The Battle of Ilopango Airport was a military engagement fought at the Ilopango International Airport in El Salvador in late January 1982. The battle was a part of the Salvadoran Civil War. It was fought between soldiers of the Salvadoran Air Force and guerrillas of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front.
Background
On 15 October 1979, the Salvadoran Civil War began with a coup being staged against the President, Carlos Humberto Romero. After the coup, the Revolutionary Government Junta of El Salvador was established and in 1980, the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front engaged in a guerrilla war against the government.
Battle
On the morning of 27 January 1982, 8 FMLN guerrillas led by Alejandro Montenegro entered the Ilopango International Airport, used by the Salvadoran Air Force as a military base, and planted bombs on the air force's aircraft stationed there. The guerrillas' primary goal was to damage infrastructure as to hamper the efforts of the government in stopping the FMLN. As a result, aircraft and helicopters were the primary target of the attack.
The bombs detonated at 1:30 a.m. local time. The attack destroyed six Bell UH-1H Iroquois helicopters, five Dassault Ouragan fighter-bombers, and three Douglas C-47 Skytrain military transport aircraft. The FMLN claimed that it destroyed 28 aircraft, while Minister of Defense José Guillermo García stated that 11 aircraft and 4 helicopters were destroyed. García described the raid as a "terrorist attack".
Aftermath
In February 1982, U.S. president Ronald Reagan signed an executive order that authorized the U.S. military to send $55 million in emergency military aid to the Salvadoran government. The military supplied the Salvadoran Air Force with new Bell UH-1H helicopters as a part of the emergency military aid to replace those destroyed in the Ilopango Airport raid.
References
- ^ Pastor, Robert (1984). "Continuity and Change in U.S. Foreign Policy: Carter and Reagan on El Salvador". Journal of Policy Analysis and Management. 3 (2). Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management: 170–190. doi:10.2307/3323931. JSTOR 3323931.
- ^ Wood, Elisabeth (2003). Insurgent Collective Action and Civil War. Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics. pp. 1–4, 14–15. ISBN 0521010500.
- ^ Coll, Alberto R. (1985). "Soviet Arms and Central American Turmoil". World Affairs. 148 (1). Wiley: 7–17. ISSN 0043-8200. JSTOR 20672043. OCLC 9990627448.
- ^ Russell, George (8 February 1982). "El Salvador: Bombs and Broadsides". Time. Retrieved 5 January 2025.
- ^ Betancur, Belisaric; Figueredo Planchart, Reinaldo & Buergenthal, Thomas (1 April 1993). Report of the UN Truth Commission on El Salvador. Truth Commission for El Salvador. Retrieved 18 August 2020.
- ^ Dickey, Christopher (27 January 1982). "Rebels Damage Jets, Copters In El Salvador". The Washington Post. San Salvador, El Salvador. Retrieved 5 January 2025.
- ^ Crossette, Barbara (6 February 1982). "U.S. Starts Replacing Salvadoran Copters Destroyed in Rebel Attack". The New York Times. p. 4. Retrieved 5 January 2025.