced people that they made genuine efforts to provide social justice to the majority of Salvadorans. Embracing traditionalism and patriarchy, as well as social order, the military built alliances with, and glorified the image of the women of the urban markets. In contrast, prostitutes and street peddlers did not meet the standards of the praetorian social order and were demonized and repressed. Although the military was unable to provide effective social services, successfully repress dissent and criminality, or eliminate dissent, they nonetheless convinced a substantial majority that the costs of opposition were greater than the benefits of working with the regime. viii Table of Contents Introduction .............................................................................................................1 1 Liberal and Oligarchic Failures.........................................................................23 Introduction ..................................................................................................23 Rise of the Coffee Oligarchy ........................................................................25 Proto-Populists and Paramilitaries ...............................................................34 Catholics Address the "Social Question" and Blame Oligarchs...................39 Mass Revolt and the Collapse of Liberal Populism .....................................50 2 Repression and Propaganda .............................................................................64 Introduction ..................................................................................................64 Plots and Communists under the martinato..................................................67 (Salvadoran) Church and (U.S.) State Department against Democracy.......80 Lies and (Dis)Order ......................................................................................90 Neo-Colonialism and the Collapse of Martínez ...........................................96 Plots and Communists under the PRUD ....................................................107 Militarization and de-Militarization of Governance...................................117 Civil-Military Conflicts .............................................................................122 Conclusions.................................................................................................132 3 Selling the Regime Through Social Justice and Police Reforms...................135. Introduction ................................................................................................135 Peasants for Martínez..................................................................................138 Selling Military Justice and Reactionary Oligarchs to the U.S. ................151 Selling the PRUD........................................................................................155 Failure to Sell the Security Forces and Improve Agent Morale ................163 4 Constructing Recidivist and Redeemable Criminals.......................................179 Introduction ................................................................................................179 Segregating Prisons.....................................................................................185 ix The Death Penalty ......................................................................................197 Salvadoran Criminology: Redemption versus Recidivism ........................202 Juvenile Delinquents...................................................................................209 Conclusions.................................................................................................219 5 Women, Paternalism and Social Order ...........................................................220 Introduction.................................................................................................220 Ambivalent Progressivism: Cantinas, Bordellos and Prostitutes................227 Market Women and the State......................................................................244 The "ambulantes"........................................................................................259 Conclusions.................................................................................................262 Conclusions..........................................................................................................265 Works Cited .........................................................................................................276 Vita…...................................................................................................................291 x Introduction In 1931, Salvadorans