40 People of the Salvadoran Civil War

Irma Segunda Amaya Echeverría is a Salvadoran feminist, human rights activist, former guerrilla fighter, and politician. She was a member of the Legislative Assembly of El Salvador and the first Salvadoran woman President of the Central American Parliament (PARLACEN) for the term 2018–2019.

Rufina Amaya was the sole survivor of the El Mozote massacre on December 11 and December 12, 1981, in the Salvadoran department of Morazán during the Salvadoran Civil War.

Ana María was the "nom de guerre" of Mélida Anaya Montes, the second in command of the Fuerzas Populares de Liberación Farabundo Martí (FPL), the oldest of the five guerilla organizations making up the FMLN, in El Salvador.

Herbert Ernesto Anaya Sanabria was the president of the NGO Human Rights Commission of El Salvador (CDHES). He was assassinated on October 26, 1987 close to his home. Herbert Anaya was the fourth leader of CDHES to be murdered or "disappeared" during the 1980s, none of these cases being satisfactorily resolved. Early in 1993 Anaya's son was shot and wounded when armed men tried to intercept the car of his widow Mirna Perla de Anaya.

Colonel Napoleón Herson Calitto Arbaiza was a distinguished commanding officer in the Salvadoran Army during the Salvadoran Civil War in the 1980s.

Salvador Cayetano Carpio, aka Commander Marcial, was the leader of the Communist Party of El Salvador in the 1960s, until he quit the party to found the Salvadoran revolutionary political-military organization, the Fuerzas Populares de Liberación Farabundo Martí, also known by its initials, FPL) in 1970.

Maura Clarke, was an American Catholic Maryknoll sister who served as a missionary in Nicaragua and El Salvador. She worked with the poor and refugees in Central America from 1959 until her murder in 1980. On December 2, 1980, she was beaten, raped, and murdered along with three fellow missionaries — Ita Ford, Dorothy Kazel and Jean Donovan — by members of the military of El Salvador.

Edwin Gharst Corr was a United States diplomat and served as a United States Ambassador to several Latin-American nations. Corr is from Norman, Oklahoma.

Alfredo Félix Cristiani Burkard is a Salvadoran politician who was President of El Salvador from 1989 to 1994.

Roberto D'Aubuisson Arrieta was a far-right Salvadoran soldier, politician and death squad leader. In 1981, he co-founded and became the first leader of the Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) and served as President of El Salvador's Constituent Assembly from 1982 to 1983. He was a candidate for President in 1984, losing in the second round to former President of the Junta José Napoleón Duarte. After ARENA's loss in the 1985 legislative elections, he stepped down in favor of Alfredo Cristiani and was awarded the honorary post of party president for life. He was named by the UN-created Truth Commission for El Salvador as having ordered the assassination of then-Archbishop Óscar Romero in 1980.

Jean Marie Donovan was an American lay missionary who was beaten, raped, and murdered along with three fellow missionaries—Ita Ford, Maura Clarke and Dorothy Kazel—by members of the military of El Salvador.

José Napoleón Duarte Fuentes was a Salvadoran politician who served as President of El Salvador from 1 June 1984 to 1 June 1989. He was mayor of San Salvador before running for president in 1972. He lost, but the election is widely viewed as fraudulent. Following a coup d'état in 1979, Duarte led the subsequent civil-military Junta from 1980 to 1982. He was then elected president in 1984, defeating ARENA party leader Roberto D'Aubuisson.

Ignacio Ellacuría was a Spanish-Salvadoran Jesuit priest, philosopher, and theologian who did important work as a professor and rector at the Universidad Centroamericana "José Simeón Cañas" (UCA), a Jesuit university in El Salvador founded in 1965. He and several other Jesuits and two others were assassinated by Salvadoran soldiers in the closing years of the Salvadoran Civil War. His work was defining for the shape UCA took in its first years of existence and the years to come. Ellacuría was also responsible for the development of formation programs for priests in the Jesuit Central American province.

Carolyn Forché is an American poet, editor, professor, translator, and human rights advocate. She has received many awards for her literary work.

Sister Ita Ford, M.M. was an American Catholic Maryknoll Sister who served as a missionary in Bolivia, Chile and El Salvador. She worked with the poor and war refugees. On December 2, 1980, she was beaten, raped, and murdered along with three fellow missionaries — Dorothy Kazel, Maura Clarke and Jean Donovan — by members of the military of El Salvador.

María Cristina Gómez was a Baptist primary school teacher and community leader in El Salvador who was abducted and murdered on 5 April 1989.

Frederick Graham, who writes under the name Cork Graham, is an American author of adventure memoir and political thriller fiction novels. He is a former combat photographer, who was imprisoned in Vietnam for illegally entering the country while supposedly looking for treasure buried by Captain Kidd.

Jaime Abdul Gutiérrez Avendaño was Salvadoran military officer and politician. He was one of the leaders of the 15 October 1979 Salvadoran coup d'état which overthrew President General Carlos Humberto Romero and established the Revolutionary Government Junta of El Salvador.

Schafik Jorge Hándal Hándal was a Salvadoran politician.

Deane Roesch Hinton was an American diplomat and ambassador.

Dorothy Kazel, was an American Ursuline religious sister and missionary to El Salvador. On December 2, 1980, she was beaten, raped, and murdered along with three fellow missionaries – Maryknoll Sisters Ita Ford, Maura Clarke and laywoman Jean Donovan – by members of the military of El Salvador.

Lilian Mercedes Letona, was a Salvadoran guerrilla and communist revolutionary, member of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN). Also known with her "nom de guerre" Comandante Clelia, she took part in the Salvadoran Civil War.

Álvaro Alfredo Magaña Borja was a Salvadoran lawyer, economist and politician who was the President of El Salvador from 1982 to 1984.

Ignacio Martín-Baró was a scholar, social psychologist, philosopher and Jesuit priest. He was one of the victims of the 1989 murders of Jesuits in El Salvador.

Elvia Violeta Menjívar Escalante is a Salvadoran politician affiliated with the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front. She has been Minister of Health and Social Welfare since 1 June 2014. She is the former mayor of San Salvador.

Lieutenant Colonel Domingo Monterrosa Barrios was a military commander of the Armed Forces of El Salvador during the Salvadoran Civil War.

Segundo Montes was a scholar, philosopher, educator, sociologist and Jesuit priest. He was one of the victims of the 1989 murders of Jesuits in El Salvador.

José Antonio Morales Ehrlich was a Salvadoran politician from the Christian Democratic Party who was a member of the Revolutionary Government Junta of El Salvador from 1980 to 1982.

Thomas Reeve "Tom" Pickering is a retired United States ambassador. Among his many diplomatic appointments, he served as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations from 1989 to 1992.

René Emilio Ponce Torres was a senior military officer in the Salvadoran Army during the nation's civil war, and minister of defense from 1990 to 1993. He was a member of La Tandona, the class of 1966 at the Escuela Militar. As head of the army's joint chiefs of staff he was linked, according to a report published by a Truth Commission, to the 1989 murders of Jesuits in El Salvador, although no judicial authority has rendered a decision finding him guilty. It is worth to note that the 1992 Peace Accords, which ended the armed conflict, explicitly deprived, the Truth Commission's Report, of any value as trial evidence. Ponce died on May 2, 2011 at a military hospital in San Salvador, due to complications arising from a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm. Ponce's signature can be seen at the end of the document containing the 1992 Peace Accords, which ended El Salvador's civil war.

General Carlos Humberto Romero Mena was a Salvadoran army general politician who served as President of El Salvador from July 1, 1977, until his overthrow in a coup d'état on October 15, 1979.

Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez was a prelate of the Catholic Church in El Salvador. He served as auxiliary bishop of the archdiocese of San Salvador, as bishop of Santiago de María, and finally as the fourth archbishop of San Salvador. As archbishop, Romero spoke out against social injustice and violence amid the escalating conflict between the military government and left-wing insurgents that led to the Salvadoran Civil War. In 1980, Romero was shot by an assassin while celebrating Mass. Though no one was ever convicted for the crime, investigations by the UN-created Truth Commission for El Salvador concluded that Major Roberto D'Aubuisson, founder of the right-wing ARENA political party, had ordered the killing.

Salvador Sánchez Cerén is a Salvadoran politician who served as the 45th President of El Salvador between 1 June 2014 and 1 June 2019. He took office on 1 June 2014, after winning the 2014 presidential election as the candidate of the left-wing Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN). He previously served as Vice President under President Mauricio Funes from 2009 to 2014. He was also a guerrilla leader in the Civil War and is the first ex-rebel to serve as president.

Albert Arthur Schaufelberger was a Lieutenant Commander in the United States Navy who was assassinated in El Salvador.

Cosma Spessotto, O.F.M. was an Italian Catholic priest and member of the Order of Friars Minor. He was sent to serve in the foreign missions in El Salvador in 1950, where he aided the faithful through evangelization and the construction of churches.

Guillermo Manuel Ungo Revelo was a Salvadoran social democratic politician. He was a member of the ruling government junta from 1979 to 1980. Ungo was for a time the unofficial leader of the opposition in his capacity as president of the Revolutionary Democratic Front alliance. He ran in the Salvadoran presidential election of 1972 as the vice presidential running mate of Christian democrat José Napoleón Duarte. Official results showed a victory for the military-backed candidate, Arturo Armando Molina, though the fairness of the election was widely disputed.

Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova is the former head of the Salvadoran national guard between the years 1979 and 1983 and later served as the nation's Minister of Defense between 1983 and 1989.

William Graham Walker is a United States Foreign Service diplomat who served as the US ambassador to El Salvador and as the head of the Kosovo Verification Mission.

Robert Edward White was an American career diplomat who served as US Ambassador to Paraguay (1977–1980) and to El Salvador (1980–1981). He then became president of the Center for International Policy.