The Football War (La guerra de fútbol, in Spanish) or the 100-hours War, was a six-day war fought by El Salvador and Honduras in 1969. Tensions between the two nations were evidenced by a football competition, but the war was not caused by football, as it has been popularly acknowledged internationally. The war was caused by political differences between Hondurans and Salvadorans, including immigration from El Salvador to Honduras. The name is derived from the sensationalistic way in which international reporters covered the war, which overlapped with rioting from a series of football matches. Image File history File links Information. ... Shortcut: WP:WIN Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia and, as a means to that end, also an online community. ... Shortcut: WP:CU Marking articles for cleanup This page is undergoing a transition to an easier-to-maintain format. ... This Manual of Style has the simple purpose of making things easy to read by following a consistent format — it is a style guide. ... is the 195th day of the year (196th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 199th day of the year (200th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... For the Stargate SG-1 episode, see 1969 (Stargate SG-1). ... Casus belli is a modern Latin language expression meaning the justification for acts of war. ... The Organization of American States (OAS; OEA in the other three official languages) is an international organization, headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States of America. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_El_Salvador. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Honduras. ... Fidel Sánchez Hernández (July 7, 1917–February 28, 2003) was a politician, general, and former President of El Salvador. ... Oswaldo López Arellano (b. ... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... For the Stargate SG-1 episode, see 1969 (Stargate SG-1). ... A player (wearing the red kit) has penetrated the defence (in the white kit) and is taking a shot at goal. ...

Context

The Futbol War is the catchy nickname that has been given to the 1969 war that broke out between the Central American countries of Honduras and El Salvador. Although this was considered a Futbol War, the war goes much more in depth than a Latin American soccer game. The roots of this alarming disagreement turned war were issues over land reform and immigration problems. Honduras is more than five times the size of neighboring El Salvador, even though in 1969, El Salvador had a population that was more than double that of Honduras. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Salvadorans had begun migrating to Honduras in large numbers. These immigrants made the journey to a new land in hopes of decent jobs and escaping their oppressive government. By 1969, more than 350,000 Salvadorans were living in Honduras. These Salvadorans now made up twenty percent of the Honduran peasant population (Acker, 93). Meanwhile, by the 1960s Hondurans began to cry out for land reform as well.

In Honduras, a large majority of the land was granted to large landowners or big corporations. This was a very popular trend in Latin America and still is to this day. The United Fruit Company, in fact, had ownership of ten percent of the country, making it hard for the average landowners to compete. In 1966, the United Fruit Company banded together with many other large companies to create la Federación Nacional de Agricultores y Ganaderos de Honduras (FENAGH; the National Federation of Farmers and Livestock-Farmers of Honduras). FENAGH was very anti-campesino as well as anti-Salvadoran. This group put pressure on the Honduran President, General Lopez Arellano, to protect the property rights of wealthy landowners via a propaganda campaign. This led to violent nationalism spreading throughout the Honduras state. Hondurans then began targeting Salvadoran immigrants, specifically by means of beatings, tortures, and killings (Anderson 64-75). Campesino may refer to A simple farmer is referred to as a campesino in Spanish. ...

In 1969, Honduras successfully enacted a new land reform law. This law took land away from Salvadoran immigrants and redistributed this land to native-born Honduran peoples. The land was taken from both immigrant farmers and squatters regardless of their right to ownership and the status of their immigration. Thousands of Salvadorans were displaced by this law and were forced to immigrate once again. Salvadoran newspapers then heightened the already stressed relationship between the two countries by showing the many atrocities being committing against Salvadorans in Honduras. Hate and dislike towards Honduras began to be displayed all across El Salvador.

The social situation in both countries in the run-up to the war was explosive, and their military governments were looking for a convenient cause towards which to direct their nationals' political concerns. National media in both countries encouraged hatred towards citizens of the other, eventually provoking the expulsion from Honduras of thousands of Salvadoran laborers, including both temporary harvest workers and longer-term settlers.

This general rise in tensions ultimately led to a military conflict that served to direct the attention of the citizenry of both countries outward rather than in on their own internal affairs, leaving both armies rearmed, and destroying the Central American economic integration that had been expressed in the Central American Common Market (Mercado Común Centroamericano or MCE), under whose trade rules the richer Salvadoran economy gained much ground relative to Honduras. The Central American Common Market (abbreviated CACM - in Spanish: Mercado Común Centroamericano, abbreviated MCCA) is an economic trade organization between five nations of Central America. ...

The War

These existing tensions between the two countries were inflamed by rioting during the second North American qualifying round for the 1970 FIFA World Cup. On July 14, 1969, the Salvadoran army launched an attack against Honduras. The Organization of American States negotiated a cease-fire which took effect on July 20, with the Salvadoran troops withdrawn in early August. CONCACAF (the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football) is the continent-wide governing body for association football in North America, Central America and the Caribbean. ... A total of 71 teams entered the 1970 World Cup qualification rounds, competing for a total of 16 spots in the final tournament. ... Qualifying countries The 1970 FIFA World Cup, the ninth staging of the World Cup, was held in Mexico, from May 31 to June 21. ... is the 195th day of the year (196th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... For the Stargate SG-1 episode, see 1969 (Stargate SG-1). ... The Organization of American States (OAS; OEA in the other three official languages) is an international organization, headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States of America. ... is the 201st day of the year (202nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

Eleven years later the two nations signed a peace treaty on October 30, 1980 to put the border dispute before the International Court of Justice. A peace treaty is an agreement (a peace treaty) between two hostile parties, usually countries or governments, that formally ends a war or armed conflict. ... October 30 is the 303rd day of the year (304th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 62 days remaining. ... Year 1980 (MCMLXXX) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link displays the 1980 Gregorian calendar). ... The International Court of Justice (known colloquially as the World Court or ICJ; French: ) is the primary judicial organ of the United Nations. ...

In 1992, the Court awarded most of the disputed territory to Honduras, and in 1998, Honduras and El Salvador signed a border demarcation treaty to implement the terms of the ICJ decree. As of the beginning of 2006 demarcation had not yet been completed, but Honduras and El Salvador maintain normal diplomatic and trade relations.[1]

An Indepth Look: The Football War

This war was fought at a time when tensions between the two countries were building due to competition in the infamous qualifying games for the 1970 FIFA World Cup tournament. The first game took place in the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa, with Honduras winning the game. The second game took place in the Salvadoran capital of San Salvador, with a home team win. The game was in a deadlock with each country gaining a revised sense of pride and legitimacy. The Hondurans press exploited existing tensions by creating allegedly false and certainly misleading reports of rapes, beatings, murders, the burning of cars, and other riots of Hondurans citizens in El Salvador. In the meantime Hondurans citizens and security forces to perpetuated attacks on Salvadoran immigrants.

El Salvador dissolved all ties with Honduras on June 26th, 1969, stating that “the government of Honduras has not taken any effective measures to punish these crimes which constitute genocide, nor has it given assurances of indemnification or reparations for the damages caused to Salvadorans” (Anderson, 105). This led to regular border clashes occurring between the two nations.

Early on the morning of July 14, 1969, concerted military action began in what came to be known as the Soccer War. The Salvadoran air force (El Salvador lacked sufficient military air equipment, resorting to the use of passenger airplanes with attached vessels strapped to their sides as bombers) attacked targets inside Honduras and the Salvadoran army launched major offensives along the main road connecting the two nations and against the Honduran islands in the Golfo de Fonseca. At first, the Salvadorans made fairly rapid progress. By the evening of July 15, the Salvadoran army, which was considerably larger and better equipped than its Honduran opponent, pushed the Honduran army back over eight kilometers and captured the departmental capital of Nueva Ocotepeque. Thereafter, the attack bogged down, and the Salvadorans began to experience fuel and ammunition shortages. A major reason for the fuel shortage was the action of the Honduran air force, which--in addition to largely destroying the smaller Salvadoran air force--had severely damaged El Salvador's oil storage facilities.

The day after the fighting had begun, the OAS met in an urgent session and called for an immediate cease-fire and a withdrawal of El Salvador's forces from Honduras. El Salvador resisted the pressures from the OAS for several days, demanding that Honduras first agree to pay reparations for the attacks on Salvadoran citizens and guarantee the safety of those Salvadorans remaining in Honduras. A cease-fire was arranged on the night of July 18; it took full effect only on July 20. El Salvador continued until July 29 to resist pressures to withdraw its troops. Then a combination of pressures led El Salvador to agree to a withdrawal in the first days of August. Those persuasive pressures included the possibility of OAS economic sanctions against El Salvador and the dispatch of OAS observers to Honduras to oversee the security of Salvadorans remaining in that country. The actual war had lasted just over four days, but it would take more than a decade to arrive at a final peace settlement.

El Salvador, which had refused to withdraw its troops from the occupied territory in Honduras, withdrew its troops on August 2nd, 1969. On this date, Honduras also guaranteed Salvadoran President Fidel Sanchez Hernandez that the Honduran government would provide adequate safety for the Salvadorans still living in Honduras. He also asked that reparations be paid for the attacks on the Salvadoran citizens as well. There were also the heavy pressures from the OAS and their debilitating repercussions that would take place if El Salvador continued to resist to withdraw their troops from Honduras. These pressures included the possibility of OAS economic sanctions against El Salvador as well as the dispatch of OAS observers to Honduras to oversee that Salvadorans living in Honduras would remain safe. The Futbol War lasted just four short days, but ended up taking over a decade to finally follow through with a peace agreement.

The war is often cited as the last occasion on which piston-engined fighters fought each other - both sides deploying former World War II American types. P-51 Mustangs, F4U Corsairs, T-28 Trojans and even C-47 Skytrains converted into bombers saw action. The Salvadoran Air Force was so out of shape that they reverted to dropping bombs by hand from the windows of their planes^{[citation needed]}..[2] Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... The North American P-51 Mustang was an American long-range single-seat fighter aircraft that entered service with Allied air forces in the middle years of World War II. The P-51 became one of the conflicts most successful and recognizable aircraft. ... The Chance Vought F4U Corsair was an American fighter aircraft that saw service in World War II and the Korean War (and in isolated local conflicts). ... The North American T-28 Trojan was a piston-engined military trainer aircraft used by the United States armed forces in the 1950s and into the early 1970s. ... The Douglas C-47 Skytrain or Dakota is a military transport that was developed from the Douglas DC-3 airliner. ...

1970 FIFA World Cup Results

• June 6, 1969, Tegucigalpa: Honduras 1 - 0 El Salvador (0-0 at halftime)
• June 15, 1969, San Salvador: El Salvador 3 - 0 Honduras (HT: 3-0)
• A playoff match on June 27, 1969, Mexico: El Salvador 3 - 2 Honduras after extra time (HT: 1-2, FT: 2-2). El Salvador then ended up going to the 1970 FIFA World Cup, where they failed to advance from the Group Stage.

is the 157th day of the year (158th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... For the Stargate SG-1 episode, see 1969 (Stargate SG-1). ... Tegucigalpa IPA: (Tegus for short), population 1,200,000 (2006) (metro area), is the capital of Honduras (together with Comayagüela), and the countrys largest city. ... is the 166th day of the year (167th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... For the Stargate SG-1 episode, see 1969 (Stargate SG-1). ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... June 27 is the 178th day of the year (179th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... For the Stargate SG-1 episode, see 1969 (Stargate SG-1). ... Qualifying countries The 1970 FIFA World Cup, the ninth staging of the World Cup, was held in Mexico, from May 31 to June 21. ...

Results Of The War

In the end, the Futbol War led to a stalemate, with both sides suffering extensive casualties. Some 20,000 Hondurans and another 80,000 Salvadorans were displaced due to the battle. Many Salvadorans had been forcibly exiled or had fled from the war-torn Honduras, only to enter a Salvadoran country in which the government was not welcoming. Most of these fleeing people were forced to provide for themselves with very little assistance at all. Over the next few years, approximately 130,000 Salvadorans tried to return to their native land where they were surrounded by overpopulation and extreme poverty (Anderson, 145-155). In Honduras, about 250 combat troops and around 2,000 civilians had been killed over a four day period due to the majority of this war being fought on Honduran soil. Thousands more had also been ultimately made homeless as well. Trade between Honduras and El Salvador had also been greatly disrupted and the national border had been officially closed. This damaged the economies of these nations tremendously and threatened the Central American Common Market (CACM).

• Essentially both sides 'lost' the war; neither gained a decisive military victory and the death toll of approximately 4,000 was shared approximately equally between the two.
• The war led to a 22-year suspension of the Central American Common Market, a regional integration project that had been set up by the United States largely as a means of counteracting the effects of the Cuban Revolution.
• The political power of the military in both countries was reinforced. In the Salvadoran legislative elections that followed, candidates from the governing National Conciliation Party (Partido de Conciliación Nacional, PCN), were largely drawn from the ranks of the military. Having apologised for their role in the conflict, they proved very successful in elections both at the national and local levels. However, these elections were considered fraudulent and part of the military dictatorship that in effect ruled El Salvador.
• The social situation worsened in El Salvador as the government proved unable to satisfy the economic needs of citizens deported from Honduras. The resulting social unrest was one of the causes of the civil war in El Salvador that followed.

The Central American Common Market (abbreviated CACM - in Spanish: Mercado Común Centroamericano, abbreviated MCCA) is an economic trade organization between five nations of Central America. ... The Cuban Revolution refers to the revolution that led to the overthrow of General Fulgencio Batistas regime on January 1, 1959 by the 26th of July Movement and other revolutionary elements in the country. ... The Party of National Conciliation (Spanish: Partido de Conciliación Nacional, PCN) is a conservative political party in El Salvador. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

Trivia

• Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle helped Honduran President Oswaldo Lopez Arellano by providing weapons and ammunition.
• During this war, several ostensible battalions of Honduran soldiers were discovered only to exist on paper. The money for these fake battalions had been collected by allegedly corrupt Honduran army officers.
• After the war, there was a very popular motto in Honduras: No pasarán y no pasaron (They will not pass and they did not pass). ¡No pasarán! had been a prominent slogan of the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War.

Anastasio (Tachito) Somoza Debayle (December 5, 1925 – September 17, 1980) was officially the forty-fourth and forty-fifth President of Nicaragua from May 1, 1967 to May 1, 1972 and from December 1, 1974 to July 17, 1979. ... A weapon is a tool used to kill or incapacitate a person or animal, or destroy a military target. ... Boxes of ammunition clog a warehouse in Baghdad Ammunition is a generic military term meaning (the assembly of) a projectile and its propellant. ... Symbol of the Austrian 14th Armoured Battalion in NATO military graphic symbols A battalion is a military unit usually consisting of between two and six companies and typically commanded by a Lieutenant Colonel. ... Anthem El Himno de Riego Capital Madrid Language(s) Spanish Government Republic President¹  - 1931 Niceto Alcalá-Zamora  - 1937-1939 Juan Negrín Legislature Congress of Deputies Historical era Interwar period  - Monarchy abolished April 14, 1931  - Spanish Civil War 1936-1939  - Surrender to Franco April 1, 1939 Currency Spanish peseta ¹ Formal... Combatants Spanish Republic With the support of: Soviet Union[1] Nationalist Spain With the support of: Italy Germany Commanders Manuel Azaña Francisco Largo Caballero Juan Negrín Francisco Franco Gonzalo Queipo de Llano Emilio Mola José Sanjurjo Casualties 500,000[2] The Spanish Civil War was a major conflict...

Bibliography

• Acker, Allison. Honduras: The Making of a Banana Republic. Toronto: Between the Lines, 1988.

• Anderson, Thomas P. The War of the Dispossessed: Honduras and El Salvador 1969. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1981.

• Armstrong, Robert and Janet Shenk. El Salvador: The Face of a Revolution. Boston: South End Press, 1982.

• Durham, William H. Scarcity and Survival in Central America: Ecological Origins of the Soccer War. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1979.

• <http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/airchronicles/aureview/1970/mar-apr/mallin.html> “Salvador-Honduras War, 1969”.

• <http://www.onwar.com/aced/data/sierra/soccer1969.htm> “Soccer War 1969”.

• Kapuscinski, Ryszard. The Soccer War. Translated William Brand. London: Granta Books, 1990.

• Skidmore, T., and Smith, P. (2001) Modern Latin America (5th edition). New York: Oxford University Press, pg. 343.

• Walzer, Michael. Just and Unjust Wars. New York: Basic Books, 1977.