The 1975 Salvadoran student massacre[1] occurred during the waning years of El Salvador's military dictatorships and was an important event in the buildup to the country's civil war.

This massacre of an unknown number of student demonstrators was led by then-President Colonel Arturo Armando Molina and General Carlos Humberto Romero and took place in San Salvador, the country's capital, during the events of the Miss Universe beauty pageant.

[4] Around 4:30 p.m., marchers were attacked by armed forces as the protest reached the overpass in front of the General Hospital of the Salvadoran Social Security Institute (ISSS), located on N 25th Ave in the country's capital.

[5][2][8] The total number of losses is still undetermined,[9][10] as security forces quickly blocked off the area after the massacre and removed the bodies, washing the blood off the streets with soap and water, according to witnesses.

[5] The July 30 Massacre radicalized El Salvador's urban leftist activists,[12] prompting the creation of the militant, student-led People's Revolutionary Bloc,[2] and of armed groups such as the Farabundo Martí Popular Liberation Forces.