Sumpul River Massacre

Date: May 14, 1980 • Location: El Achiotal, Honduras

Salvadoran Civil War: Refugees trying to flee El Salvador across the Sumpul River to Honduras were attacked by both Salvadoran and Honduran forces, resulting in at least 300 deaths.

The Salvadoran Civil War was a twelve-year civil war in El Salvador that was fought between the government of El Salvador that was backed by the United States, against the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), a coalition of left-wing guerrilla groups that was backed by Cuba under Fidel Castro, Daniel Ortega's Nicaragua and the Soviet Union. A coup on 15 October 1979 followed by government killings of anti-coup protesters is widely seen as the start of the civil war. The war did not formally end until after the collapse of the Soviet Union, when, on 16 January 1992 the Chapultepec Peace Accords were signed in Mexico City.