Established on June 16, 1993, under Executive Decree No.65, the Salvadoran Military Museum is located at the old El Zapote Fort (10 Avenida Sur and Calle Alberto Sánchez) in San Jacinto, San Salvador. El Zapote fortress’ physical appearance is impressive, by regional standards, and it’s linked to the development of the Salvadoran artillery corps. At one point, the museum’s collection included fourteen exhibition rooms and two interactive areas and duly had a rich collection. In addition, it had an extensive football field that doubled as parade ground. However, a few years ago, the exhibits were moved within the walls of the fort, and the museum went down the hill, with few exhibits remaining open to the public, in poorly lighted and unkept rooms, and relying more on pictures of different leaders with no relevant information about them. El Zapote Museum became a shadow of what it once was, and it did little to preserve the proud Salvadoran military heritage.

Things finally appear to be changing again for the better. Within the last year, the Salvadoran presidency has been using the installations for a number of functions that have highlighted the museum, and now there is an awesome parade ground with manicured gardens and spaces leading to the old presidential offices, which also function as part of the cultural space, with tours offered of the Oval Hall, Hall of Honor, Dr. José Matías Delgado Hall, Official Office Hall, Gerardo Barrios Hall, Juan Manuel Rodríguez Hall and General Manuel José Arce Room or “Blue Room.” In August 2018, the government initiated a three-stage project to convert and revitalize the cultural spaces of the San Jacinto neighborhood in the center of San Salvador, with an investment of $22 million, and the first stage was completed in February 2019. However, it has been only within the last few months that a number of exhibits have been reopened and/or relocated, making them accessible to the public. Unfortunately, and as explained later, some items have been lost forever.

In contrast, the Honduran Military Museum Francisco Morazán is located into a much more confined physical space. It occupies the old San Francisco Fort in front of Valle Park in downtown Tegucigalpa, maximizing its space and having well-lit rooms, and patios with weapons featuring basic explanation cards. The museum was reconditioned and reopened to the public in May 2017, with nine exhibits and several static displays.

One of the most important exhibits is dedicated to the Salvadoran invasion of July 1969. This includes a video presentation of the crisis, and… a distortion of some historical events. The exhibit claims the Salvadoran front collapsed after Honduran forces were able to execute a counteroffensive on July 16, 1969 along the Southern Operational Theater (or “TOS” in Spanish), and after execution of a deadly ambush executed around San Rafael las Mataras farm on July 17, 1969, in the South Western Theater of Operations (or TOSO in Spanish).

The truth is that the Salvadoran front did not collapse, and, in fact, held-on to occupied territory until August 3, 1969. Nevertheless, both actions deserve their rightful merit. The Honduran counteroffensive of July 16, 1969, stalled the Salvadoran Army advance, but failed in dislodging it. The ambush at las Mataras, El Portillo area cost the Salvadoran forces the initiative at a considerable loss of life and equipment. However, the presentation overestimates the results since it also failed to collapse the Salvadoran forces. After the ambush, the Salvadoran National Guard was able to basically cut off and isolate the Honduran forces at El Portillo, prompting the deployment of the Honduran II (MAP) Infantry Battalion to Llano Largo in an attempt to encircle the Salvadoran National Guard. This experience at the San Francisco Museum motivated me to write Battleground – the Honduran and Salvadoran border conflict 1967 – 1980.

BLUE SKY OPERATION

Very little has been said about the ground actions that took place during the Salvadoran incursion into Honduras between July 14 and August 3, 1969. The conflict became known incorrectly as the “Football War”, focusing on the period between June and July of that year. However, the situation along the border had reached the boiling point much earlier.

On May 29, 1967, a Salvadoran National Guard patrol was ambushed at the border area of ​​Monteca, Salvadoran territory, by a Honduran Army unit. As a response, the Salvadoran National Guard reinforced its bases in Chalatenango and Morazán, and other border points, while the Army mobilized its two MAP battalions, the 1st Battalion from Sonsonate and the 3rd Battalion from San Miguel, to the border on June 4, 1967. The following day, a four-truck military convoy from the Salvadoran 1st Regiment/1st Battalion/1st Brigade stumbled into the Honduran city of New Ocotepeque, where a single Honduran police officer detained it. The load included VZ-24 rifles, up to 15 Madsen machine guns and four Madsen 51mm mortars, along with their ammunition. After this event, the tension somewhat subsided and in 1968 there was a prisoner exchange, with Honduras returning the two officers, two national guardsmen, and more than 40 soldiers for the return of one convicted individual related to the Honduran strongmen at the time, General Lopez Arellano.

There were twelve major armed clashes reported along the border between May 1967 and June 1969. This situation culminated in the Salvadoran invasion on July 15, 1969, and a short, but deadly engagement that lasted some 120 hours. The Salvadoran raid was codenamed operation “Clear Sky” and relied in the Gerardo Barrios Campaign Plan developed in 1967. It would take two cease fires, one on July 18, 1969, and the other one on July 23, 1976, before a peace treaty was finally signed on July 20, 1980. The aftermath of this engagement led to the evolution and rearmament of both armies and contributed to the revolutionary conflict that develop in a reduced form in Honduras, and in full-scale infighting in El Salvador.

MILITARY MEMORY LAPSE

By 1969, the Central American armies had ordered their first assault rifles, and Honduras had asked for 2500 M14 rifles from the U.S. On July 17, 1969, the Salvadoran newspaper El Diario de Hoy, published the picture of POW Eugenio Hernández from the Honduran I (MAP) Infantry Battalion stating that he had been captured with a T-57 rifle. As the picture shows the barrel of a Mauser rifle, some speculated that the T-57 refers to Honduras’s designation for the Mauser. Given that the Salvadoran Army used the Mauser, as well, it seems odd that the news made particular mention of the rifle as the T-57. It is noted that T-57 normally refers to Taiwan’s version of the M14. In 1967 the U.S. sold Springfield’s M14 production tooling and assembly lines to Taiwan, and in 1968, the Republic of China State Arsenal began production of the rifle under the designation Type 57 (T-57). It is noted that in the aftermath of the Salvadoran invasion, the M14, and perhaps its twin model, the T-57 made in Taiwan, became the standard issue rifle until replaced with the FAL by the mid-1970s.

Unfortunately, the reference to the T-57 as a Taiwanese model is only speculation since the Salvadorans looted everything, including their own war-trophies. It’s known that the Salvadorans seized rifles, submachine guns (M50 and others), and machine guns, with the Honduran Army crest, during the raid in Honduras. There are even photographs of two jeeps with Honduran Army markings seized during the incursion. Yet, none of them are available at the Salvadoran Military Museum. Heck, even many of the Salvadoran historical weapons have disappeared, most of them given away in controversial weapon barters realized as soon as the civil-war ended in 1992, and up to 2012.

As soon as the shots stopped, the Air Force disposed of all the surviving Alouette helicopters, selling them as junk, and even the last flyable Corsair is said to have gone in exchange for a couple of Cherokee station-wagons. In 2020, two former defense ministers were arrested after it was disclosed that 14,930 firearms, 27,721 magazines, 2.7 million 7.62 caliber cartridges, and 9,800 spare parts for the G-3 rifles were provided to Centrum S.A de C.V (a local small arms dealer) in exchange for two M-71 howitzers and tools that were supposed to be worth some $2 million. Later it was found that the exchange in reality included 23,306 firearms and was valued at $3,277,097.28. However, according to the documents presented by the Attorney General’s Office (or FGR in Spanish) in 2021, the weapons were worth more than $8 million but their original value was manipulated in favor of Centrum, reducing the initial appraisal of $480 per gun, to $200, and, finally, to $42 per weapon. The lot contained 4,593 FMK-3 Argentinean-made SMGs, 2,670 of them brand new, 83 UZI Israeli-made SMGs, 700 MP5 German-made SMGs, 1,873 M50 Madsen Danish-made SMGs, 32 Styer Austrian-made Bullpup rifles, and an inventory of more than 16,000 G-3 rifles, 709 of them in mint condition (150 in original package), and up to 9,000 spare parts for of all types of weapons. To top it off, the FGR reported that the two M-71 howitzers were unworkable.

Prior to that barter, the military had disposed, quietly and in similar fashion, historical armament, to include the old CV3-33 tanks (the first of its kind used in El Salvador and disposed long ago), most of the old/antique small arms, to include Luger pistols, Mausers and Mauser-like rifles and respective bayonets, MP-28 SMGs, MG-30s, antique Gatling cannons, and other exotic weapons. There are not even illustrations of the CV-3-33, the Solothurn, Madsen M/38, and Breda 20mm autocannons once used by the military or the first coastguard cutters (GC-1 and GC-2), much less of the sole gunboat, the Cuscatlán, acquired in 1890.

In contrast, in Honduras, the military has preserved a number of antique and historically important weapons, to include captured Salvadoran examples, such as Madsen machine guns and 51mm mortars seized in June 1967, as well as a bounty of G3 rifles, G8 (HK-21) automatic rifles, and even an M37A1 anti-tank cannon, captured during the deadly San Rafael las Mataras ambush executed on July 17, 1969, on the highway between Nueva Ocotepeque and Santa Rosa de Lima. An M38C jeep, said to have been seized to the Salvadoran Army, parades with veterans every July. It needs to be noted that Honduras has probably experienced the same challenges annotated in El Salvador.

EL ZAPOTE FORT

El Zapote Fort was established in 1898, when a metal galley was built on what was previously a hill where zapote trees were abundant, hence its name. In 1900, the Cavalry was established as an independent body and consolidated at El Zapote Fort, but it marched away on 1906, being replaced by the First Infantry Regiment. At the time, the Second Artillery Regiment was housed at the San Francisco Fort, in downtown San Salvador (the Artillery Brigade/First Artillery Regiment was housed in Santa Ana). The First Infantry Regiment shared the installations with the First Machine Gun Regiment when it was established in 1912.

On September 24, 1914, the Salvadoran Artillery modernized with 53mm Krupp and 75mm Gruson Mle 1897 cannons, and in 1917, it consolidated in a single First Artillery Regiment in El Zapote. The First Infantry Regiment marched to occupy the San Francisco Fort in downtown San Salvador, and the First Machine Gun Regiment went to share installations with the 2nd Infantry Regiment at the Francisco Menéndez Fort, also in downtown San Salvador. That same year (1917), the metal galley gave way to a wooden house. El Zapote housed, at one point or another, the School of Corporals and Sergeants, and played a prominent role in the December 1931 coup that brought to power General Maximiliano Hernandez Martinez.

In 1937, architect Borromeo Flores began the construction of the present structure, implementing a building resembling a medieval castle, with four towers, one in each corner, and two on its façade. In April 1944, El Zapote Fort backed General Hernandez Martinez in crushing a coup d’é·tat, and 28 years later, on March 25, 1972, El Zapote garrison became involved once more in a coup, this time against the military regimen. That day, then-Captain Rafael Bustillo dropped a bomb from his Mustang P-51 that destroyed the southwest tower, where there was an anti-aircraft gun firing at him.

In 1976 the Artillery Regiment vacated El Zapote, and marched to a new base some 37 km from San Salvador, where it became the Artillery Brigade “Lt. Col. Oscar Osorio.” El Zapote was then occupied by the Armed Forces Transmission Instruction Center (CITFA) in 1980. The CITFA became the Communications Command in 1993, and moved to occupy the San Carlos Fort, leaving the installations to the new Military Museum.

SAN FRANCISCO FORT

The San Francisco Fort Museum was established in 1983, and the Fort itself occupies the area that was once the San Diego de Álcala Convent (1592). This installation was abandoned and then demolished in 1730 to make way to the San Francisco Barracks built between 1731 and 1735. In 1828 the facilities were declared a military base for the revolutionary troops, and in 1831 it became the first military academy in Honduras. Then, in September 1847, its installations became the National University of Honduras, reverting once again in 1881 to a military school.

Fast forward to 1950, the fort became the First Military Zone, and on August 1, 1956, the garrison rebelled under the leadership of Santos Sorto Paz against then-president Julio Lozano Díaz. The building was bombarded with 51mm, 60mm, and 81mm mortars and hit by machine gun fire. Once in power, the proclaimed military junta that ruled between 1956-1957 ordered its immediate restoration. In 1959, the garrison rebelled once more, under Colonel Armando Velásquez Cerrato, and then again in 1963 under Colonel Oswaldo López Arellano, both actions against then-president José Ramón Villeda Morales. In 1972 its installations were occupied by the Army Officer Application School, and in 1983 it became the Military History Directorate. The fort was completely restored in 1999, and again more than a decade later. Finally, on May 2, 2014 the renovated installations of the Honduran Francisco Morazan Military Historical Museum reopened to the public.

The Marine looked sharp.  He was dressed in the new MARPAT green camouflage pattern, cut to the US M1967 jungle style and matched to a cover of the same material; he wore the Special Forces harness and carried the M4A4 Carbine.  The same standard was observed in the hands of elements of the DM4 from Comandos de Morazán and other troops.  This was definitely a leap forward from the rag-tag look observed only a few months before when President Mauricio Funes had ordered the military to the streets in an attempt to curb rising criminal activity.  In early September 2010, the government made associations with street gangs illegal.  Late in that same month, public transportation was severely disrupted for three days by a strike enforced by street gangs, angry at a new law.  President Mauricio Funes introduced the measure in July – a month after suspected members of the M-18 gang opened fire on a bus and set it afire killing 17 passengers.  With troops in the streets, the neglected state of the military apparatus became more than evident.  The soldiers started to patrol in decrepit vehicles while carrying worn out weapons.  

The 20,000 strong Salvadorian National Civilian Police (PNC) equipped with 1,500 semiautomatic Galil (AR & SAR models), received hundreds of SAF submachine guns from Chile.  The GRP and other elite police outfits received MP5s, over 200 HK-33A5 and HK53A5 rifles and hundreds of Colt M4A1 Carbines.  The Army transferred 700 T65 and hundreds of M16 rifles.  The military also indicated in 2005-2006 that they had large quantities (600+) of brand-new Argentinean FMK-3 SMGs, which after the war were dumped in storage.  In 2010, private security guards were observed carrying the machine pistol with them, but if still available, the FMK-3 could also be handed over to the police.  Regardless of the weapon’s dubious reputation, it is understood that with quality ammunition, the FMK-3 is a reliable weapon.

The U.S. began to replace the G3 rifles in the hands of the Salvadorian Army in 1981 with the delivery of 11,868 AR-15A1 R613 (M16A1); followed by another 20,743 M16s purchased with FMS funds for El Salvador in 1982.  Many of these “new” rifles were actually leftovers from Vietnam.  Eventually, another 45,160 AR-15A1 R613 followed, to include more than 500 CAR-15A1 R639 (XM177E2 Commando – typified as M16A2 for El Salvador) to equip the Mechanized Infantry and officer Corps and hundreds of CAR-15A1 R653 (M16A1) Carbines starting in 1985, and even brand-new M16s supplied by Springfield Armory.

Salvadorian Marine with brand-new Colt M4A1 Carbine, SF Harness (designed by General Gustavo Perdomo), and new MARPAT uniform. (Julio Montes)

The Army Special Forces (CFE) consists of some 1,200 elements of the CFE, distributed among the Parachutist Battalion (functioning as a Ranger unit), the Special Antiterrorist Commando (CEAT), the Naval Commandos, and the Special Operations Group (GOES – comprising the long range reconnaissance commando PRAL, and the attack commando HACHA).  Some 10 years ago, the government purchased 600 FNC-90-00 and FNC-92-00 Carbines to equip the parachute battalion while the GOES was equipped with M16A2 Carbines and M16A2 Commandos and M4 with Mil-Std 1913 sight rail and retractable stock.  CFE elements were the only ones to receive Model 700 (M24), M14 and Model 82A1 Barrett rifles and M249 SAW light machine guns.  In 2006 the Salvadorians purchased 500 Colt M16A4, and a number of HK-416 models for the CFE.  The M16A4 were followed by a $209,629 contract from TACOM with Colt in 2007 for more than 64,460 M4, and another one in 2008 for more M4A1 Carbines to be delivered to El Salvador under FMS.  These numbers appear a little high, but if that is the case, the better.  The weapons were part of a US $7 million donation for the Salvadorian participation in Iraq, and they came along with 21 M1151 and 4 M1165 up-armored Humvees, equipped with a shielded 360-degree gunner turret and brand-new M2HB.  With the arrival of the M4, the Para Battalion relinquished its FNC Carbines to the Military Police, replacing the MP5.

In excess of 1,142 M60 machine guns were delivered between 1981 and 1992, along with more than 100 M60Ds.  There is also a report that 600 M60 machine guns were acquired at $1 each when the U.S. was dumping the M60 for the new MAG M240 around 2000.  With so many M60s in inventory, El Salvador should not be requiring new fire support weapons for awhile.  No need to re-invent the wheel and the weapon can simply be overhauled and retrofitted/upgraded to M60E4/MK 43 with kits already available in the market.  With this simpler fashion it could become the machine gun of the “future” for El Salvador.

The military received 1,704 M79 and 1,423 M203 grenade launchers as well.  The M79 remains in service and is in need of a face-lift instead of looking into the new M320 model.  The original M79 butt-stock could be replaced with composite plastic furniture, which can be purchased from commercial sources.  A few years back Milkor, from South Africa, exchanged the original stock of the M79 for a swing-around model, a pistol grip was added, and a new OEG sight fitted.  More recently, the Defcom M79 has been mentioned, sporting a front hand guard manufactured from composite materials, top of barrel fitted with Mil-Std 1913 Picatinny rail system, detachable flip-up scale graduated to 425 meters rear sight, folding stock, M16 style pistol grip, and other improvements.

GRP Elements preparing to storm a position during training. (J. Montes)

In Turmoil Once More
A riot broke out in January, 2007 when inmates of the Apanteos Prison picked up makeshift weapons and started fighting each other.  Military and police support units had to be called to quell the revolt, while 21bodies lay in the courtyard in the most grotesque manner: stabbed, beheaded, dismembered and hung – and the pictures made the world.  In November 2010, another riot broke out inside the same prison, leaving two dead, and 28 injured.  At about the same time another revolt broke out at La Esperanza Jail (better known as Mariona) in San Salvador’s suburbs of Mejicanos, leaving 13 injured; and in Ilobasco jail, some 30 miles (48 kilometers) northeast of San Salvador, a fire left at least 16 inmates dead and 22 injured.

These are not your average prison inmates.  The country has 19 prisons with capacity for 8,110 inmates, but holds 23,840.  Some 7,300 are gang members.  According to some, the inmates hold complete arsenals hidden inside the jails.  Furthermore, the jails have been used as command and control centers by the gangs, using cells phones, couriers (visitors), and others to order hits and control their “soldiers” in their neighborhoods.

By 2011, more than 8,500 troops were involved in internal security duties, and 800 more were needed.  This time, the Army was no longer under the control of the police (PNC), operating under military operational commands instead: Zumpul, in charge with surveillance of 62 “blind-spots” at the border, and Zeus, charged with general preventive patrols.  The troops have been providing partial security unsuccessfully under the command of the PNC at least since 1997, deploying 2,500 soldiers and 14 Cashuats APC to the Joint Task Force Groups (GTC – Grupos de Tarea Conjunta) under the PNC in 1999.  In 2005, the government ordered 1,000 soldiers to the streets following the murder of two police officers outside a night club, and continued violence.

Under the third military operational command San Carlos the Army has taken perimeter security of prisons in Quezaltepeque (La Libertad), Cojutepeque (Cuscatlán), Ciudad Barrios (San Miguel), Izalco (Sonsonate), Chalatenango and San Francisco Gotera (Morazán) while motorized units equipped with M1151 Up-armored Humvees patrol the perimeter of “Zacatras,” the Maximum security prison at Zacatecoluca City (La Paz).  In November 2010, the Army took La Esperanza Prison, in the suburbs of San Salvador, and a month later, with the support from a couple of helicopters and two M1151 Humvees equipped with M2HB, 128 soldiers moved against Apanteos prison.  At the time, the jail – designed to hold only 1,800 of the most dangerous inmates – held almost 3,600, some 500 of them with affiliation to the M-18 gang.