Civil war tourism

USA Today carried a story this week about efforts in El Salvador, mostly by former FMLN guerrillas, to attract tourists to sites from the civil war:
For a fee, former guerrillas will take visitors on tours of former battlefields or mountain hideouts, while museums display war memorabilia. The government has applauded the effort as a way to draw more tourists to El Salvador.

The former Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, or FMLN, which led the guerrilla uprising, has teamed up with local business leaders to create the so-called "peace route."

The mountain town of Perquin, 175 miles east of San Salvador, was considered the "guerrilla capital" during the fighting, and it served as the FMLN's headquarters. Today, it is home to the "Museum of the Revolution," and features cannons, uniforms, pieces of Soviet weaponry and other weapons of war once used by the FMLN.

Perquin has its own English-language website atwww.perquin.org which provides information to persons seeking to visit the town and surrounding area, including the site of the infamous El Mozote massacre.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Perquuin, museo de la palabra and such has been around since the end of the war in 92, ONly in 92-96 were salvadorans slowly creeping out into the countryside again to get a view of the war they never had.
Hopefully, the world will be open to learning about how Radio Venceremos took down Monterrosa's copter *)
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LAs Mil y Unas Historias de Radio Venceremos.via Rebel Radio.

http://tinyurl.com/yy2bu7

Read that and take your own Tour of Northern Morazan IMHO.

http://tinyurl.com/te5qa

http://www.perquin.org/history.html

without the above Hx.

Salvy would be another Haiti.
The polarization is not as intense as before, time will tell..
11:21 PM
Anonymous said…
I still believe Salvadoran society is extremely polarized, it is just a miracle that the guerrillas aren't gathering around the mountains (perhaps thanks to remesas). But for example, if you dare read Diario de Hoy, you'd get the impression as if that dreaded newspaper (they helped death squads identify syndicate leaders, and other targets) was stuck in the 80s, with their constant "communist" tripe. Both a rallying cry against the "guerrillas" and a reminisce of the good all days... when the military and death squads were buthcering peasants and the coffeecultures were living their glory days of thousands of peasants breaking their backs for them...

Another example would be during the death of Pinochet. ARENA and PCN both made a moment of silence for them, but FMLN, CD and I believe PDC left the premises, and they were battered down with "You coward communists! You get back here!". El Salvador, IMO is still stuck in the past, specially the fascist right-wingers, mind not evolved...
11:39 AM
El-Visitador said…
"For a fee, former guerrillas will take visitors"

'teamed up with local business leaders to create the so-called "peace route."'

I love it when enterprising individuals get together to promote a good or service, fatten their own wallets, create employment,and generally increase the well-being of the community.

Goes to shown that tourism is promoted by enterprise, not by some stupid and wasteful Saca-created ministry.
11:15 PM
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