ABSTRACT
The Ejercito Revolucionario Del Pueblo (ERP) was established gradually beginning in 1970 by dissident elements of the Juventud Comunista, radicalized members of the Salvadoran branch of Christian Democratic youth, and members of the Accion Cristiana group. In 1972 El Grupo evolved into the ERP, a middle-class, ultraradical organization with an unusually large number of women in its ranks. The largest guerrilla organization in El Salvador since 1983, and the most consistently violence-oriented of all Salvadoran insurgent movements, the ERP has had links with Nicaragua's Frente Sandinista de Liberacion and Guatemala's Ejercito Guerrillero de los Pobres. In 1977, shakedown occurred at the First Congress of the Partido de la Revolucion Salvadorena, created the year before to offset the organization's militaristic image, when the founder and main leader of the ERP, Sebastian Urquilla, was purged. The ERP was not only efficient on the battlefield but also had a remarkable propaganda network, with its main instrument being Radio Venceremos.
