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The Football War (or Soccer War), as it was christened by the international mass media, was a short-lived war (only 6 days in duration) fought by El Salvador and Honduras in 1969.
The social situation in both countries in the run-up to the war was explosive, and their military governments were looking for a convenient cause towards which to direct their nationals' political concerns. National media in both countries encouraged hatred towards citizens of the other, eventually provoking the expulsion from Honduras of thousands of Salvadoran labourers, including both temporary harvest workers and longer-term settlers.
This general rise in tensions ultimately led to a military conflict that served to direct the attention of the citizenry of both countries outward rather than in on their own internal affairs, leaving both armies re-armed, and destroying the Central American economic integration that had been expressed in the Central American Common Market (Mercado Común Centroamericano or MCE), under whose trade rules the richer Salvadoran economy gained much ground relative to Honduras.
These existing tensions between the two countries were inflamed by rioting during the second qualifying round for the 1970 Football World Cup. On July 14, 1969, the Salvadoran army launched an attack against Honduras. The Organization of American States negotiated a cease-fire which took effect on July 20, with the Salvadoran troops withdrawn in early August.
The two nations signed a peace treaty on October 30, 1980 to put the border dispute before the International Court of Justice.
Football results
Results of the war
- Essentially both sides 'lost' the war; neither gained a decisive military victory and the death toll of approximately 2000 was shared reasonably equally between the two.
- The war brought an end to the Central American Common Market, a regional integration project that had been set up by the United States largely as a means of counteracting the effects of the socialist revolution in Cuba.
- The political power of the military in both countries was reinforced. In the Salvadoran legislative elections that followed, candidates from the governing National Conciliation Party (Partido de Conciliación Nacional, PCN), were largely drawn from the ranks of the military. Having apologised for their role in the conflict, they proved very successful in elections both at national and local level.
- The social situation worsened in El Salvador as the government proved unable to satisfy the economic needs of citizens deported from Honduras. The resulting social unrest was one of the causes of the civil war in El Salvador that followed.
References
This article draws heavily on the corresponding article (http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guerra_de_F%C3%BAtbol) in the Spanish-language Wikipedia, which was accessed in the version of December 11, 2004.
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