Revolutionary Government Junta of El Salvador

The Revolutionary Government (Junta Revolucionaria de Gobierno, JRG) ruled El Salvador between October 15, 1979 and May 2, 1982. It contained two colonels, Adolfo Arnaldo Majano Ramos and Jaime Abdul Gutiérrez Avendaño, and three civilians, Guillermo Ungo, Mario Antonio Andino and Román Mayorga Quirós.

The JRG ousted President Carlos Humberto Romero on October 15, 1979. Although Colonels Majano and Gutiérrez were from the Army (generally seen as a force for right-wing politics,) the junta took inspiration from left-wing politics, and initiated a program of land reform and nationalization of the banking, coffee, and sugar industries.

Internal contradictions within the Junta soon became apparent, with Colonel Majano representing a progressive view and Colonel Gutiérrez representing a more conservative viewpoint. On January 5, 1980 the three civilians resigned, and were replaced by José Antonio Morales Ehrlich and Héctor Miguel Dada Hirezi initiating the Second Revolutionary Government Junta. When Dada Hirezi resigned in protest at the violence of the Junta on March 3, José Napoleón Duarte took his place and this was the Third Revolutionary Government Junta. On December 7, Majano was expelled from the junta (and went into exile,) and on December 22, Duarte became head of the Junta, and also the head of state. Gutiérrez was Vice-President and considered to be the strong man of the regime. Two weeks after Duarte got into the Junta, Archbishop Romero was killed during mass in a Catholic church in the capital. On January 10, 1981 the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) launched a generalized attack on the government which resulted in the regime receiving immediate military aid from the U.S., including military advisers. See the Salvadoran Civil War.

On March 26, 1982 elections to the National Congress were held. Then the new Congress chose Álvaro Magaña to become the new President of El Salvador, which resulted in the end of the Junta on May 2.