People's Revolutionary Army (El Salvador)

The People's Revolutionary Army (ERP) was a political-military organization in El Salvador. It was one of the five revolutionary left-wing armed groups that formed, in 1980, the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN). The ERP is considered the most violent, best organized, and most prepared guerrilla group that has existed on the American continent to date, even surpassing the Cuban, Nicaraguan, and Colombian guerrillas due to its tactics, execution of complex operations during the Salvadoran Civil War, various victories in battle, pragmatic leadership, and experience in fighting the Armed Forces of El Salvador, who were trained in combat by the United States.

The origin of the ERP lies in "El Grupo", an armed organization formed by university students such as Rafael Arce Zablah, Alejandro Rivas Mira, Joaquín Villalobos, Ana Guadalupe Martínez, Lil Milagro Ramírez, Eduardo Sancho Castañeda, and Mercedes Letona. In 1971, they kidnapped and killed businessman Ernesto Regalado Dueñas in one of the first armed actions by the left in the country. "El Grupo" was composed of former members of the University Youth and the Youth of the Christian Democratic Party of El Salvador, who had decided that armed struggle was the only alternative to confront the military-oligarchic regime of El Salvador.