El Salvador, officially the Republic of El Salvador, is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south by the Pacific Ocean. El Salvador's capital and largest city is San Salvador. The country's population in 2024 was estimated to be 6 million according to a government census.
Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez was a prelate of the Catholic Church in El Salvador. He served as Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of San Salvador, the Titular Bishop of Tambeae, as Bishop of Santiago de María, and finally as the fourth Archbishop of San Salvador. As archbishop, Romero spoke out against social injustice and violence amid the escalating conflict between the military government and left-wing insurgents that led to the Salvadoran Civil War. In 1980, Romero was shot by an assassin while celebrating Mass. Though no one was ever convicted for the crime, investigations by the UN-created Truth Commission for El Salvador concluded that Major Roberto D'Aubuisson, a death squad leader and later founder of the right-wing Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) political party, had ordered the killing.
Platoon is a 1986 American war film written and directed by Oliver Stone, starring Tom Berenger, Willem Dafoe, Charlie Sheen, Keith David, Kevin Dillon, John C. McGinley, Forest Whitaker, and Johnny Depp. It is the first film of a trilogy of Vietnam War films directed by Stone, followed by Born on the Fourth of July (1989) and Heaven & Earth (1993). The film, based on Stone's experience from the war, follows a new U.S. Army volunteer (Sheen) serving in Vietnam while his Platoon Sergeant and his Squad Leader argue over the morality in the platoon and of the war itself.
Romero is a 1989 biographical film depicting the story of Salvadoran archbishop Óscar Romero, who organized peaceful protests against the violent military regime, eventually at the cost of his own life. The film stars Raúl Juliá as Oscar Romero, Richard Jordan as Romero's close friend and fellow martyred priest, Rutilio Grande, as well as actors Ana Alicia and Harold Gould. Although the film depicts true events, there are some fictional characters.
Elpidia Carrillo is a Mexican actress and director. Her career includes roles in both film and television. Internationally she is best known for supporting roles in Predator, Bread and Roses,Nine Lives and Blue Beetle.
Roberto D'Aubuisson Arrieta was a Salvadoran military officer, neo-fascist politician, and death squad leader. In 1981, he co-founded and became the first leader of the far-right Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) and served as president of the Legislative Assembly from 1982 to 1983. He was a presidential candidate for 1984 presidential election, losing in the second round to José Napoleón Duarte, the former president of the Revolutionary Government Junta.
Robert Edward White was an American career diplomat who served as US Ambassador to Paraguay (1977–1980) and to El Salvador (1980–1981). He then became president of the Center for International Policy.
John Hoagland was an experienced American photojournalist and war correspondent for Newsweek from San Diego, California, who was covering the Salvadoran Civil War in El Salvador at the time he was killed. He had covered other conflicts, including those in Nicaragua and Lebanon.
Eugenio Aguilar González was a Salvadoran politician who served as president of El Salvador from 1846 to 1848. He also served as the mayor of San Salvador in 1839 and 1864, and the president of the Legislative Assembly in 1849.
Doctor Manuel Enrique Araujo was a Salvadoran politician and physician who served as President of El Salvador from 1 March 1911 until his death on 9 February 1913 to his injuries sustained in an assassination attempt five days prior. Araujo is the only Salvadoran president to have been assassinated while in office.
Pío Romero Bosque, contemporarily referred to as Don Pío, was a Salvadoran politician and lawyer who served as president of El Salvador from 1927 to 1931. He had previously served as Alfonso Quiñónez Molina's vice president from 1923 to 1927 and as El Salvador's minister of war, the navy, and aviation from 1919 to 1927. He also previously served as the minister of governance, development, and public instruction from 1903 to 1907 and as the president of the Supreme Court of Justice from 1914 to 1919.
Arturo Araujo Fajardo was a Salvadoran politician and engineer who served as the president of El Salvador from 1 March 1931 to 2 December 1931. He was overthrown in a military coup led by junior officers, and was forced to flee the country for Guatemala.
Chattahoochee is a 1989 American drama film directed by Mick Jackson and starring Gary Oldman and Dennis Hopper. The film is based on the real-life experiences of Chris Calhoun in a Florida state mental institution. Calhoun later met James Hicks who wrote the script. It was turned down by several major studios before being accepted by Hemdale Film Corporation, a small British-owned, Los Angeles–based company that also produced Platoon, Hoosiers, The Last Emperor, and Salvador.
The Salvadoran Civil War was a twelve-year civil war in El Salvador that was fought between the government of El Salvador and the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), a coalition of left-wing guerilla groups backed by the Cuban regime of Fidel Castro as well as the Soviet Union. A coup on 15 October 1979 followed by government killings of anti-coup protesters is widely seen as the start of civil war. The war did not formally end until after the collapse of the Soviet Union, when, on 16 January 1992 the Chapultepec Peace Accords were signed in Mexico City.
José Matías Delgado y de León was a Salvadoran priest and doctor known as El Padre de la Patria Salvadoreña.
John Daly was a British film producer.
William Oliver Stone is an American filmmaker. Stone is known as a controversial but acclaimed director, tackling subjects ranging from the Vietnam War, and American politics to musical biopics and crime dramas. He has received numerous accolades including three Academy Awards, a BAFTA Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and five Golden Globe Awards.
The Salvadoran military dictatorship was the period of time in Salvadoran history where the Salvadoran Armed Forces governed the country for almost 48 years from 2 December 1931 until 15 October 1979. The authoritarian military dictatorship limited political rights throughout the country and maintained its governance through rigged elections.
Return to El Salvador is a 2010 documentary film directed by Philadelphia filmmaker Jamie Moffett and narrated by Martin Sheen. It chronicles the rebuilding of El Salvador in the years after the Salvadoran Civil War, and explores the impact a lasting legacy of violence and unrest has had on those who survived, fled, and are now seeking to return.
On December 2, 1980, four Catholic missionaries from the United States working in El Salvador were raped and murdered by five members of the El Salvador National Guard. The murdered missionaries were Maryknoll Sisters Maura Clarke and Ita Ford, Ursuline Dorothy Kazel, and lay missionary Jean Donovan.
