The National Guard of El Salvador was founded in 1912 by President Dr. Manuel Enrique Araujo as a branch of the Salvadoran Army for policing rural areas.

The National Guard developed a reputation for police brutality and human rights abuses in El Salvador, and was disbanded on 16 January 1992 as part of the Chapultepec Peace Accords to end the Salvadoran Civil War.

Owing to increased demands for higher wages by coffee pickers in rural areas, Salvadoran land owners in the countryside felt the need to create a special public security force to protect their interests.

A corps made up of specially trained men with modern equipment and uniformed appropriately for the type of coffee plantations where they were going to act was needed.

Dr. Araujo gave the Engineer and General José María Peralta Lagos, Minister of War and Navy, to study the organization and functioning of the police forces of Europe.

Peralta Lagos, a graduate of the Military Academy of Spain in 1897, used, Spanish Guardia Civil as a model on February 3, 1912, by Executive Order, in the Department of the Interior, at the facilities occupied by the Sixth Infantry Regiment and later by the Ecole Normale "Alberto Masferrer," the National Guard was formally established.

[clarification needed] Earlier this year the Government engaged the services of Spanish Captain Alfonso Martin Garrido, to organize the National Guard.

The first standard uniforms used by the National Guard was khaki colored, worn with long pants, with metal buttons running down the front and emblems of the neck.

The National Guard in the early depended on the Secretaría de Gobernación (Interior Ministry), but it was the Secretary of War which will provide all resources necessary for its functions and organization.

The Corps carried the carterón (a small book) in the field where they took the documents and records relating to the capture of criminals, investigation of reports and information of all kinds.

José María Peralta Lagos", officially inaugurated on July 14, 1924, under the leadership of Lieutenant General Jose Mauricio Lopez Escobar.

In order to prepare its members for promotion to the next higher level, the Feb. 19, 1947 was an Extension Course for elements of the Army National Guard, military and civilian professors.

During this conflict, the National Guard, commanded by General José Alberto Medrano, participated in the Northern Theater of Operations (TON), and covered the flanks of the advance carried out by the 1st and 8th Infantry Battalions.

The National Guard advanced successfully in Morral, El Portillo, Llano Largo, San Marcos Ocotepeque, La Labor, and Plan of Rancho Santa Lucia, and also was charged with defending the "Presa 5 November ".

By signing the Peace Accords, on January 16, 1992, between the government and the FMLN, regarding the matter of Public Security, agreed to abolish the National Guard and Treasury Police, and his staff were integrated the army.

A jury heard that case in October 2000, and rendered a verdict that the generals could not be held liable for the crimes, presumably on the theory that they did not have "effective control" over their subordinates.

It was one of the first instances where a jury in a fully contested trial found perpetrators liable for human rights abuses solely under the doctrine of command responsibility.

Then, in June 2005, the 11th Circuit acknowledged certain factual errors in its prior ruling: the court had failed to consider that Vides Casanova had left power in El Salvador in May 1989, and that therefore CJA's May 1999 filing was just under the 10 year mark.

Equitable tolling is a legal doctrine that allows for the extending of statutes of limitations, when a deliberate act of the defendant, or an extraordinary circumstance prevented the plaintiff from timely filing suit.

On April 18, 2011, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) began court proceedings in a south Florida court-room to remove from the United States Carlos Eugenio Vides-Casanova on charges of assisting or otherwise participating in torture.

The National Guard's basic garrison uniform consisted of American OG-107 olive-green fatigue shirt, trousers, and cap worn with a black belt, socks, and shoes.