El Salvador Perspectives

Seventh in a series At the start of his presidency, it appeared that Nayib Bukele might be a backer of justice for the victims of the El Mozote massacre. But as we reach the 40th anniversary of the massacre, Bukele's antagonism towards the actual court proceeding which could bring justice, belies his rhetoric. On Nayib Bukele's first day in office, he ordered that the name of Domingo Monterrosa be removed from the barracks of the Third Infantry Brigade in San Miguel: Se ordena a la @FUERZARMADASV retirar de inmediato el nombre del Coronel Domingo Monterrosa, del Cuartel de la Tercera Brigada de Infantería, en San Miguel. — Nayib Bukele 🇸🇻 (@nayibbukele) June 2, 2019 A few days later, Bukele tweeted to the victims of the massacre that "your struggle is my struggle." Bukele then met with family members of the victims of the El Mozote massacre and expressed his commitment to reparations and the pursuit of justice in this case. Later in 2019, Bukele's pu...

Sixth in a series Over the five years since the El Mozote massacre case was reopened, Judge Jorge Guzman has heard not only from the the humble campesinos who are witnesses and victims, but also from witnesses from the Salvadoran military and from experts. Although the victim witnesses have established the existence of a massacre, they themselves cannot draw the lines of responsibility to the colonels and generals who gave the command for the massacre. The military witnesses Two soldiers who participated in the military operation at El Mozote testified in November 2019 with their identities protected. "Juan" and "Sol" testified using pseudonyms and from behind a screen to protect their identities. Both soldiers confirmed that those killed during December 1981 were unarmed civilians rounded up out of their homes and murdered. Neither soldier testified to participating himself in the shooting or rapes. Anna-Cat Brigida reported in Al Jazeera : Juan and Sol testifi...

Fifth of a series In a small courtroom in the town of San Francisco Gotera, largely unnoticed by much of the world, a major human rights trial, the trial of the massacre at El Mozote and surrounding communities re-commenced in 2017, after a 24 year hiatus caused by the Amnesty Law which had been swiftly passed after the civil war's conclusion.  The purpose of the trial is to establish the responsibility of high ranking officers of the Salvadoran military for the 1981 massacre at El Mozote.   In El Mozote and the surrounding small communities, almost one thousand civilians -- children, the elderly, women and men -- were brutally killed by the Salvadoran military between December 10 and 13, 1981.  It is a crime the judge has already declared a "crime against humanity." A witness is questioned during the El Mozote trial First to testify in 2017 were 10 witnesses of 17 who originally had provided testimony in 1990 when the case was filed.   They were now calle...

Fourth in a series The story of the quest for justice for the victims of the massacre at El Mozote is a story of repeated obstacles placed by El Salvador's political and judicial systems. 40 years later, this crime against humanity remains unjudged and unpunished through the Salvadoran courts.  Today we look at the efforts of human rights advocates for the victims who have refused to give up.   December 10-13, 1981.   Troops of the Salvadoran armed forces massacre 988 children and others in El Mozote and the surrounding communities. October 26th, 1990 .  Pedro Chicas Rivera, survivor of the massacre in La Joya, a village near El Mozote, presented the first criminal complaint for the massacres in La Joya, El Mozote, and the surrounding communities before the court in San Francisco Gotera with the assistance of Tutela Legal, which was the human rights legal office of the Archdiocese of San Salvador. The case, started while the civil war was still taking place...

Third in a series How much responsibility does the United States have connected to the massacre at El Mozote? The massacre at El Mozote was carried out by the Atlacatl Battalion of the Salvadoran armed forces.   It was an elite unit, and the US was proud of having played a role in creating it.  An Americas Watch report  wrote in 1992 : The history of U.S. human rights policy in El Salvador is not only one of downplaying or denying the war crimes of the Salvadoran military. U.S. officials often went one step further, asserting that the behavior of the U.S.-trained Atlacatl Battalion, in particular, was "commendable" and "professional" in its relations with the civilian population. The Atlacatl Battalion, which carried out the massacre at El Mozote, was created in early 1981 and trained by U.S. advisers drawn primarily from the Special Forces in a first effort to reorganize the Salvadoran military to wage a full-scale counterinsurgency war. By mid-1981, 1200 soldiers ...

Second in a series The story of the El Mozote massacre, as testified to by Rufina Amaya, became known to the world through the reporting of two journalists,    Ray Bonner  of the  New York Times  and  Alma Guillermoprieto  of the  Washington Post . News of the massacre had been filtering out of northeastern El Salvador during late December 1981, as the FMLN's radio station, Radio Venceremos told the story.  But as the propaganda vehicle for the guerrillas, the broadcasts lacked credibility.  The FMLN brought Bonner and Guillermoprieto separately into Morazan and to El Mozote where they saw, and then reported, the evidence of a massacre. Bonner's article  appeared January 27, 1982 in the New York Times with the headline  Massacre Of Hundreds Reported In Salvador Village .  The article began: From interviews with people who live in this small mountain village and surrounding hamlets, it is clear that a massacre of ...

First in a series Forty years ago, on December 11, 1981, one of the worst atrocities of the Salvadoran civil war, the El Mozote massacre, took place. All but one of the civilians taking refuge in the small village of El Mozote and in surrounding settlements, close to 1000 children, women, and men, were brutally killed by the Salvadoran army. More than 400 of those murdered were age 12 or under.  It is a tragedy the world must never forget. Over the next week leading up to the 40th anniversary, I will have a series of posts about the massacre.  Today I start with the basic facts of the massacre. On the afternoon of December 10, 1981, soldiers of the Salvadoran army's elite Atlacatl battalion arrived at El Mozote in northeastern El Salvador. The Atlacatl was a "Rapid Deployment Infantry Battalion" specially trained for counter-insurgency warfare. It was the first unit of its kind in the Salvadoran armed forces and was trained by United States military advisors. Its mission,...