Salvadoran Red Cross

International Committee of the Red Cross: On the ground in over 80 countries, providing humanitarian aid to victims of conflict and violence.

The movement of the Red Cross in El Salvador, has as pioneers Messrs. Luis Vandyck and Astor Marchesini, who formulated the regulations of the Red Cross Society "Institution to which the President of the Republic; Dr. Rafael Zaldivar and his Minister of Charity Dr. J. Anotnio Castro, granted legal status by executive agreement of March 13, 1885. As Administrative President and Chief Commissioner of the same, Don Astor Marchesini. According to its regulations, it would be made up of Active-Partners and benefactors.

The objective of it, according to the first article, is "To help the sick and wounded military, of any of the belligerent parties, either in the battlefield or in the hospitals of the army." On March 28, 1885, just founded the National Society. El Salvador came into conflict with Guatemala, opposing the Federalist policy of the president of his country, Justo Rufino Barrios and signing with Nicaragua and Costa Rica an alliance to defend with arms the independence of the 3 republics. That conflict, in a way, the baptism of fire of the Salvadoran Red Cross, which organized services of stretchers and improvised hospitals, where doctors Juan Padilla Matute and Herna Power became famous. The National Society siege to the Salvadoran troops and in some cases, helped the wounded and sick of the Guatemalan army.

The conflict concluded with the failure of Guatemala to die just Rufino Barrios, on April 2, 1885, in Chalchuapa, on April 16 of the same year was signed peace. After the conflict, the Salvadoran Red Cross entered into a deep lethargy during which various events, especially political instability, prevented any continuity in its activities. In 1980, a revolutionary uprising broke out in El Salvador, as a result of which Costa Rica withdrew from the union of the five Central American Republics.