An approach to the spaces for debate in the coverage of the written press about the University of El Salvador, during the month of July 1972

Abstract

On July 19th, 1972, President Arturo Armando Molina made a speech, through national TV & radio broadcast, announcing that the University of El Salvador was occupied by public security forces, trying to stop the “Communist phantom” who was growing inside of it. President Molina mentioned repeatedly the national media reports to affirm that the inner conflict between the Faculty of Medicine and University authorities was a “national security matter”. The Salvadoran media were aligned with political speech, very anti-comunnist, to make a narrative, used to debate the political role played by the University; objectives and limitations of the autonomy granted on the 1950 Constitution, and historical revisionism of Osorio and Lemus’s military governments, whom were responsabilized by the “hazard” who University represented for national status quo defended by military forces.

Realidad: Revista de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades No. 158, 2021: 61-96.