# 1931 Salvadoran coup d'état

The 1931 Salvadoran coup d'état occurred on 2 December 1931 when the Armed Forces of El Salvador overthrew President Arturo Araujo. The Civic Directory (a military junta) ruled El Salvador for two days after the coup until it relinquished power to Brigadier General Maximiliano Hernández Martínez, Araujo's vice president and minister of war, the navy, and aviation.
Economic troubles resulting from the Great Depression weakened Araujo's government and forced it to take out loans to finance itself. The government's economic measures were unpopular with both the Salvadoran people and the armed forces. When Araujo's government suspended all military payments in August 1931, the military began plotting to overthrow Araujo. The military moved to overthrow Araujo on 2 December 1931, and Araujo was forced to flee the country two days later after failing to launch a countercoup.
The coup began five decades of military rule in El Salvador that lasted until the 1979 Salvadoran coup d'état.

## Background

On 1 March 1931, Arturo Araujo of the Salvadoran Laborist Party assumed office as the president of El Salvador after this victory in the presidential election two months prior. During Araujo's presidency, El Salvador's economy was continuing to struggle as a result of the Great Depression. El Salvador's economy was highly dependent on coffee exports, and from 1928 to 1931, coffee prices decreased by 54 percent. In July 1931, high debt forced Araujo and the Legislative Assembly to take loans to finance the government against the advice of Araujo's financial advisors.
University students protested the loan resulting in the National Guard forcibly suppressing the protest, injuring many and arresting up to 30 students in the process. Despite the National Guard's crackdown, protests persisted. In response, Araujo called for municipal elections to be held in December 1931 as a concession to the protestors. He also allowed the Communist Party of El Salvador to participate as another concession.
In August 1931, the Salvadoran Laborist Party proposed a bill to the Legislative Assembly to dismiss military officers who did not perform active duties in an effort to collect their salaries. When seven influential military officers stated that they would not abide by the bill if it was passed, the Legislative Assembly abandoned the proposal. Later that month, however, Araujo's government suspended all payments to the military entirely due to a lack of government funds. According to Salvador Peña, a Salvadoran military officer, the military began plotting a coup d'état to overthrow Araujo shortly after the government suspended all military payments.

## Coup

At 10 p.m. local time on 2 December 1931, junior military officers initiated the coup d'état to overthrow Araujo's government. The coup began when soldiers of the 1st Infantry Brigade, garrisoned at the El Zapote barracks in San Salvador, attacked the Presidential Palace across the street with machine guns. While the Presidential Guard resisted the rebelling soldiers and defended Araujo, the remainder of San Salvador's military garrisons either ignored or supported the coup.
As the overwhelming attack on the Presidential Palace continued, Araujo and several of his government officials fled San Salvador. In the process, the rebelling soldiers shot and killed José Espinosa, the minister of finance. Araujo arrived in Santa Tecla where he planned to initiate a countercoup, however, the barracks opposed Araujo's continuance as presidency. He then fled to Santa Ana where he rallied hundreds of supporters to regain power. Ultimately, Araujo concluded that his army in Santa Ana would be unable to regain power; he resigned from the presidency, named the first presidential designate as his successor, and fled the country to Guatemala on 4 December 1931. In Guatemala, Araujo received protection from President Jorge Ubico, but Araujo was eventually expelled from the country by Ubico after he attempted to rally an army to retake power.

## Aftermath
### Political ramifications

During the coup, military officers from the army, air force, and National Guard established the Civic Directory, a military junta to govern the country. The Civic Directory consisted of twelve military officers and was led by colonels Osmín Aguirre y Salinas (vice minister of war, the navy, and aviation) and Joaquín Valdés (deputy commander of the National Guard) as co-chairmen. The Civic Directory dissolved itself on 4 December 1931 and relinquished power to Brigadier General Maximiliano Hernández Martínez, Araujo's vice president and minister of war, the navy, and aviation who's role in the coup is disputed. Martínez's supporters argue that he was not involved in the coup and was only given the presidency as mandated by the country's constitution; his opponents argue that he organized the coup. Martínez was arrested during the coup, but his opponents argue that Martínez's arrest was fabricated to legitimize his presidency.
The 1931 coup established a military dictatorship that ruled El Salvador for five decades. Martínez ruled El Salvador as president until 1944 when he resigned following the Strike of Fallen Arms, but the military continued to rule the country through rigged elections until the 1979 coup d'état that began the Salvadoran Civil War. In fact, the municipal elections promised by Araujo to be held in December 1931 were postponed one month by Martínez's government, and when the communists won many races, Martínez canceled the election results.

### Constitutionality and recognition

According to article 92 of the constitution of El Salvador, Araujo's departure from El Salvador without permission from the Legislative Assembly automatically forfeited his presidency to the vice president (Martínez). Araujo's resignation to the first presidential designate was unconstitutional as he attempted to circumvent giving the presidency to the vice president as mandated by article 81. Additionally, articles 36 and 132 of the constitution granted the armed forces the "right to insurrection", and according to Charles B. Curtis, the United States ambassador to El Salvador, this article made the coup "entirely constitutional".
Despite assessing the coup as being constitutional, Curtis described the coup's leaders as "little more than halfwitted" and "utterly irresponsible youths" who had "no capacity and no fixed plan beyond getting rid of [Araujo's] government". The United States government refused to recognize Martínez's government as it violated the 1923 Central American Treaty of Peace and Amity which prohibited signatories from recognizing governments formed through coups. The United States pressured Martínez to resign, but by January 1934, the United States formally recognized Martínez as El Salvador's president.

### Historical assessment

Federal Research Division historian Richard Haggerty described the coup as a "watershed" event in Salvadoran history, while historian Michael Krennerich described both the coup and the subsequent La Matanza (a January 1932 military-instigated massacre that killed up to 40,000 peasants) as "landmarks in the history of the country".