Museo de la Palabra y la Imagen's Radio Venceremos radio program collection

Radio Venceremos ("Radio We Will Overcome"), was the clandestine radio station for the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), that broadcasted news, interviews, updates from the battlefield, and political analysis twice daily during the eleven year Salvadoran Civil War (1981-1992). Radio Venceremos acted as the official voice of the FMLN and was considered a high-priority target during the Civil War by the Salvadoran Armed Forces because of its far-reaching transmission and popularity.

Broadcasting from the mountains of Morazán in northern El Salvador, Radio Venceremos was founded to provide an alternative to the government-owned media outlets in El Salvador, and to act as a tool for disseminating information about the guerrillas and their goals, without putting citizens at risk of being arrested. In 1979, Ejercito Revolucionario del Pueblo (ERP) Commander Joaquin Villalobos and Venezuelan filmmaker “Maravilla” decided that the best solution to the FMLN’s lack of access to mass media was to build a mobile clandestine radio station that could broadcast throughout the country. Commander Jorge Melendez explained the decision to pursue a radio station because “They [the police] can arrest you for holding a leaflet, but they can’t arrest a voice” [1]. After commissioning the creation of a mobile radio transmitter, Maravilla and Commander Villalobos recruited Venezuelan radio broadcaster Carlos Henríquez Consalvi (“Santiago”) to be in charge of the radio station. Although initially Santiago was responsible for all aspects of Radio Venceremos, such as writing, broadcasting, and setting up the transmitter, the station grew to contain a team of approximately 25 guerrilla fighters who shared tasks such as security, broadcasting, political research, conducting offsite interviews, and monitoring international news networks. The first broadcast of Radio Venceremos took place on January 10, 1981, in conjunction with the FMLN’s Final Offensive [2]. Initial broadcasts focused upon the mission of the guerrillas, their political ideals, and reports from the battlefield, but programming soon expanded to contain interviews with locals living in Morazán, artistic expression such as musical performances and poetry readings; advice for those interested in supporting guerrilla efforts, and reading letters written in by both local and international supporters. Radio Venceremos also broadcast appeals to the Red Cross to ensure adequate care from prisoners of war taken by the Salvadoran armed forces, and presented some of the earliest testimonies of the atrocities of war. Rufina Amaya, the sole survivor of the Massacre at El Mozote in which the Salvadoran Armed Forces killed over 800 civilians in the northern mountains of Morazán on December 11, 1981[3], first presented her testimony on Radio Venceremos. Throughout the 11-year war, Radio Venceremos continued its daily broadcasts, frequently while in the midst of air raids from the armed forces, and with fewer than 30 cumulative days off-air as a result of attacks from the Salvadoran Armed Forces [4]. In 1992, with the Peace Accords of Chapultepec signed, Radio Venceremos continued to broadcast, but was no longer solely associated with the FMLN. In 1994, Santiago left his position as broadcaster for Radio Venceremos to found the Museo de la Palabra y la Imagen (MUPI) in San Salvador, which houses the Radio Venceremos archive. In 2010, MUPI and UT Libraries Human Rights Documentation Initiative partnered to digitize and provide online public access to the Radio Venceremos archive.

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