National Guard (El Salvador)
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National Guard Guardia Nacional |
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Arm Patch of the Guardia Nacional
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| Motto | El Honor es Nuestra Divisa Honour is Our Emblem |
| Agency overview | |
| Formed | 1912 |
| Dissolved | 1992 |
| Legal personality | Governmental: Government agency |
| Jurisdictional structure | |
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National agency (Operations jurisdiction) |
El Salvador |
| Legal jurisdiction | As per operations jurisdiction. |
| General nature | |
| Operational structure | |
| Headquarters | San Salvador |
The Guardia Nacional (National Guard) of El Salvador was the Salvadoran gendarmerie. It was founded in 1912 by President Dr. Manuel Enrique Araujo. As agreed in the Chapultepec Peace Accords, it was disbanded on 16 January 1992. Its motto was "El honor es nuestra divisa" (Honor is Our Emblem).
Owing to increased demands for higher wages by coffee pickers in rural areas, Salvadoran land owners in the countryside felt the need to create a special public security force to protect their interests. Previous law enforcement and task force efforts failed to yield satisfactory results. The task forces were patrolling soldiers, commanded by an army officer, scattered throughout the country. They were unprepared in the fight against crime in its various guises, and were thus incapable of stopping thefts, killings, rapes and so on. Criminals of that era were using topographical features to hide from the authorities.
This was the primary reason that prompted the President of the Republic Dr. Manuel Enrique Araujo, to create the National Guard. A corps made up of specially trained men with modern equipment and uniformed appropriately for the type of coffee plantations where they were going to act was needed. Furthermore, it was legally constituted to support its actions and proceedings against the offenders to extend the scope of justice to the most remote areas.
Dr. Araujo gave the Engineer and General José María Peralta Lagos, Minister of War and Navy, to study the organization and functioning of the police forces of Europe.
Peralta Lagos, a graduate of the Military Academy of Spain in 1897, used, Spanish Guardia Civil as a model on February 3, 1912, by Executive Order, in the Department of the Interior, at the facilities occupied by the Sixth Infantry Regiment and later by the Ecole Normale "Alberto Masferrer," the National Guard was formally established.
Earlier this year the Government engaged the services of Spanish Captain Alfonso Martin Garrido, to organize the National Guard. Captain Garrido previously had served as Inspector General of the National Police, and was assimilated into the Salvadoran army as a colonel. This Spaniard, with vast experience in the Spanish military, was the first director general of the National Guard.
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Wikipedia