#el mozote massacre

[nofatclips]

Radio Venceremos: the rebel radio that brought down a war criminal - Lesson by Diana Sierra Becerra, directed by Tomás Pichardo-Espaillat

#ted ed #diana sierra becerra #tomás pichardo espaillat #el salvador #el mozote #christina greer #cem misirlioglu #gerta xhelo #anna bechtol #abdallah ewis #alex rosenthal #soraya field fiorio #domingo monterrosa #el mozote massacre #radio venceremos #farabundo martí #dan kwartler

[manwalksintobar]

The Colonel  // Carolyn Forché

What you have heard is true. I was in his house. His wife carried a tray of coffee and sugar. His daughter filed her nails, his son went out for the night. There were daily papers, pet dogs, a pistol on the cushion beside him. The moon swung bare on its black cord over the house. On the television was a cop show. It was in English. Broken bottles were embedded in the walls around the house to scoop the kneecaps from a man's legs or cut his hands to lace. On the windows there were gratings like those in liquor stores. We had dinner, rack of lamb, good wine, a gold bell was on the table for calling the maid. The maid brought green mangoes, salt, a type of bread. I was asked how I enjoyed the country. There was a brief commercial in Spanish. His wife took everything away. There was some talk then of how difficult it had become to govern. The parrot said hello on the terrace. The colonel told it to shut up, and pushed himself from the table. My friend said to me with his eyes: say nothing. The colonel returned with a sack used to bring groceries home. He spilled many human ears on the table. They were like dried peach halves. There is no other way to say this. He took one of them in his hands, shook it in our faces, dropped it into a water glass. It came alive there. I am tired of fooling around he said. As for the rights of anyone, tell your people they can go fuck them- selves. He swept the ears to the floor with his arm and held the last of his wine in the air. Something for your poetry, no? he said. Some of the ears on the floor caught this scrap of his voice. Some of the ears on the floor were pressed to the ground.

#poetry #Carolyn Forché #war #El Salvador #US foreign policy #war crimes #prose poem #politics #El Mozote massacre #Latin America

[fuckyeahmarxismleninism]

By Stephen Millies

Elliot Abrams oversaw death squads in Central America and was convicted of lying to Congress. So why did President Joe Biden appoint this evil war criminal to the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy?

#Elliot Abrams #war crimes #contras #El Mozote #El Salvador #Joe Biden #massacre #Democrats #Republicans #Donald Trump #imperialism #iran-contra #Struggle la lucha

[radiofreederry]

To the Salvadoran military the Americans were too good to be true. The Salvadorans quickly figured out that they could do anything, really anything, and the gringos would cover for them. If they raped and murdered US nuns, Secretary of State Alexander Haig would testify that perhaps there had been an "exchange of fire," that perhaps the nuns were armed. When six Jesuit priests were killed in 1989 on a university campus surrounded by the army, Ambassador Walker suggested to the press that they had been killed by guerrillas dressed as soldiers. After each massacre or assassination US officials swore that this time they were serious, the money was going to dry up, that continued funding depended on a full investigation and prosecution for - and here the phrase varied over the years - the killing of Archbishop Romero, the nuns, the Sheraton Hotel murders, the murder of four Dutch TV journalists, the murder of civilians in the village of Las Vueltas, the village of Los Llanitos, the village of Las Hojas, Armenia, [El] Mozote, or San Sebastian, the murder of the Jesuits... Fourteen of the military's fifteen top commanders had, during the course of the war, led troops responsible for illegal executions or disappearances. But by 1990 not a single officer had been convicted of a human rights violation, and the money kept coming. The gringos were bluffing. They were always bluffing.

Tina Rosenberg, Children of Cain

#history #latin america #el salvador #cold war #quotes

[decolonize-the-left]

In response to news of the Biden administration's decision to nominate Abrams to the State Department's Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy, former longtime Human Rights Watch executive director Kenneth Roth wrote that Abrams' "most notorious public diplomacy is downplaying the 1981 El Mozote massacre of 1,000 people by U.S.-trained-and-equipped Salvadoran military units."

Raymond Bonner, a former New York Times correspondent in El Salvador, wrote for The Atlantic in 2019 that "the Reagan administration, with Abrams as point man, routinely defended the Salvadoran government in the face of evidence that its regular army, and allied right-wing death squads, were operating with impunity, killing peasants, students, union leaders, and anyone considered anti-government or pro-guerrilla."

#he also just straight up lied to congress before apparently #Biden #democrats #trump appointed him too

[jyndor]

hey idk if anyone knows anything about this here but I figured I'll put it out there because I've had a couple things fall into my lap while thrifting that shouldn't have.

I came upon a piece of jewelry in one of those big jewelry bags you can get with lots of stuff in it, and I'm pretty sure it's an indigenous necklace. at first I wasn't sure but now I'm pretty positive it's made up in part of bone.

I want to make sure I return it to the correct people if it is in fact a piece of indigenous jewelry, so I'm gonna post a picture under the cut in case anyone knows anything about how to handle this sort of thing.

the other thing is that I found an original watercolor painting by a us woman (who has passed away in the past couple years) who spent a lot of time working to bring awareness about the el mozote massacre in el salvador (genocide? idk enough about this to know what people call it) and actually donated a few of her paintings to a museum in el salvador before she passed away. I paid like 4 bucks because it seemed... inappropriate for it to be in the thrift store (waiting to get flipped). I'm gonna try to get it to that museum in el salvador or at least in the foundation for the painter but lol for now it's safe in my basement instead of in some idiot collection, but trust me I know I shouldn't have it either. If anyone has any ideas about how to handle this lmk.

anyway the fuck are (let's keep it real white) people doing throwing important cultural things away like this smdh

and by the way just in case anyone has any smart comments about any of this, I'm really not in the mental space to deal with trolling or bullshit. I'm on hiatus for a reason. behave or be blocked.

#idk how to tag this #genocide tw #hmm let me just put this in the #indigenous rights #tag sorry if thats inappropriate #but ive exhausted the research i am capable of right now

[self-loving-vampire]

My mother: El Mozote was actually massacred by communists to make the military look bad.

My mother: Roberto D'Aubuisson was actually a good guy and I used to hang out with him so I know everything about him being a death squad leader was made up by the communists.

Both parents: Maximiliano Hernandez Martinez is a misunderstood hero who protected the country and kept crime down. Maybe we should use his methods again.

Both parents: People who care about universal human rights instead of executing all the bad people immediately are just siding with rapists and murderers because they lack empathy for their victims. Once we manage to kill every single bad person everything will be good.

[christophersalvadoianlitblog]

Ten Intresting Salvadoran Novels

1. "Noviembre" by Jorge Galán

Salvadoran society lives immersed in the horror of the Civil War. One fateful morning in November, a group of armed men enters the facilities of the Catholic University and murders six Jesuits and two women in cold blood. Father Tojeira is then forced by circumstances to take the reins of the Company in those sinister days after the massacre, with the desire and obligation to discover the truth hidden behind these deaths. However, the only witness who could help solve the case is silenced by the authorities. Who are really to blame for this terrible massacre? Inspired by the tragic events that shook El Salvador and Latin America, November is an emotional and disturbing novel about fear, hatred and impunity. A book that for the first time sheds a little light on the never-clarified events of 1989 and delves into the history of other crimes, such as that of Monsignor Romero. A vindication of the need to raise our voices as the murdered Jesuits did, in defense of the most disadvantaged. - (Amazon.com)

2. "The Massacre at El Mozote" by Mark Danner

In December 1981 soldiers of the Salvadoran Army's select, American-trained Atlacatl Battalion entered the village of El Mozote, where they murdered hundreds of men, women, and children, often by decapitation. Although reports of the massacre—and photographs of its victims—appeared in the United States, the Reagan administration quickly dismissed them as propaganda. In the end, El Mozote was forgotten. The war in El Salvador continued, with American funding. - (Amazon.com)

3. "Carta desde Zacatraz" by Roberto Valencia

In 1999, a seventeen-year-old young man named Gustavo Adolfo Parada Morales, el Directo, was accused of committing seventeen murders as the leader of one of the most active and dangerous nineties cliques of the Mara la Pana Di Locos. It was written about him that he was the most dangerous and feared man in El Salvador, the monster, public enemy number one. He escaped shortly after being convicted. They recaptured him. The Mara Salvatrucha sentenced him to death. He rehabilitated himself. He regained freedom. He married. He went back to jail. He raised two children. He murdered again. He was murdered.

For seven years, journalist Roberto Valencia interviewed fifty people who knew him closely (relatives, victims, police, judges, priests, psychologists, gang members…), investigated official files and archives, and spent four afternoons with el Directo in Zacatraz, the maximum security prison in Zacatecoluca. With this information, Valencia weaves a meticulous spider web that connects—without shortcuts or exculpatory temptations—the violence of the gangs with the recent sociopolitical history of El Salvador. An obsessive and disturbing story. Without escape.

They discover the story of a journalist who has deeply studied the Directo and its surroundings, and proposes a story that connects the violence of the gangs with the recent sociopolitical history of El Salvador. - (Amazon.com)

4. "Senselessness" by Horacio Castellanos Moya

A boozing, sex-obsessed writer finds himself employed by the Catholic Church (an institution he loathes) to proofread a 1,100 page report on the army's massacre and torture of thousands of indigenous villagers a decade earlier, including the testimonies of the survivors. The writer's job is to tidy it up: he rants, "that was what my work was all about, cleaning up and giving a manicure to the Catholic hands that were piously getting ready to squeeze the balls of the military tiger." Mesmerized by the strange Vallejo-like poetry of the Indians' phrases ("the houses they were sad because no people were inside them"), the increasingly agitated and frightened writer is endangered twice over: by the spell the strangely beautiful heart-rending voices exert over his tenuous sanity, and by real danger—after all, the murderers are the very generals who still run this unnamed Latin American country. - (goodreads.com)

5. "One Day of Life" by Manlio Argueta

5:30 A.M. in Chalate, a small rural town: Lupe, the grandmother of the Guardado family and the central figure of the novel, is up and about doing her chores. By 5:00 P.M. the plot of the novel has been resolved, with the Civil Guard's search for and interrogation of Lupe's young granddaughter, Adolfina. Told entirely from the perspective of the resilient women of the Guardado family, One Day of Life is not only a disturbing and inspiring evocation of the harsh realities of peasant life in El Salvador after fifty years of military exploitation; it is also a mercilessly accurate dramatization of the relationship of the peasants to both the state and the church. - (goodreads.com)

6. "Slash and Burn" by Claudia Hernández

As a girl she sees her village sacked and her beloved father and brothers flee. Her life in danger, she joins the rebellion in the hills, where her comrades force her to give up the baby she conceives. Years later, having outlived countless men, she leaves to find her lost daughter, travelling across the Atlantic with meagre resources. She returns to a community riven with distrust, fear and hypocrisy in the wake the revolution. - (goodreads.com)

7. "The Dream of My Return" by Horavia Catellanos Moya

Drinking way too much and breaking up with his wife, an exiled journalist in Mexico City dreams of returning home to El Salvador. But is it really a dream or a nightmare? When he decides to treat his liver pain with hypnosis, his few impulse-control mechanisms rapidly dissolve. Hair-brained schemes, half-mad arguments, unraveling murder plots, hysterical rants: everything escalates at a maniacal pace, especially the crazy humor. - (goodreads.com)

8. "Bitter Grounds" by Sandra Benítez

Spanning the years between 1932 and 1977, this beautifully told epic is set in the heart of El Salvador, where coffee plantations are the center of life for rich and poor alike. Following three generations of the Prieto Clan and the wealthy family they work for, this is the story of mothers and daughters who live, love, and die for their passions. - (goodreads.com)

9. "Tyrant Memory" by Horacio Castellanos Moya

Castellanos Moya’s most thrilling book to date, about the senselessness of tyranny. The tyrant of Horacio Castellanos Moya’s ambitious new novel is the actual pro-Nazi mystic Maximiliano Hernández Martínez — known as the Warlock — who came to power in El Salvador in 1932. An attempted coup in April, 1944, failed, but a general strike in May finally forced him out of office. Tyrant Memory takes place during the month between the coup and the strike. Its protagonist, Haydée Aragon, is a well-off woman, whose husband is a political prisoner and whose son, Clemente, after prematurely announcing the dictator’s death over national radio during the failed coup, is forced to flee when the very much alive Warlock starts to ruthlessly hunt down his enemies. The novel moves between Haydée’s political awakening in diary entries and Clemente’s frantic and often hysterically comic efforts to escape capture. Tyrant Memory — sharp, grotesque, moving, and often hilariously funny — is an unforgettable incarnation of a country’s history in the destiny of one family. - (goodreads.com)

10. "The Weight of All Things" by Sandra Benítez

The last time Nicols saw his mother, she was mortally wounded by gunfire that erupted in a crowded plaza. Watching while her body is dragged away with other victims, Nicols believes that his mother is still alive and vows to find her again. Thus begins the young boys harrowing journey through his war-ravaged country. - (goodreads.com)

[walterssalvadorianlitblog]

Reflections On Reading a Year of Reading Salvadoran Literature

Books Read:

A History of Violence

The Massacre at El Mozote

The Weight of All Things

When the announcement was made that we had to choose our country, I already knew I was going to choose El Salvador. El Salvador is in my blood. My parents are from there and my parents' parents are from there and so on. Not only that, I have always wanted to learn more about El Salvador. So I used this as an opportunity to learn more about my culture. Originally I knew a little bit about all the corruption and gangs in El Salvador but I would have never known how deep it actually is if I had not read these books. The rabbit hole goes so much deeper than we think it does. When you actually investigate it and learn more about it you realize there is significantly so much more than you would have ever imagined.  Salvadoran literature is gritty, gruesome, and filled with so many horrors beyond our comprehension. A common theme in Salvadoran literature is the impact war and violence has on individuals, families, and communities. We see so many families torn apart and the brutality of war in Salvadoran literature. Also another important common theme is the harsh reality of migration, specifically the trauma and danger these Central American migrants face.

The Massacre at El Mozote by Mark Danner is a cruel yet extremely interesting book that dives into the horrific massacre of innocent civilians that occurred during the Salvadoran Civil War. A huge takeaway from this book is that it is also a quest for truth, justice and accountability as it is taking into account all the horrors that were attempted to be covered up.

A History of Violence by Oscar Martinez dives deep into the roots of the violence in El Salvador and even traces it back to the Colonial era. Then from there it goes to the CIvil war which then eventually leads on to the rise of gangs in 1990. One of the major takeaways from this novel is the impact of human violence and its consequences. Another key takeaway is how historical conflicts, social inequalities, and gang activity have shaped the violence of El Salvador and is now a significant part of El Salvador.

The Weight of All Things by Sandra Benitez explores the Civil War from the perspective of a young boy. The Weight of All Things explores the impact of war, loss and grief, and family relationships. Definitely the biggest takeaway is the impact of war though. We see how nobody wins, the impacts of this civil war only leads to suffering and grief which we see with the main character and what he witnesses.

Salvadoran literature has taught me so much of the uglier side of humanity. It has taught me the cruelty and horrors we are capable of. It has also taught me that there are countless stories of the violence that took place in El Salvador. I should say “took” but I should instead say “takes” because this violence is still present in El Salvador. After reading all of these books I got a better understanding of why El Salvador has the number one homicide rate in the world. It really had me thinking about who I am.

[countryconditionswithshiro]

Human Rights Watch, El Salvador: Events of 2021 (2022)

CW: human rights violations/sexual assault/gang violence

“Gangs continue to exercise territorial control over some neighborhoods and extort residents throughout the country. They forcibly recruit children and sexually abuse women, girls, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. Gangs kill, disappear, rape, or displace those who resist.”

“Girls and women accused of having abortions have been imprisoned for homicide and aggravated homicide. LGBT individuals face discrimination and police violence.”

“Prisons held over 36,600 detainees in March, twice the official capacity… Overcrowding and poor sanitation endangered the health of prisoners and risked accelerating the spread of Covid-19.”

“Impunity for government abuses is the norm.”

“A trial of former military commanders accused in the 1981 El Mozote massacre started in 2016… Soldiers committed mass rape and killed 978 civilians at El Mozote, including 553 children. In September 2020, soldiers – with President Bukele’s backing – refused to comply with a court order that allowed a judge to review military records about the massacre.”

“Abortion is illegal under all circumstances. Women face two to eight years in prison for having an abortion. Providers face prison sentences of 6 months to 12 years.”

“Many women, including women who suffered miscarriages or obstetric emergencies, have been sentenced to up to 40 years in prison on charges of violating the law.”

“LGBT people remain targets of homophobic and transphobic violence by police, gangs, and the general public. In many cases, LGBT people flee persecution at home, including to the United States.” “El Salvador does not have comprehensive civil non-discrimination legislation that covers discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity…”

#El Salvador #human rights violations #country conditions

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 12.11 (after 1950)

1958 – French Upper Volta and French Dahomey gain self-government from France, becoming the Republic of Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso) and the Republic of Dahomey (now Benin), respectively, and joining the French Community. 1960 – French forces crack down in a violent clash with protesters in French Algeria during a visit by French President Charles de Gaulle. 1962 – Arthur Lucas, convicted of murder, is the last person to be executed in Canada. 1964 – Che Guevara speaks at the United Nations General Assembly in New York City. 1972 – Apollo 17 becomes the sixth and final Apollo mission to land on the Moon. 1978 – The Lufthansa heist is committed by a group led by Lucchese family associate Jimmy Burke. It was the largest cash robbery ever committed on American soil, at that time. 1980 – The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (Superfund) is enacted by the U.S. Congress. 1981 – El Mozote massacre: Armed forces in El Salvador kill an estimated 900 civilians in an anti-guerrilla campaign during the Salvadoran Civil War. 1990 – Demonstrations by students and workers across Albania begin, which eventually trigger the fall of communism in Albania. 1990 – Several fatal collisions in the 1990 Interstate 75 fog disaster result in a total of 12 deaths and 42 being injured. 1993 – A block of the Highland Towers condominium complex collapses following a landslide caused by heavy rain and water flowing from a construction site at Ampang district in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 48 of its residents die, including one who died in hospital after being rescued alive, leaving only two survivors. 1994 – First Chechen War: Russian President Boris Yeltsin orders Russian troops into Chechnya. 1994 – A bomb explodes on Philippine Airlines Flight 434, en route from Manila, Philippines, to Tokyo, Japan, killing one. The captain is able to land the plane safely. 1997 – The Kyoto Protocol opens for signature. 1998 – Thai Airways Flight 261 crashes near Surat Thani Airport, killing 101. The pilot flying the Airbus A310-200 is thought to have suffered spatial disorientation. 1999 – SATA Air Açores Flight 530M crashes into Pico da Esperança on São Jorge Island in the Azores, killing 35. 2001 – China joins the World Trade Organization (WTO). 2005 – The Buncefield Oil Depot catches fire in Hemel Hempstead, England. 2005 – Cronulla riots: Thousands of White Australians demonstrate against ethnic violence resulting in a riot against anyone thought to be Lebanese in Cronulla, New South Wales; these are followed up by retaliatory ethnic attacks on Cronulla. 2006 – The International Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust is opened in Tehran, Iran, by then-president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad; nations such as Israel and the United States express concern. 2006 – Felipe Calderón, the President of Mexico, launches a military-led offensive to put down the drug cartel violence in the state of Michoacán. This effort is often regarded as the first event in the Mexican Drug War. 2007 – Insurgency in the Maghreb: Two car bombs explode in Algiers, Algeria, one near the Supreme Constitutional Court and the other near the offices of the United Nations. 2008 – Bernie Madoff is arrested and charged with securities fraud in a $50 billion Ponzi scheme. 2009 – Finnish game developer Rovio Entertainment releases the hit mobile game Angry Birds internationally on iOS. 2012 – At least 125 people are killed and up to 200 injured in bombings in the Alawite village of Aqrab, Syria. 2017 – New York City Subway bombing: A pipe bomb partially detonates in the New York City Subway, in the Times Square–42nd Street/Port Authority Bus Terminal. Four people are injured, including the perpetrator. 2019 – The results of the 2019 Bougainvillean independence referendum are announced. The results are overwhelmingly one-sided. Over 98% of voters vote for Bougainville's independence. 2020 – The Food and Drug Administration issues an Emergency Use Authorization on the Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, the first COVID-19 vaccine to be approved by the agency.

#Events

[theprophet359]

What's left of our lives: the survivors of the El Mozote massacre

#youtube

[classydeergarden]

Read "ICE arrests a retired Salvadoran military officer accused of involvement in El Mozote massacre" on SmartNews: https://l.smartnews.com/p-x81Vm/00uOis

SEND THIS TERRORIST AND HIS CLAN KILLER BACK TO HIS COUNTRY FOR JUSTICE

[marionto]

In a statement, the Washington-based Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) said the government’s decision to arrest the five men while blocking justice in high-profile cases like the El Mozote massacre “raises questions about whether the true motivation is to attempt to silence these water defenders”.

#ades #santa marta #cabañas #el salvador #militarization #el salvador news #el salvador president #human rights #human rights issues #environmetalists

[badriano11]

The rebel radio that brought down a war criminal.

In 1984, a group of radio broadcasters and operators walked into the abandoned village of El Mozote in El Salvador. Fireflies illuminated the remnants of a massacre that had taken place three years earlier. Led by Colonel Domingo Monterrosa, government soldiers had tortured, raped, and murdered 978 people, including 553 children. The youngest victim, Concepción Sánchez, was just three days old. Both the US and Salvadoran governments denied the massacre had taken place, and the slaughter left few people alive to tell their story. But with the help of Radio Venceremos, one of those survivors, Rufina Amaya, shared her testimony— exposing both Monterrosa and the governments funding his crimes.

This massacre was one in a long line of atrocities committed against El Salvador’s farmers. Since the 1800s, a handful of oligarchs had controlled nearly all the country’s land, forcing laborers to work for almost nothing. In 1932, Indigenous farm workers led an insurrection, but the dictatorial government responded by committing genocide against these communities. From then on, one military dictatorship after another ruled the country in concert with wealthy landowners. Their power only grew in the 1960s, when the United States began supplying the regime with military aid. The US wanted to stop the spread of reformist and revolutionary movements, which they saw as threats to capitalism. So they spent huge sums of money training Salvadoran soldiers and “death squads”— fascist military units versed in brutal counter-insurgency methods. Throughout the 1970s, these forces slaughtered farmers who organized to demand basic rights, such as living wages, food, and clean water. Finally, in 1980, farmers and urban workers formed the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front. This coalition of guerrilla groups fought to overthrow the dictatorship and build a socialist society that met the needs of laborers. These revolutionaries were attacked from every direction. Colonel Monterrosa led a special battalion intent on destroying the FMLN, using tactics he’d learned at an American military school. State forces terrorized farmers to stop them from joining or aiding the guerrillas. But one group of rebels would not be silenced: the operators of Radio Venceremos. This clandestine guerrilla radio began in 1981, and its broadcasters Santiago and Mariposa became the voice of the revolution. They transmitted news from the front lines and reported military abuses that no other source covered. The station’s politics and popularity made it a high-profile target. And because they operated in a relatively small area, its broadcasters had to move constantly to evade capture. To communicate undetected, the group modified two radios into telephones, linked together through kilometers of barbed wire covering the countryside. This secret telephone line helped the rebels stay one step ahead of their pursuers. In addition to reporting news, the radio broadcast educational programs in areas under guerrilla control. Here, farmers organized democratic councils to govern themselves, alongside cooperatives, schools, and medical clinics. Organizers also encouraged civilian women to participate in these councils to ensure the revolution overthrew both capitalism and patriarchy. Women made up roughly a third of the guerrillas, working in a huge variety of roles. Colonel Monterrosa was obsessed with destroying Radio Venceremos. In October 1984, government soldiers finally captured their radio transmitter. Monterrosa himself went to retrieve the equipment and held a theatrical press conference celebrating his “decisive blow to the subversives.” But in reality, the radio team had outsmarted him once again. The transmitter was boobytrapped. Once Monterrosa’s helicopter left the press conference, radio members detonated the device over El Mozote, killing the colonel near the village he had massacred. Monterrosa’s death was one victory in a much larger conflict. The civil war raged on for 8 more years before concluding in 1992, when peace accords dissolved the oppressive National Guard and allowed the FMLN to become an electoral party. But these accords didn’t address problems of deep, structural inequality. In 1993, the UN Truth Commission reported that over 75,000 people died during the war. Yet the Salvadoran legislature prevented the prosecution of war crimes and continues to obstruct justice to this day. As of 2021, no participating American officials have been put on trial, and only one individual from the Salvadoran government has been sentenced for war crimes. Historical erasure exists in the US as well, where these and other stories of US intervention in Central America are rarely taught in public schools. But the victims refuse to be forgotten. Rufina Amaya continued to share her testimony until her death in 2007. And survivors of other massacres still organize to denounce state violence. They map old massacre sites, exhume and bury loved ones, and build sanctuaries and museums, all in the hope of pollinating a more just future.

#hist #history #war #education

[kp777]

#elliott abrams #el mozote massacre #el salvador #venezuela #politics