Ralph Sprenkels - After insurgency : revolution and electoral politics in El Salvador

After Insurgency

AFTER INSURGENCY

Revolution and Electoral Politics
in El Salvador

RALPH SPRENKELS

University of Notre Dame Press
Notre Dame, Indiana

University of Notre Dame Press

Notre Dame, Indiana 46556

undpress.nd.edu

Copyright 2018 by University of Notre Dame

All Rights Reserved

Published in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Sprenkels, Ralph, author.

Title: After insurgency : revolution and electoral politics in El Salvador /
Ralph Sprenkels.

Other titles: Revolution and electoral politics in El Salvador
Description: Notre Dame, Indiana : University of Notre Dame Press, [2018] |

Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Identifiers: LCCN 2017055854 (print) | LCCN 2018012975 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780268103279 (pdf) | ISBN 9780268103286 (epub) | ISBN 9780268103255
(hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 0268103259 (hardcover : alk. paper)

Subjects: LCSH: Postwar reconstructionSocial aspectsEl Salvador. |
El SalvadorPolitics and government1992- | Civil warPolitical aspects
El SalvadorHistory. | Civil warSocial aspectsEl SalvadorHistory. |
InsurgencyEl SalvadorHistory. | Frente Farabundo Marti para la Liberacion
NacionalHistory. | Political cultureEl SalvadorHistory. | Salvadorans
Interviews. | El SalvadorSocial conditions21st century.

Classification: LCC F1488.5 (ebook) | LCC F1488.5.S67 2018 (print) |
DDC 972.8405/4dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017055854

This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992
(Permanence of Paper)

This e-Book was converted from the original source file by a third-party vendor. Readers who notice any formatting, textual, or readability issues are encouraged to contact the publisher at

For Michelle

entregamos lo poco que tenamos, lo mucho que tenamos,
que era nuestra juventud,

a una causa que cremos la ms generosa de las causas del mundo
y que en cierta forma lo era, pero que en la realidad no lo era.

De ms est decir que luchamos a brazo partido, pero tuvimos jefes corruptos,
lderes cobardes, un aparato de propaganda que era peor que una leprosera,
luchamos por partidos que de haber vencido nos habran enviado

de inmediato a un campo de trabajos forzados,

luchamos y pusimos toda nuestra generosidad en un ideal
que haca ms de cincuenta aos que estaba muerto,

y algunos lo sabamos, y cmo no lo bamos a saber
si habamos ledo a Trotski o ramos trotskistas,

pero igual lo hicimos, porque fuimos estpidos y generosos,

como son los jvenes, que todo lo entregan y no piden nada a cambio.

Roberto Bolao

Each man

has a way to betray the revolution.

Leonard Cohen

Acknowledgments

This book draws on fifteen years spent in El Salvador. I am deeply indebted to the people I worked with during this period. Through them and with them, I learned about the internal politics of the revolutionary movement and about everyday Salvadoran politics in general. Several of my compaeros or colleagues from those years are still dear friends today. It is impossible to mention all, but Juan Serrano, Ester Alvarenga, Eduardo Garca, Jess Avalos, Joanne Knutson, Celia Medrano, Sandra Lovo, Ana Mara Leddy, Jorge Ceja, Miriam Crdenas, Juan Barrera, Ivn Castro, Julio Alfredo Molina, Vidal Recinos, Flor Alemn, Gloria Guzmn, Mike Lanchin, Miguel Huezo Mixco, Mara Ofelia Navarrete, Alonso Meja, Ana Mara Minero, Julio Monge, Irma Orellana, Michael Levy, Dina Alas, Azucena Meja, Bettina Kpcke, Leonardo (Alberto) Bertulazzi, Eduardo Linares, Roberto Reyes, Dinora Aguiada, Ral Leiva, Alberto Barrera, and Concepcin Aparicio hold a special place among them, as does the lateand profoundly missedJon Cortina.

I am grateful to the Dutch Interchurch Organization for Development Cooperation (ICCO) and to the International Cooperation Academy of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs for supporting the first two years of this research project. Utrecht Universitys Centre for Conflict Studies and its Department of Cultural Anthropology and the Juriaanse Stichting supported parts of my research in subsequent years. Dirk Kruijt, Saskia van Drunen, Carlos Morales, and Nikkie Wiegink read some or all of the manuscript and provided valuable feedback. Chris van der Borgh accompanied many steps in the process of writing this book. I benefited enormously not only from his academic rigor but also from his own considerable experience in El Salvador, which runs partly parallel to mine. Erik Ching provided invaluable feedback and advice. Lotti Silber, a dear friend and intellectual guide for many years, contributed to this study in numerous ways. It was her way of doing anthropology that inspired me to place ethnographical methods at the center of this book. I often made use of the generous sounding board provided by my dear friends, and fellow El Salvador veterans, Darcy Alexandra and Chris Damon, who also contributed with advice on language and translation. The two anonymous reviewers commissioned by the University of Notre Dame Press provided many useful insights that helped improve the final text. I also want to thank the staff at the University of Notre Dame Press for their support, especially Eli Bortz, my editor. I am also particularly grateful to Bob Banning for his outstanding copyediting.

In El Salvador, several institutions and many individuals supported my research efforts. The Salvadoran branch of the Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO) and the Universidad de El Salvador (UES) provided academic embedding in El Salvador. At FLACSO, I am indebted to Carlos Ramos and the late Carlos Briones. At the UES, Carlos Benjamn Laras work with a new generation of Salvadoran anthropologists gained my admiration. I thank him for trusting me with his students. I thank Jorge Jurez, Ana Silvia Ortz, Olivier Prudhomme, Alberto Martn Alvarez, and Eduardo Reymy cofounders at the UIGCS (Unidad de Investigacin sobre la Guerra Civil Salvadorea), the research unit on El Salvadors civil war at the UESfor providing ample opportunities to present and discuss my work in El Salvador, and for sharing their many insights on recent Salvadoran history with me. The UIGCSs ongoing endeavors have made important new inroads for academic scholarship on El Salvadors civil war, involving young and talented Salvadoran students in these efforts. I furthermore thank Mauricio Menjvar and Patricia Alvarenga at the University of Costa Rica for sharing their work with me.

Fieldwork in El Salvador was a treat. I thank the FMLN leadership, in particular the partys general secretary, Medardo Gonzlez, for giving me permission to work with the Veterans Sector of this party. Thanks also to the FMLN veterans collectives FUNDABRIL, ASALVEG, and MV-END, which welcomed me in their midst. The Ellacura community directive was kind enough to allow me to do fieldwork in their community. I am grateful to the people of Ellacura for sharing their perspectives on postinsurgent politics with great frankness. I particularly thank Ellacura residents Anabel Recinos, Francisco Meja, Dennis Membreo, and Estela Guardado, who helped facilitate fieldwork efforts in various ways. I furthermore thank the many ex-combatants that agreed to interviews and/or helped me with the reconstruction of the life trajectories of their former comrades. Some went to great lengths to do so. I owe them deep gratitude. Five archives holding historical documents related to the Salvadoran insurgency opened their doors for me. I particularly thank Jorge Jurez at the Instituto de Estudios Histricos, Antropolgicos y Arqueolgicos (IEHAA) at the UES; Vernica Guerrero, at the Centro de Informacin, Documentacin y Apoyo a la Investigacin (CIDAI), part of the library of the Universidad Centroamericana Jos Simen Caas (UCA); Carlos Henrquez Consalvi at the Museo de la Palabra y la Imagen (MUPI); Ana Mara Leddy, at the Instituto Schafik Handal; and Angela Zamora and Victoria Ramrez at FUNDABRIL.