According to a number of sources, the Fuerzas Populares de Liberación (FPL, Popular Forces of Liberation or, as some sources translate it, Popular Liberation Forces) were formed in 1970 by Salvador Cayetano Carpio, after he split from the Partido Comunista de El Salvador (PCES, Salvadorean Communist Party). One source, the 1989 International Yearbook on International Communist Affairs (Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, 1989), in page 83, indicates the precise date of the groups founding was 1 April 1970. Some of the other sources which state that the FPL were formed in 1970 include the previous editions of the International Yearbook on International Communist Affairs (1984 through 1988), El Salvador (Cronología sobre Centro America), by Eduardo Arboleda (UNHCR, 1970; page 4 and chart III) and the NACLA Report (July-August 1988, p. 34).

As requested by telephone, please find attached copies of the 1989 International Yearbook, El Salvador (Cronología) and the NACLA Report pages which give the FPL founding year. Also attached, please find a copy of pages 166-167 of Conflict in Central America (Chicago/London: St. James Press, 1987) and page 92 of Revolutionary and Dissident Movements (London: Longman Publishing Group, 1988), in which the year given for the foundation of the FPL is 1970.

In addition to the above, please find attached a copy of page 169 of Les Cent Portes de l'Amerique Latine (Paris: Editions Autrement, 1988) which states in its first paragraph:

"Immédiatement après le conflit qui oppose le Salvador au Honduras [asterisk indicates a reference under that word elsewhere in the book], en 1969, un noyau ouvrier, minorité dissidente du parti communiste emmenée par Cayetano Carpio, fonde les Forces populaires de libération (FPL)."

Finally, attached to this response you may find a copy of page 114 of Latin American Political Movements (London: Longman Publishing Group, 1985) which gives 1977 as the year of foundation of the FPL. This appears to contradict all other sources, but coincides with the year in which the FPL carried out a major action: kidnapping and murdering the Salvadorean Foreign Minister.

However, another source (The American Connection Volume I; London: Zed Books, 1985. Not attached because it does not state a year of foundation) states in page 171 that:

"In September 1972 the National Guard post in Pandinales was attacked by 11 guerrillas, several of whom were killed. Shortly afterwards the Fuerzas Populares de Liberación Farabundo Martí (FPL, Popular Liberation Forces Farabundo Martí) announced their existence and claimed credit for the Pandinales operation. A series of bombings followed and, in early 1973, police posts and multinational firms were attacked. By the end of 1973 both the FPL and the fledgling Ejército Revolucionario del Pueblo, (ERP, People's Revolutionary Army) were engaging in sporadic bombings and armed attacks."