In light of the experience of the Nicaraguan revolution and the heavy street fighting of the last six months of this war, led the Salvadoran Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) guerrillas to acquire heavy weapons to include armoured vehicles before they launched their national offensive.

Armor for the 1981 "Final Offensive"

At least three of the FMLN factions attempted to acquire armoured vehicles. Julian Ignacio Otero Espinosa, the logistical chief of the Popular Liberation Forces (FPL) revealed after his capture that he had been asked to obtain 25 mortars, several .50 caliber machine-guns and armoured vehicles for the use of the FPL forces in the upcoming offensive. Otero revealed that two of the other factions had also acquired armoured vehicles. The National Resistance had acquired a number of armoured vehicles, two of which were to soon enter El Salvador. Otero also revealed that one of the most powerful Salvadoran guerrilla factions, the Popular Revolutionary Army (ERP), had acquired six armoured vehicles.

This information about the ERP was corroborated in all its essentials by Alejandro Montenegro, a high level ERP guerrilla commander who defected in 1982. Montenegro revealed that among the weapons obtained by the ERP for their final offensive in 1981 were five armoured vehicles. Unfortunately Montenegro gave no more details, so we don't know what plans the FMLN had for them, nor what type of vehicles they were.

However, we can make an educated guess based on what we know about the FMLN. The final offensive of 1981 was supposed to be the first phase of a series of nation-wide offensives a la Nicaragua that would bring the government down. In the first offensive, significant territory was supposed to be liberated including coast line along the Gulf of Fonseca, the closest Salvadoran territory to Nicaragua. Once this territory had been liberated, reinforcements, including "international brigades" were supposed to land in eastern El Salvador to consolidate the guerrillas gains and help launch the next phase of the offensive. In order to defend and consolidate the liberated territory, the FMLN would need conventional weapons.

The most logical plans for armoured vehicles seems to be that they would have been shipped from Nicaragua across the Gulf of Fonseca and landed with the guerrillas expected reinforcements. As for what type of vehicles they were, it must be remembered that the Sandinistas had just two years previously inherited a large number of armoured vehicles in various conditions from the Nicaraguan National Guard. This included around ten World War II era Sherman tanks, 45 Staghound armoured cars, a dozen M-2 and M-3 half-tracks, several locally armoured 3/4 ton Dodge trucks, and a single still operational L-3/33 Italian tankette. Simply because of their numbers and utility, an educated guess would be that most if not all of the FMLN vehicles were ex-Somoza T-17s.

The armor of the RN may have been of other types since the RNs support up through 1980 had been from countries like Panama and Costa Rica.

However, since the January 1981 offensive was essentially a military flop, the guerrilla reinforcements and the armoured vehicles never arrived. What became of these vehicles is not known at the present.

Armored Tractor of the ERP, 1984

One of the people who joined the ERP faction of the Salvadoran FMLN guerrillas was a Venezuelan volunteer named Carlos Henriquez Consalvi. He adopted the alias of "Santiago." His position in the FMLN was as one of the radio announcers of guerrilla radio station "Radio Venceremos." He kept a diary up through 1984 which he published after the end of the war in 1992. On May 31, 1984 he went to the outskirts of Arambala to look at different guerrilla shops hidden among the trees and rocks from the incessant bombardment of the Salvadoran air force. There was a leather shop, a uniform shop, and in a grove of trees there was the ERP motor pool consisting of five trucks, a jeep and a "tractor." "Nivo" was the mechanic in charge of maintaining the vehicles.

He was making a tripod for the jeep to mount a machine-gun. "Santiago" wrote that another of Nivo's projects was to weld metal plates onto a tractor recently captured at Osicala and create "a kind of armed tank." It is not known what tractor means, whether this was a tracked or wheeled vehicle. It is also not known at what stage the construction of the "tank" was at, whether it was merely conceptual or whether some work had already been done, etc. What this vehicle was to be armed with is also speculation. Whether it was built or not, whether it was used in action and what became of the "tank." is not known. 1989 "Over the Top" Offensive

Finally, a type of "armoured" vehicle of sorts is known to have been used by the FMLN. In November 1989 the FMLN launched their "Over the Top" (Hasta el Tope) offensive. Several contingents of guerrillas were sneaked into the city in trucks whose beds were lined with some type of metal armor to provide protection to the guerrillas riding within in case they were discovered and fired on. This protection was not so the guerrillas could fight from the vehicle, but rather to protect them long enough to disembark and fight as infantry. It is doubtful that the metal was armor plate, but rather layers of un-hardened metal and other substances such as wood. While quantities of this type of vehicle is unknown, it was probably more than one.

Insurgent Armor in Latin America

Insurgent Armor: Introduction
Insurgent Armor: Costa Rica 1948
Insurgent Armor: Cuba 1958
Insurgent Armor: Dominican Republic 1965
Insurgent Armor: Chile 1973
Insurgent Armor: Nicaragua 1978-1979
Insurgent Armor: El Salvador 1981-1989
Insurgent Armor: Colombia 1993-1998