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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class. It's a production of I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hi again, Welcome to this Day in History Class,

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Speaker 1: where history waits for no One. Today is July eighth, nineteen.

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Speaker 1: The day was July eighth, nineteen sixty nine. The Organization

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Speaker 1: of American States called for a ceasefire in the so

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Speaker 1: called soccer war between El Salvador and Honduras. In nineteen

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Speaker 1: sixty nine, about three point five million people lived in

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Speaker 1: El Salvador, and a lot of the country was owned

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Speaker 1: by the land owning elite. At the same time, about

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Speaker 1: two point six million people lived in Honduras, a country

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Speaker 1: that shared a border with El Salvador but was much larger.

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Speaker 1: Honduras was also controlled by wealthy landowners, but the prospect

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Speaker 1: of cheap land and of escaping and oppressive government drew

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Speaker 1: Salvadorans to the neighboring country. By that year, more than

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Speaker 1: three hundred thousand Salvadorans were living in Honduras. Landowners in

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Speaker 1: El Salvador supported the mass immigration, which freed up land

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Speaker 1: in their country, but Honduran peasants were not so happy

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Speaker 1: with the influx of immigrants, as they were already vuying

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Speaker 1: to get more land in their country. Landowners in Honduras

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Speaker 1: had formed a group called the National Federation of Farmers

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Speaker 1: and Live Stock Farmers of Honduras, and as they promoted

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Speaker 1: their own interests, they also encouraged Honduran nationalism. Already resentful

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Speaker 1: of Salvadoran migrants, Hondurans began beating, torturing, and even killing Salvadorans.

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Speaker 1: The Honduran government passed an agrarian land reformed law to

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Speaker 1: lessen the resentment that many Hondurans had for Salvadorans. It

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Speaker 1: called for Salvadoran immigrants to give up their land and

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Speaker 1: redistributed among native born Hondurans. But that legislation wasn't really effective,

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Speaker 1: and the reform ended with Honduran President Oswaldo Lopez Arellano

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Speaker 1: deporting thousands of Salvadorans. As the migrants returned to El Salvador,

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Speaker 1: the government struggled to deal with the influx of people,

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Speaker 1: and Salvadoran landowners called for military action. El Salvador began

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Speaker 1: claiming it owned the land that was taken from El

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Speaker 1: Salvador and immigrants in Honduras. On top of all that conflict,

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Speaker 1: other land and border disputes were underway in the region,

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Speaker 1: and El Salvador and Honduras were slated to compete in

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Speaker 1: the qualifying matches for the FIFA World Cup. The first

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Speaker 1: game was played in the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa, where

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Speaker 1: Honduras one one to zero. In a game in San

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Speaker 1: Salvador on June El Salvador one three to zero, Hunduras

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Speaker 1: was mocked and Hunduran fans were ridiculed at the game.

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Speaker 1: The deciding match was set to take place on June,

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Speaker 1: but that same day Al Salvador announced that it was

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Speaker 1: severing diplomatic relations with Honduras. The deportation and immigration issues

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Speaker 1: had gotten so bad that El Salvador accused Honduras of

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Speaker 1: committing crimes that constitute genocide and not holding anyone responsible

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Speaker 1: for it. Tensions were already running high, but after El

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Speaker 1: Salvador won the designing match three to two in Mexico,

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Speaker 1: conflict at the border intensified. On July fourteenth, El Salvador

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Speaker 1: invaded Honduras and began bombing it. The Honduran army was

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Speaker 1: small and El Salvador was stronger on the ground. In

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Speaker 1: the air, the Hondurans had the advantage in El Salvador

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Speaker 1: Honduran aircraft targeted oil facilities. The Organization of American States

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Speaker 1: called for El Salvador to withdraw from Honduras. El Salvador

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Speaker 1: refused to withdraw unless Hunduras agreed to give reparations to

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Speaker 1: display Salvadorans and not to harm Salvadorans in Honduras. A

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Speaker 1: ceasefire was arranged on July eighteenth, and it took a

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Speaker 1: on the twentieth, but by that time somewhere around three

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Speaker 1: thousand people had died in the fighting and more were displaced.

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Speaker 1: El Salvador didn't leave Honduras until August two, when the

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Speaker 1: Honduran government promised not to mistreat Salvadorans living in Honduras. Still,

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Speaker 1: the border remained in dispute. Trade between the two countries

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Speaker 1: was disrupted, affecting their economies and the Central American Common Market.

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Speaker 1: A peace treaty between El Salvador and Honduras was not

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Speaker 1: signed until nineteen eighty, though the conflict did not actually

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Speaker 1: start because of the soccer game, the name the Football

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Speaker 1: War or the Soccer War stuck. I'm Eve step Coote

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Speaker 1: and hopefully you know a little more about history today

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Speaker 1: than you did yesterday. And if you're so Inclined. You

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Speaker 1: can follow us at t D i h C Podcast

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Speaker 1: on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. We'll be back with more

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Speaker 1: history tomorrow. M For more podcasts from I Heeart Radio,

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