The authoritarian military dictatorship limited political rights throughout the country and maintained its governance through rigged elections.

His successor, José María Lemus, was overthrown in a military coup d'état in 1960 and was replaced by Julio Adalberto Rivera Carballo in 1962.

Under Martínez, the Salvadoran Army massacred anywhere from 10,000 to 40,000 peasants and indigenous people in response to a communist uprising in 1932, in an event known in El Salvador as La Matanza.

It was a collection of far-right paramilitaries and death squads that tortured political opponents, intimidated voters, rigged elections, and killed peasants.

[10][11] Carlos Meléndez and Quiñónez established a political dynasty under the National Democratic Party (PDN) which lasted from 1913 until 1931.

[15] Unlike his predecessors, Romero Bosque did not appoint a successor and held El Salvador's first free election.

[17][18] Araujo's vice president was Brigadier General Maximiliano Hernández Martínez of the National Republican Party.

[16] The crisis caused peasant unrest across western El Salvador, and as a result, Araujo appointed Martínez to be the country's Minister of National Defense.

"[33] Because of the 1923 Central American Treaty of Peace and Amity, the United States refused to recognize Martínez's government's legitimacy.

[38] The Central Reserve Bank of El Salvador was established during his administration on 19 June 1934 to help stabilize the colón, the national currency.

[44] Minister of National Defense Andrés Ignacio Menéndez attempted to purchase planes from the United States but North American Aviation refused to accept coffee as a percentage of the payment.

[49] Under pressure from the United States, the government fully supported the Allies on 8 December 1941 after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

[52] El Salvador never provided soldiers to directly fight in the war but it did send workers to maintain the Panama Canal.

[53] During the war, George Mantello and Colonel José Castellanos Contreras saved 40,000 Jews from Central Europe, mostly from Hungary, by providing them false Salvadoran passports and political asylum.

[56] Civilians wanted to remove Martínez from power and so on 2 May 1944, students took to the streets of San Salvador in the Strike of Fallen Arms to force his resignation.

[55][56][57] Menéndez replaced Martínez as acting president and accepted the protestors' demands for amnesty for political prisoners, freedom of the press, and new general elections.

[68] Following the Cuban Revolution in 1959, students in El Salvador were influenced by the nationalistic and revolutionary movement of Fidel Castro which led to protests for a truly democratic system to be implemented in the country.

[70][71] The junta was dissolved on 25 January 1962 and an independent politician, Eusebio Rodolfo Cordón Cea, was appointed as Provisional President.

[72] During the 1962 presidential election, the newly formed National Conciliation Party (PCN) ran unopposed and its candidate, Rivera, won 100% of the vote.

[70] The party, under Abraham Rodríguez Portillo and Roberto Lara Velado, believed Christian democracy was the best path forward for El Salvador's modernization.

[70] Rivera got El Salvador involved in US President John F. Kennedy's Alliance for Progress, an initiative to improve relations between Latin America and the United States through economic cooperation.

[5][82] On 3 October 1963, Oswaldo López Arellano overthrew President Ramón Villeda Morales of Honduras and established a military dictatorship.

[5] The defeat caused further attacks against the Salvadoran immigrants and led to a migrant crisis in El Salvador since the government was unable to provide housing for all the refugees coming from Honduras.

[84] Due to the ongoing crisis, El Salvador severed diplomatic ties with Honduras on 26 June and declared war on 14 July 1969.

[5] El Salvador withdrew its troops on 2 August and the OAS promised to guarantee the safety of the Salvadorans in Honduras.

[86] Initially, Salvadoran politics were united against Honduras, but the Communist Party and the left eventually turned against the war and continued to oppose the government.

[7] As a result, left-wing militant organizations grew in size and numbers and continued to gain more support among the poor population.

[6] President Anastasio Somoza Debayle of Nicaragua was finally deposed by the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) in September 1979 which caused alarm among young military officers in the Salvadoran Army.

[102] The Military Youth, led by Colonels Adolfo Arnoldo Majano and Jaime Abdul Gutiérrez staged a coup d'état against Romero on 15 October 1979 with the support of the United States.

[6][109] The junta was composed of five men: Colonels Majano and Gutiérrez, Ungo, Mario Antonio Andino, the former president of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of El Salvador (CCIES), and Román Mayorga Quirós, a member of the Central American University.