Memory of War: El Salvador

During my time in Guarjila (see article below), I was very impacted to hear first-hand stories about people’s experiences in the civil war of the 1980s. This war was between the popular FMLN revolutionary movement and the government-sponsored forces. I am particularly attune to the history of this war because of the key role the U.S. played in backing up the government forces against the guerilla. Beginning with the Carter Administration and continued by the Reagan and Bush administrations, the U.S. sent seven billion dollars of foreign and military aid to El Salvador in ten years. They also provided direct training to the Salvadoran military. The justification for this assistance was to detain the spread of communism. The aid was continuously provided despite the numerous reports put out by international human rights groups that the government was carrying out multiple human rights abuses and organizing death squads to carry out massacres in rural villages.

The people who now live in Guarjila are example of the rural people from all over El Salvador who had their lives completely uprooted and shaken up because of the war and the death squads. Almost everyone in the town can name at least one relative who died in the violence. They also tell the story of the massacre that occurred in the town. A group of people were invited to a “meeting” by the river. When they arrived, they realized it had been a trick. The death squad forced them to line up in a ditch in the ground and filled the ditch with dirt so that only their heads were above ground. Then the death squad cut off their heads. Although not directly involved in the guerrilla, the people were mostly likely targeted because the region was known to be an area of FMLN sympathizers.

For more information on the war in El Salvador: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvadoran_Civil_War