Page 43 - The MoMA/ Guggenheim issue of World of Art magazine (2003)

ThE TERROR
ThE TERROR PROjECT
PROjECT

IF YOU DON’T WANT TO BE ThE hORSES’ hOOFPRINTS, YOU’VE GOT TO BE ThE hOOVES

rather than by an economic elite. But the libertarians lacked any
IF YOU DON’T WANT TO BE THE real economic base. The primary power source was in land, and
HORSES’ HOOFPRINTS, YOU’VE the land was owned by an oligarchy intransigent in its opposition
GOT TO BE THE HOOVES to the political ideas of liberalism.

When England and the United States combined forces with the
IMPERIALISM: reactionary landowners to build the Panama Canal, the liberal
A DEVASTATING ENTERPRISE vision of a modern confederation disintegrated and Central America
was divided into the five quasi-republics that remain, to this day,
economically dependent on external powers. The ‘land of richness’
EL SALVADOR was well on its way to becoming one of America’s worst civic and
environmental catastrophes. Privatization of land was proclaimed
by law and the oligarchy, the “fourteen families”, came to own all
the best land which they turned into plantations to grow coffee as
a cash crop for export to foreign markets. Communal property was
by Marlie BURTON-ROCHE outlawed, and landlords were authorized to expropriate the peasant’s
lands, condemning them to a life of servitude. The society became
The indigenous Pipil called their land Cuzcatlan, one of ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’. This situation was exacerbated by the
meaning, “land of richness.” It was a domain U.S. adoption of an aggressive counterrevolutionary foreign policy
of abundant volcanic soil and lush vegetation, aimed towards turning the Central American region into the United
blessed with a natural water system of lakes States’ “backyard”, a zone they aspired to control economically,
and rivers. Individual or privatized ownership politically, and militarily. As stated in the Monroe Doctrine, U.S.
of land was unheard of and all socio-economic policy was to be, “Central America for the North Americans.” All
life in Cuzcatlan was based on free access to the root causes for the future conflicts in twentieth century El
land and produce. Salvador were in place.

Cuzcatlan’s name and destiny were changed The worldwide depression in 1929 shattered the coffee-based
forever with the onslaught of the Spanish invasion. economy of El Salvador and in 1932 peasants and workers, who were
From inception, El Salvador was characterized being forced to work at starvation wages, armed themselves with
by war and genocide as massacres, rapes, and machetes and sticks and rose up in rebellion against the plantation
plunder were used to dominate and extinguish owners. The fledgling Communist party, which was not originally
the Pipil, Lenca, and Pokoman. Their ‘land of involved in planning the revolt, tried to help by channeling the
richness’ was confiscated for use by the Spaniards. mass uprising towards the formation of a more progressive state.
Proprietorship of land and enslavement of human At this point, the oligarchy, led by the Melendez-Quinones families,
beings came to be the rule of the day, giving had the option of implementing economic and democratic reforms.
rise to privatized estates and El Salvador’s first Instead they chose genocide. The peasant uprising lasted for only a
export commodity, indigo. few days. Defeat came even without intervention of U.S. marines
who waited on ships just outside the port of Acajutla in case the
With independence from Spanish domination, government troops required support in their slaughter. In less than
progressive libertarians, exemplified by Simón a month more than 30,000 Salvadoran peasants, including women
Bolívar, attempted to create a Central American and children, were assassinated in cold blood by the army and by
confederation. They envisioned an independent paramilitary groups that had been organized and paid for by the
Central American republic extending from Panama coffee barons. Farabundo Martí, Secretary General of the Salvadoran
to Guatemala and functioning as a crossroads Communist Party, was captured and executed. El Salvador became a
for the world, linking Europe, America, and Asia. military dictatorship. Militarism was institutionalized by the armed
Francisco Morazan led a succession of wars of forces while the business stratum, the oligarchy, expanded and
liberation against the established oligarchy in diversified the plantation system and export economics, adding
the first half of the nineteenth century in an sugar and cotton to the cash-crop enterprises. More and more
attempt to construct an economically self-sufficient peasants were driven off their land as foreign trade and banking
modern federation. The goal was to create a became privatized. U.S. investors moved in and the gape between
sovereign state, ruled as a federated republic the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’ widened.

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