The Massacre At El Mozote - 1519 Words

In the early days of mid-December in 1981, the Salvadoran military slaughtered hundreds of men, women, and children who they believed were accessories to the left-wing guerrilla group that was waging war against the government. Mark Danner, in the book The Massacre at El Mozote, addresses the bloodbath through the stories of survivors and guerrilla members that witnessed it as well as questioning government officials from both the El Salvadoran and the United States government. During that time period, there were numerous insurgencies that were challenging the power of the state in Latin America through propaganda and violent methods. The governments gave their militaries and elite armed forces complete autonomy when it came to†¦show more content†¦The Atlacatl was an elite armed force that specialized in counter-insurgency combat and was training by the United States military. It received a mission known as Operacà ­on Rescate, which translates into Operation Rescue, that had a single goal of removing guerrilla fighters and its sympathizers in the area surrounding El Mozote. The fighters in this force accused the villagers of supporting FMLN and supplying them with food, arms, and people. This accusation eventually escalated to the torturing of certain members of the community and then the barbaric killing of close to a thousand people. The Atlacatl used various methods to murder and terrorize the people of El Mozote that included beheading, shooting, stabbing, and hanging. The armed forces separated the women and raped girls as young as 10 years-old as well as gather the children into a room and slaughter them by stabbing or shooting them. At the end of the El Mozote Massacre, the families that were able to escape or that were out of town came back to a village full of carnage and their homes destroyed. The total death count is still debated until this day but it is estimated that the Salvadoran military murdered around a thousand people at El Mozot e. This book illustrates several key issues and social problems that Latin American politics faced and continue to struggle with to this day. The matter of insurgent movements and the counter-insurgency methods that have been throughout theShow MoreRelatedThe Massacre At El Mozote1351 Words   |  6 PagesThe Massacre at El Mozote El Mozote is a city in El Salvador, and in 1981 it was the site of a brutal massacre in which American trained Salvadoran soldiers slaughtered almost a thousand civilians. This massacre happened at a very tense point in the Cold War, when the United States was fighting against Communism and the Soviet Union. In this particular situation, the United States aligned with the Salvadorans to prevent the spread of communism into El Salvador. When the Salvadoran soldiers killedRead MoreEssay about The Massacre in El Mozote as Told by Mark Danner1345 Words   |  6 PagesThe Massacre at El Mozote as told by Mark Danner takes place El Salvador. El Salvador is the smallest country in Central America. It shares borders with Guatemala and Honduras. El Salvador is divided into 14 departments and El Mozote is a village in one of the Departments called Morazan. According to the author, the Salvadoran Civil War 1979-1992 was a conflict waged by the Military led Government of El Salvador and coaliti on of left-leaning militias or guerillas called the Farabundo Marti NationalRead MoreEl Mozote Essay1448 Words   |  6 Pagesmagazine, recounts in The Massacre at El Mozote a horrific crime against humanity committed by a branch of the Salvadorian army. He gives multiple points of views and cites numerous eye witnesses to try and piece together something that has been tucked away by the government at the time. In December, of 1981, news reports were leaked to major newspapers in the united states about an atrocity committed and a total massacre of a hamlet in El Salvador, known as El Mozote, or the Thicket. At firstRead MoreAnalysis Of Mark Danner s The Salvadoran Civil War1578 Words   |  7 PagesThroughout history mankind has proved itself to be capable of many horrifying actions and atrocities on its own people. One such event occurred inside and in the proximity of the village of El Mozote, in Morazà ¡n, El Salvador, on December 11, 1981, when the Salvadoran Army killed more than 800 civilians in the course of the Salvadoran Civil War. To truly understand the complexity of this event and its impact/place in history author Mark Danner has complied an in-depth assessment of this incidentRead MoreUnited States Of America, Home Of The Brave And Land1439 Words   |  6 PagesWhile the American’s were not pulling the triggers, they were giving the guns and training the army to fight and kill all who seemed to be siding with the communist party. Yet many do not know that America would do this to small little El Salvador. While in turmoil, El Salvador has always been a country of peaceful farmers that mind their own business and enjoy the beauty of their land. Yet that all stopped when the people realized they were being mistreated and the government were racking in the moneyRead MoreAnalysis Of Sal Castro And Maria Tula s Hear My Testimony1698 Words   |  7 Pagesher. Tula felt as though most of this was unjust and simply wanted peace. These encounters reflect the painful reality of the life Tula had in El Salvador. After a sugar mill strike, her husband was jailed, and Tula joined the COMADRES. The COMADRES was a political committee composed of mo thers and relatives of prisoners or those who had disappeared in El Salvador. Their motive was to discover the truth behind the missing relatives of the members. After Tula joined this group he life began to changeRead MoreThe Impact Of Arena On The Beginnings Of The Civil War1850 Words   |  8 Pagesclarifying the role of ARENA in the beginnings of the civil war, we’ve been able to secure a small but consistent advantage over our FMLN opponents. However, according to the research that my team and I have conducted, this advantage is very fragile. While El Salvadoran voters have communicated to us that they do not blame ARENA for the start of the conflict, there is more confusion about the role of the party during the height of the war in the 1980s. Therefore, this memo will be divided into three parts:Read MoreThe United States And The Civil War2482 Words   |  10 Pagesthat can relate of the massacre happened in the next door neighbor, El Salvador. In El Salvador, the st ate of Morazà ¡n military round up three small nearby villages and massacred them all. The massacred was later known as the most vicious in Latin America, it would be later called â€Å"El Mozote† (Ivan, 2014). Here half of my mothers’ side of the family would die. El Mozote had coverage in the United States, but the genocide that was happening in Guatemala did not. Reason why, El Salvador was clearly dividedRead MoreThe Conflict Resolution : Peace1927 Words   |  8 Pagesshows how negative peace does not automatically solve inherent problems in a society is the Central American country of El Salvador. Today El Salvador is the most dangerous country in the world outside a warzone. The gang plagued country s problems can be traced back to its deadly 12 year civil war that occurred from 1980 to 1992. There is no definite explanation as to why El Salvador still suffers tremendously from the lasting effects of the civil war but a lot can be traced to outside state invol vementRead MoreThe Conflict Resolution : Peace2586 Words   |  11 Pagesshows how negative peace does not automatically solve inherent problems in an society is the Central American country of El Salvador. Today El Salvador is the most dangerous country in the world outside a war zone. The gang plagued country s problems can be traced back to its deadly 12 year civil war that occurred from 1980 to 1992. There is no definite explanation as to why El Salvador still suffers tremendously from the lasting effects of the civil war, but a lot can be traced to outside intervention