Maximiliano Hernández Martínez
Encyclopedia
Maximiliano Hernández Martínez (October 21, 1882, San Matías, La Libertad
San Matías, La Libertad
San Matías is a municipality in La Libertad. In Central America Departamentos mean "States or Provinces", department of El Salvador.A small town where in around February held festive celebrations to show their love for the village and the saint San Matias. There are rodeos and coronations of the...

 – May 15, 1966, Hacienda Jamastrán, Honduras
Honduras
Honduras is a republic in Central America. It was previously known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras, which became the modern-day state of Belize...

) was the President of El Salvador
El Salvador
El Salvador or simply Salvador is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America. The country's capital city and largest city is San Salvador; Santa Ana and San Miguel are also important cultural and commercial centers in the country and in all of Central America...

 from 1931 to 1944. Serving as President Arturo Araujo's
Arturo Araujo
Arturo Araujo was the president of El Salvador from March 1, 1931 to December 2, 1931. He was overthrown in a military coup led by junior officers, and was forced to flee the country for Guatemala...

 vice-president and defence minister, a directorate seized power during a palace coup
Coup d'état
A coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...

 and afterwards named General Hernández president of El Salvador.

The reason for the coup was that the military personnel had not been paid their salary. Many times this story about the military not being paid is not told in school, for the sole reason that the coup d'état is blamed in the fall in the prices of coffee abroad. The reality is that officers were not paid and Finance Minister had paid only the police, which remained loyal to the president. Officers were angry and ousted president Araujo.

An ardent fascist, Hernández Martínez led a military government that actively suppressed opposition, most notably the Salvadoran peasant revolt of 1932
1932 Salvadoran peasant uprising
The peasant uprising of 1932, also known as La matanza , was a brief, peasant-led rebellion that occurred on January 22 of that year in the western departments of El Salvador...

 led by Farabundo Martí
Farabundo Martí
Augustín Farabundo Martí Rodríguez was a social activist and a revolutionary leader in El Salvador.-Early life:Martí was born in Teotepeque, a farming community located in Departamento de La Libertad, El Salvador...

, where thousands of indigenous Salvadoran people were systematically murdered if they were suspected of collaboration with the communists. This massacre came to be known as La Matanza, and the specific number of victims is unknown but estimates range from 10,000 to 40,000. The 1939 Constitution expanded voting rights to women for the first time.

Hernández Martínez was a believer in fringe occultism. When a smallpox
Smallpox
Smallpox was an infectious disease unique to humans, caused by either of two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The disease is also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera, which is a derivative of the Latin varius, meaning "spotted", or varus, meaning "pimple"...

 epidemic broke out in San Salvador
San Salvador
The city of San Salvador the capital and largest city of El Salvador, which has been designated a Gamma World City. Its complete name is La Ciudad de Gran San Salvador...

 he had colored lights hung around the city, in the belief that this would cure the disease. He also believed in reincarnation
Reincarnation
Reincarnation best describes the concept where the soul or spirit, after the death of the body, is believed to return to live in a new human body, or, in some traditions, either as a human being, animal or plant...

 and once said that "It is a greater crime to kill an ant than a man, for when a man dies he becomes reincarnated, while an ant dies forever."

During his tenure, El Salvador saw major economic growth. He managed to eradicate crime and paid all the foreign debt. He was admired by the wealthy elite for returning a form of stability to the country in the midst of widespread social unrest. In 1944, however, he was deposed by the famous non-violent Strike of Fallen Arms led by students. During this massive political action, Salvadoran society was completely paralysed until he was deposed. Hernández Martínez fled to exile in Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...

. Ironically, the revolt then spread to Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...

 where Jorge Ubico
Jorge Ubico
Jorge Ubico y Castañeda was a Guatemalan dictator who held the title of President of Guatemala from 14 February 1931 to 4 July 1944.-Early years:...

 was similarly ousted.

After being deposed, Hernández lived in Honduras until he was stabbed to death by his driver, Cipriano Morales, whose father had been one of the many murdered by Hernández's dictatorship. He remains one of the oldest politicians to be assassinated.

During the country's civil war
El Salvador Civil War
The Salvadoran Civil War was a conflict in El Salvador between the military-led government of El Salvador and the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front , a coalition or umbrella organization of five left-wing militias. Significant tensions and violence had already existed, before the civil...

 in the 1970s–1980s, an extreme right-wing death squad
Death squad
A death squad is an armed military, police, insurgent, or terrorist squad that conducts extrajudicial killings, assassinations, and forced disappearances of persons as part of a war, insurgency or terror campaign...

 named after him operated in the country, and claimed responsibility for the assassination of many Christian democrat and Marxist politicians as well as innocent civilians in El Salvador
El Salvador
El Salvador or simply Salvador is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America. The country's capital city and largest city is San Salvador; Santa Ana and San Miguel are also important cultural and commercial centers in the country and in all of Central America...

in 1980.
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