The Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (in Spanish: Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional, FMLN) was a left-wing guerrilla movement that emerged in El Salvador in 1980. Today it´s a major political party of the country.
On the 17th of December 1979, in period of national crisis, three leftist outfits (FPL, RN and PCS) in El Salvador formed the Coordinadora Político-Militar. The first manifest of CPM was released on 10th of January 1980. The day afterwards the Coordinadora Revolucionaria de Masas was formed as a union of revolutionary mass organizations. CRM later merged with FDS to form Frente Democrático Revolucionario .
The 22nd of May 1980 Dirección Revolucionaria Unificada was created by FPL, RN, EPL and PCS. DRU consisted of three Political Commission members of each of these four organizations. The manifest of DRU declared that “There will be only one leadership, only one military plan and only one command, only one political line”.
On the 10th of October 1980 the four organizations formed Frente Farabundo Martí de Liberación Nacional (FMLN). In December the same year the Salvadorean branch of Partido Revolucionario de los Trabajadores Centroamericanos broke away from its central organization and affiliated itself to FMLN. Thus the following organizations composed FMLN (Listed in the order of size at the time of the peace accords in 1992):
- Fuerzas Popular de Liberación “Farabundo Martí”
- Partido Comunista de El Salvador , armed wing Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación
- Partido de la Revolución Salvadoreña , armed wing Ejército Revolucionario del Pueblo
- Fuerzas Armadas de la Resistencia Nacional
- Partido Revolucionario de los Trabajadores Centroamericanos , armed wing Ejército Revolucionario de los Trabajadores Centroamericanos
Youth organizations of FMLN at the time of armed struggle:
- Juventud Farabundista (FPL)
- Juventud Comunista Salvadoreña (PCS)
- Juventud Revolucionaria (PRS)
- Jóvenes en Resistencia (RN)
- Juventud los Muchachos (PRTC)
After the formation of the front FMLN launched a major military offensive on the 10th of January 1981.
The organization was named for the rebel leader Farabundo Martí, who led workers and campesinos in an uprising to transform Salvadoran society after the devastation caused by the eruption of the volcano Izalco in 1932. It was ruthlessly suppressed, with some 30,000 killed.
After the ceasefire established by the 1992 Chapultepec Peace Accords, it became a legitimate political party. Its candidate for the 2004 presidential election was Schafik Handal.
Today there are two main tendencies within the party, the "ortodoxos" (mainly former Partido Comunista militants) and "renovadores" (mainly former FPL militants).
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