Abstract

MONTERROSA CUBIAS, Luis Gerardo. Same Formula, Different Circumstances. The Laws to Guarantee Law and Order in El Salvador: 1952 and 1977. Secuencia [online]. 2023, n.116, e2042.  Epub June 09, 2023. ISSN 2395-8464.  https://doi.org/10.18234/secuencia.v0i116.2042.

For most of the last century, El Salvador was governed by authoritarian civil-military regimes which, on two occasions, enacted laws to guarantee law and order to justify and facilitate the violent persecution of opponents. In this article, I analyze and compare the political contexts in which the 1952 and 1977 laws were passed, the response of dissidents, and the consequences of their enactment. The comparison of these situations, so far studied in isolation, makes it possible to explore a factor that led to civil war in the 1980s: the unwavering confidence of the ruling classes and their allies in repression as a formula for silencing the demands of civil society, even though times had changed.

Keywords : authoritarianism; violent persecution; anti-communism; political opposition; laws to guarantee law and order.