On Saturday, July 30, students at El Salvador’s national university commemorated 51 years since the July 30th,1975 student massacre. On that historic, heroic, and tragic day, thousands of university students, professors, and workers marched in the streets of San Salvador alongside campesinos, urban workers, and middle school and high school students to demand respect for the sovereignty of the university, which was under attack and to protest the generalized conditions of political repression under the military government of Col Arturo Molina. Equipped with moist rags to protect themselves from repression, the most they expected was tear gas, but were instead met with deadly bullets and military tanks. The military quickly loaded the dead and injured in vehicles and disappeared dozens of protesters, hosing down the streets to try to deny their atrocity.

Today, according to the Fuerza Estudiantil Salvadoreña (FES), commemorating these martyrs necessitates denouncing the injustices and atrocities of the Bukele regime, including his government’s attacks against the university, the return of mining to the country and arbitrary arrests and political persecution under the state of exception - including dozens of university and high school aged students.

Go to bit.ly/July3075 to learn more about the demands of Salvadoran university students today who, for the last several years, have organized alternative programming to the official university rally and commemoration events which they denounce as being submissive to the Bukele government and check out some photos from this year's march and rally organized by the FES and joined by groups like the Movement of Victims of the Regime (MOVIR) and others from the Popular Rebellion and Resistance Bloc below:

Image credit above and title photo: Marielos Perez, FES-BRP

Image credit for photos below: BRP