The
indigenous peoples of the Americas had lived in the region of the modern-day Chalatenango department for over one thousand five hundred years before the arrival of the
Spanish in the 1500s. The indigenous people of the area lived in densely populated communities and cultivated
maize. From 1524 to 1539, the
Spanish conquered the territories of modern-day
El Salvador, including Chalatenango. In 1790,
Francisco Luis Héctor de Carondelet, the
colonial intendant of the
Intendancy of San Salvador, recruited laborers from the Spanish regions of
Asturias,
Cantabria, and
Galicia to work in the production of
indigo in the modern-day region of the Chalatenango department. The laborers were recruited due to a decrease in the indigenous population in the area. As a result, Chalatenango saw a significant increase of a lighter-skinned populace compared to the rest of El Salvador. On 14 February 1855, the
Senate of El Salvador separated the
Chalatenango and
Tejutla districts from the department of
Cuscatlán and established the Chalatenango Department with the city of Chalatenango as its capital. During the 1700s and 1800s, Chalatenango was mostly dependent on indigo production, however, the fall of indigo prices in the 1860s led to the department falling into a state of impoverishment. Since then, Chalatenango was one of the country's poorest departments, as most impoverished peasant farmers in El Salvador lived in the department, especially during the 1960s and 1970s. In 1961, 56 percent of the urban population was literate, while only 27 percent of the rural population was literate. During the 1970s, Chalatenango only had one hospital, and only 57 percent of the population had access to any type of medical clinic; only one third of households had running water and only 16 percent had access to electricity. In 1971, the local minimum wage in Chalatenango was
SVC₡1.00 to 2.50 per day, compared to the national minimum wage of SVC₡2.75 per day, and in 1975, Chalatenango had an unemployment rate of 40 percent, the highest of any department. The Chalatenango department was a military stronghold for the
Farabundo Martí Popular Liberation Forces (FPL) and the
People's Revolutionary Bloc (BPR), two
Marxist armed organizations, during the 1970s due to the department's mountainous terrain. The department continued to be a military stronghold for the
Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), a left-wing guerrilla group which the FPL was a founding member of, during the
Salvadoran Civil War (1979–1992). Due to its nature as a guerrilla stronghold, several military operations conducted by both sides of the civil war occurred in Chalatenango. During the civil war, many refugees fled south to the shore of Lake Suchitlán or left the department entirely for either
Honduras or the
United States. Many mayors in northern Chalatenango also fled their municipalities, leaving them to be effectively controlled by the FMLN; during and after the civil war, references were made by locals that there were "two Chalatenangos", one under government control and one under guerrilla control. By 1983, the FMLN held 15 of the department's 13 municipalities. Several civil war massacres occurred in Chalatenango, including the 1980
Sumpul River massacre and the 1982
Santa Rita massacre. From 1992 to 1995, following the conclusion of the civil war, the Municipalities-in-Action (MEA) program listed 20 out of the department's 33 municipalities as "reconstruction municipalities" as they were severely damaged during the civil war, most of which were located in territories controlled by the FMLN. The MEA allocated SVC₡85 million (equivalent of
USD$9.75 million) to Chalatenango to help built schools, clinics, roads, and water systems, the highest amount given to any department. == Geography ==