El Salvador’s guerrilla Radio Venceremos

It was a time of war. A time of desperation. This was El Salvador—early 1980s. The government openly attacked its citizens. It had been for years.

Repression. Murder. Torture. Massacres. Disappearances… hundreds a month.

And the United States fueled the fire. It trained the soldiers, gave the logistics, backed the death squads and the authoritarian governments.

But Salvadorans responded. After the killing of Archbishop Monsignor Romero, guerrilla forces united. They founded a movement to push back on the despotic regime. They sparked a civil war that would grip the country for more than a decade. And at the heart of it was one guerrilla radio. 

Radio Venceremos. 

They broadcast twice a day, and they were a voice of truth. A voice of reason. A voice of resistance amid the violence, and the government repression, and the military bloodshed.

And Radio Venceremos didn’t just broadcast news. They sang music. They acted out plays and skits. They made fun of government and military officials. They reported from the front lines. Spoke with everyday Salvadorans. And denounced the violence, repression, and the massacres.

They spoke truth to power. They offered hope to the masses—the people praying for change. Praying that El Salvador could be different. That one day they would not have to live in fear.

And for this, the radio was targeted, and attacked. For this, the Salvadoran government could not let them continue. And the military set out to destroy this tiny guerrilla radio.

They were often on the run, broadcasting while bombs fell, government forces only a few steps behind. But they responded with creativity. They ran their signal over the barbed wires that covered the countryside.

They broadcast their words and songs, stories and hope, from miles away from their location, and fooled military officers and bombing raids for months and years. 

Radio Venceremos became so reputable, international mainstream media turned to it for news and reporting. News from the front lines. The news and stories the government would not tell, and which the government prohibited other news outlets from reporting. Investigative stories about government massacres. The truth from the battlefield, and from communities across El Salvador.

Radio Venceremos was a beacon of light in a sea of darkness. A glimmer of hope amid the despair. A reminder that the US-backed government and the repressive forces and the guns and violence could not silence the resistance.

People listened in far and wide. Even military officers, though it was prohibited.Humanity breathing, speaking truth into the airwaves. The airwaves that would not be silenced, despite every government attempt to stop them. 

On January 16, 1992, the government finally signed a peace agreement with the guerrilla forces of the FMLN, or Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, ending the country’s 12-year-long civil war.

Radio Venceremos broadcast throughout the war.

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Hi folks, thanks for listening. I’m your host Michael Fox.

This week, National Radio Day was held in the United States on August 20. 

I thought it was a fitting moment to honor this tremendous guerrilla radio that was El Salvador’s Radio Venceremos.

If you would like to learn more, please check out episodes 4 and 5 of my podcast Under the Shadow. They both deal with the country’s civil war in the 1980s. In particular, episode 5 is entirely about Radio Venceremos. The radio’s archive today, is housed at the Museum of Word and Image in San Salvador. It’s a great episode. You can find links in the show notes.

You can check out exclusive pictures of the Radio Venceremos Archive in my Patreon account. It’s exclusively for my supports on Patreon. I’ll include the link in the show notes. 

As always, if you like what you hear and enjoy this podcast, please consider becoming a subscriber on my Patreon. It’s only a few dollars a month. I have a ton of exclusive content there, only available to my supporters. And every supporter really makes a difference.

This is the latest episode of Stories of Resistance, a podcast series produced by The Real News. Each week, I bring you stories of resistance and hope like this. Inspiration for dark times. If you like what you hear, please subscribe, like, share, comment, or leave a review.

Thanks for listening. See you next time.