Football war

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Football war
date 14. bis 18th July 1969
place Border area of El Salvador and Honduras
output Armistice through intervention of the OAS
Parties to the conflict

El SalvadorEl Salvador El Salvador

HondurasHonduras Honduras

Commander

Fidel Sánchez Hernández
Salvador Henríquez

Oswaldo López Arellano
Oscar Colindres

Troop strength
30,000 (Army)
1,000 (Air Force) 		23,000 (Army)
600 (Air Force)
losses

900 dead (including civilians)

1,200 dead (including civilians)

The football war (also known as the 100-hour war ) was a military conflict between Honduras and El Salvador . It was held from July 14 to 18, 1969, after rioting and fatalities had occurred in the preceding weeks on the fringes of the qualifying matches for the 1970 World Cup that were played by the national soccer teams of both countries .

root cause

The conflict was over the stay of Salvadoran migrants in Honduras. Around 300,000 poor smallholders had moved across the open border from their densely populated Salvadoran homeland to Honduras since the 1950s, often settling on fallow land that belonged to Honduran landowners . When the Honduran government prepared an agrarian reform to help local smallholders to own land, the Salvadorans were increasingly viewed as unwanted invaders and land robbers. After the government of Honduras called on the immigrants to return to El Salvador within 30 days on April 30, 1969, the paramilitary group "Mancha Brava" began violent attacks and evictions in the middle of the year.

The government of El Salvador considered the forced return of migrants unacceptable and protested, while nationalist resentments mounted on both sides. At the time, Honduras had about 1.9 million people with a size of 112,000 km² and El Salvador about 2.5 million people with a size of 21,400 km².

trigger

In the second semi-final game of the North and Central America group in qualifying for the 1970 World Cup in Mexico between El Salvador and Honduras on June 15, 1969, street riots broke out in El Salvador. The game ended 3-0 for El Salvador after Honduras won 1-0 on June 8. During these riots, the military and police intervened. During the game itself, some Salvadorans burned the Honduran flag and threw objects at players.

The third and decisive game in Mexico City on June 26, 1969 finally triggered the war. There was similar unrest here too. Mauricio "Pipo" Rodríguez scored the winning goal in extra time to make it 3-2 for El Salvador, which eliminated Honduras. Shortly thereafter, there were riots, which also resulted in deaths. On June 28, the states broke off their diplomatic relations. Around 17,000 Salvadorans, some of whom had lived in Honduras for a long time but were now the target of violent attacks, fled to their homeland.

Both governments complained to the Inter-American Human Rights Council, which sent a commission of inquiry to both countries at the beginning of July, which found above all that press and radio reports, some of which were untrue, had irresponsibly fueled the confrontational mood in both countries.

Outbreak and course

On July 14, 1969, the Salvadoran government began the war in the form of air strikes on Honduran territory, which was followed by the invasion of ground troops. A formal declaration of war was not made. The Honduran Air Force responded by attacking targets in El Salvador but was unable to repel the invasion.

The looming defeat of the Honduran army prompted the Organization of American States (OAS) to intervene in the conflict. On the fifth day of the war on July 18, 1969, she forced an end to the fighting with threats of sanctions. The armed conflict lasted only around 100 hours.

On July 29, the Salvadoran government, identified by the OAS as the aggressor, had to consent to the withdrawal of its troops without fulfilling its most important demand - to stop the expulsion of the emigrants. The last soldiers left Honduras on August 4th. The war killed 2100 people and wounded another 6000.

consequences

The troops of El Salvador had advanced 70 km deep in the area of Honduras. On July 21, 1969, the Salvadoran government submitted to the OAS council conditions for withdrawing its troops from Honduras:

  1. Immediate cessation of persecution of Salvadorans residing in Honduras
  2. Compensation for all material damage caused and repossession of all displaced Salvadorans by Honduras
  3. Punishing the guilty regardless of whether they are civilians or public authorities
  4. Cessation of radio and press propaganda
  5. An internationally monitored guarantee that Honduras is meeting these obligations

In the next few years around 300,000 Salvadorans left Honduras and returned to their homeland, El Salvador, where they faced an extremely difficult economic situation.

The football war also meant the end of the Central American Common Market (MCCA), which was founded in 1960 , as Honduras withdrew from the agreement and hindered the export of Salvadoran goods via Honduran territory.

A formal peace treaty between the two warring states was not signed until 1980.

Trivia

Chance-Vought F4U "Corsair"

During the football war, the last air battles between propeller-driven planes took place. Both sides had bought old machines from the USA, mainly P-51 Mustangs and F4U Corsairs . The most famous Honduran war hero was the fighter pilot Fernando Soto Henríquez .

The final for the qualification for the World Cup was finally won by El Salvador after two conflicting results on September 21 and 28 against Haiti on October 8 in Kingston , Jamaica , the only one (besides Mexico, which automatically qualified as organizer) Received starting place at the World Cup for North and Central America.

literature

Web links

swell

  1. ↑ Thomas P. Anderson: The War of the Dispossessed. Honduras and El Salvador 1969 . University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln 1981, ISBN 0-585-31067-X , pp. 145-155.
  2. ↑ El último vuelo de un aguilucho . , In: La Tribuna. July 9, 2006 (Spanish).