On 22 January 1932, members of the Communist Party of El Salvador (PCES) and Pipil peasants launched a rebellion against the Salvadoran military government due to widespread social unrest and the suppression of democratic political freedoms, especially after the cancellation of the results of the 1932 legislative election.

During the rebellion, the communist and Indigenous rebels, led by Farabundo Martí and Feliciano Ama, respectively, captured several towns and cities across western El Salvador, killing an estimated 2,000 people and causing over US$100,000 in property damage.

Most of the people who were killed during La Matanza, which has been described as an ethnocide, were Pipil peasants and non-combatants, causing the extermination of the majority of the Pipil-speaking population, which led to a near total loss of the spoken language in El Salvador.

[2] One of the rural leaders of the FRTS was Farabundo Martí, who, together with Miguel Mármol, founded the Communist Party of El Salvador (PCES) in 1930.

[1] On 9 February 1913, Salvadoran President Manuel Enrique Araujo died to his wounds after being attacked by three farmers with machetes in San Salvador during an assassination attempt.

[6][a] The political dynasty ended when Quiñónez Molina chose Pío Romero Bosque as his successor, as there were no other family members who were willing to assume the presidency.

[3] During Araujo's administration, El Salvador was still struggling economically as a result of the Great Depression leading to social unrest across the country.

[32] In a final attempt to avoid a violent rebellion, the communist party sent a political commission consisting of Zapata, Luna, Clemente Abel Estrada, Rubén Darío Fernández, and Joaquín Rivas to the National Palace to enter into negotiations with the government.

[35] Cuenca theorized that Hernández Martínez intentionally allowed the revolt to happen by preventing the opportunity for social and political reform to occur.

The theory asserts that the intention of letting revolution occur was to crush it forcibly, as he believed the movement was doomed to fail, and that the suppression of the communist uprising would help him gain support and recognition from the United States.

[36] Dr. Alejandro D. Marroquín argued that Hernández Martínez actually feared a potential attack from Araujo's Labor Party from Guatemala, rather than the communist rebellion itself.

He argued that Hernández Martínez allowed the rebellion to occur and crushed it by force to deprive Araujo of an armed movement to help bring him back to power.

[37] In the late hours of 22 January 1932, thousands of peasants in the western part of the country, armed with sticks, machetes, and "poor-quality" shotguns, rose up in rebellion against Hernández Martínez's regime.

[40] Rebels led by Francisco Sánchez [es] attacked telegraph offices, their primary target, in Juayúa at 11:00 p.m. and eventually took control of the city due to a lack of a military presence.

[1][41] The rebels attacked the home of Emilio Radaelli, a coffee merchant referred to as the "richest man in town",[42] and assassinated him, along with his son and wife, who was also raped.

[47] The warning was received by the military garrison in Sonsonate, and in response, Colonel Ernesto Bará sent an expeditionary force under the command of Major Mariano Molina to crush the rebellion on 23 January.

Ships from the United States arrived shortly after and the ships offered to assist the Salvadoran government in quelling the rebellion,[51] however, Calderón turned down the offer, stating: The chief of Operation of the Western Zone of the Republic, Major General José Tomás Calderón, presents his compliments on behalf of the government of General Martínez and of himself, to Admiral Smith and Commander Brandeur, of the Rochester, Skeena, and Vancouver, I am pleased to announce that peace in El Salvador is restored, that the communist offensive has been completely suppressed and dispersed, and that complete extermination will be achieved.

The manifesto read: Fellow citizens: The Republic of El Salvador, profoundly agitated by the social problems and the acute economic crisis, traverses the most difficult hours of its independent life.

In the last few days, the Government has seen grave events of communist origin and, with foundation in the national laws, I have had the impressionable necessity to suffocate them with a strong hand.

Executive guidelines, charged with ensuring tranquility and the wellbeing of Salvadorans, are and will be severely punished for any alteration of public order and any act that attacks the social structure and the rights to property, liberty, and life of the inhabitants.

The Government makes a call to the sanity and patriotism of the citizens to the effect that in these difficult circumstances, everyone, in the sphere of its activities, surround and support the Executive so that peace is not altered.

The Government counts on the loyalty of the Army and the public security forces, and has the firm purpose to now allow, under any concept, the minor action of the disruptive hordes.

The Salvadoran people can have certainty that the Government has the capacity to strongly reap every revolutionary outbreak; but expect for them the unanimous and effective cooperation of all the social classes, in these grave and haunting moments for the future of the fatherland.

Fellow citizens: The Chief of the Executive has plenty faith in that the Salvadorans, in this hour of test, in which the homeland, the property, and the lives of all the inhabitants which are found threatened, will know how to defend with integrity the expensive and vital interests of the fatherland.

[57] On 25 January 1932, reinforcements under Calderón arrived in Sonsonate and began reprisals against peasants, especially against ethnic Pipils, in western El Salvador, indiscriminately killing thousands of civilians in the process.

It also granted "unconditional amnesty" ("incondicional amnistía") to anyone—rebel, military, or otherwise—who committed crimes of any nature in order to "restore order, repress, persecute, punish, and capture those accused of the crime of rebellion" ("restablecimiento del orden, represión, persecución, castigo y captura de los sindicados en el delito derebelión").

[70] Mauricio de la Selva, a Salvadoran poet and communist writer, theorized that Hernández Martínez crushed the rebellion with such violence as to appear to the United States as a "champion of anti-communism".