In October 1980, more than a decade after the war, El Salvador and Honduras signed a final peace agreement and raised the issue of their imprecise border to the International Court of Justice, or ICJ. The two countries agreed to respect the ICJ’s decision. In October 1992, the ICJ awarded two-thirds of the undefined areas to Honduras and the rest (one-third) to El Salvador. A definite border also was established.
(Taken from Football War – Wars of the 20th Century – Vol. 1)
Background During the 1920s, El Salvador experienced great social and economic stresses resulting from the following factors: the loss of agricultural lands to wealthy plantation owners, the country’s diminishing natural resources, high levels of unemployment, and a rapid population growth. As a result, many Salvadorans crossed the border into neighboring Honduras, which was less densely populated, largely undeveloped, and much more spacious, as it was five times bigger than El Salvador. The influx of Salvadorans into Honduras continued for the next forty years and progressively spread further inland.
By the 1960s, Salvadorans constituted 10% of Honduras’ population and 20% of its work force, with their livelihoods as diverse as subsidence farmers, farm and industry workers, and even shop owners in towns and cities. More critically, Salvadoran farmers did not register their lands nor did Salvadorans in general acquire Honduran citizenship, making them undocumented foreigners in Honduras.
Initially, Honduras’ vast frontier readily absorbed the large Salvadoran influx. Furthermore, Honduras’ border with El Salvador was porous and improperly demarcated ever since the two countries gained their independences in the 1840s. Honduras and El Salvador had signed a number of treaties intended to regulate human traffic into each other’s territories, but these were not implemented strictly.
Then in 1966, large corporations in the Honduran agricultural industry called upon the government to ensure the rights of Hondurans to their lands. These corporations also accused Salvadoran farmers of illegally possessing Honduran lands. Consequently, an anti-Salvadoran sentiment developed among the Honduran population.
The anti-Salvadoran sentiment presented the Honduran government the perfect opportunity to deflect away from Honduras’ economic and labor problems and instead fault the Salvadoran immigrants for all the country’s ills. Adding to the Hondurans’ anti-Salvadoran sentiment was El Salvador’s much higher economic productivity compared to Honduras. And within the Central American Common Market, the region’s trade organization, El Salvador was a net exporter of commodities while Honduras bought more goods than it sold.
During the 1960s, Honduras passed an agrarian reform law to support its agricultural modernization and export diversification programs. The land reform law limited ownership of Honduran land to native-born citizens, thereby denying the Salvadoran immigrants of all rights to their lands and farms. In January 1969, Honduras did not renew the 1967 Bilateral Treaty with El Salvador, thereby making it illegal for undocumented Salvadorans to enter Honduras.
By May 1969, the land reform law in Honduras was being fully implemented. Thousands of dispossessed Salvadoran families returned to El Salvador, causing a sudden surge in the Salvadoran population, and straining the country’s economic resources and the government’s capacity to provide public services. El Salvador condemned Honduras, generating tensions and animosity on both sides. Nationalistic sentiments were fueled by propaganda and rhetoric spouted by the media from the two sides.
Such was the charged atmosphere leading up to the three football matches between El Salvador and Honduras in June 1969. The first match was played on June 8 in Tegucigalpa, Honduras’ capital, which was won by the host team. Aside from some fans fighting in the stands, no major security breakdown occurred during the match.
In El Salvador, however, soccer fans were infuriated by the result, believing they had been cheated. The Salvadoran media described the football matches as epitomizing the “national honor”. After the defeat, a despondent Salvadoran fan died after shooting herself. Her death became a rallying cry for Salvadorans who considered her a martyr. Thousands of Salvadorans, including the country’s president and other top government officials, attended her funeral and joined the nation in mourning her death.
The second match was played in El Salvador, and was won also by the home team, thereby leveling the series at one win apiece. The tense situation during the game broke out in widespread violence across the capital, San Salvador. Street clashes led to many deaths, including those of Honduran fans. As a precaution, the Honduran football team was housed in an undisclosed location and driven to the game in armored vehicles. After the game, the Honduran team’s vehicles plying the road back to Honduras were stoned while passing through Salvadoran towns.
In Honduras, the people retaliated by attacking and looting Salvadoran shops in Tegucigalpa and other cities and towns. Armed bands of thugs roamed the countryside targeting Salvadorans – beating up and killing men, raping women, burning houses, and destroying farms. Thousands of Salvadorans fled toward the border to El Salvador. And as the prospect of war drew closer, Salvadoran and Honduran security forces guarding the border engaged in sporadic exchanges of gunfire.
The third, deciding football match was played on June 26 in Mexico City, which was won by the Salvadoran team. Two days earlier, Honduras had cut diplomatic relations with El Salvador. The Salvadoran government reciprocated on June 26, accusing Honduras of committing “genocide” by killing Salvadoran immigrants. The two sides prepared for war by increasing their weapons stockpiles, which were sourced from private dealers because the United States had imposed an arms embargo.