A Salvadoran man speaks about the finding of twelve local campesinos who were killed and thrown down a 180-foot well, bottom center, in the village of Los Mangos, Sonsonate department, El Salvador, April 7, 1984. The two men implicated in the murder were members of a civil defense unit associated with local death squads. Civil defense patrols were utilized by the Salvadoran state regime as a form of paramilitary control, specifically over the rural sectors of society. The civil defense patrols along with the Salvadoran National Guard were complicit in indiscriminate attacks on peasant cooperatives and villages suspected of subversive sympathies.
A Salvadoran National Guardsman, right, speaks to the media, including radio reporter Edith Caron, left, about the killing of twelve local campesinos in the village of Los Mangos, Sonsonate department, El Salvador, April 7, 1984. The two men implicated in the murder, in which they reportedly threw the twelve men down a 180-foot well, were members of a civil defense unit associated with local death squads. Civil defense patrols were utilized by the Salvadoran state regime as a form of paramilitary control, specifically over the rural sectors of society. The civil defense patrols along with the Salvadoran National Guard were complicit in indiscriminate attacks on peasant cooperatives and villages suspected of subversive sympathies.
A handcuffed Salvadoran man implicated in the killing of twelve local campesinos speaks to the media, including radio reporter Edith Caron, right, in the village of Los Mangos, Sonsonate department, El Salvador, April 7, 1984. The two men implicated in the murder, in which they reportedly threw the twelve men down a 180-foot well, were members of a civil defense unit associated with local death squads. Civil defense patrols were utilized by the Salvadoran state regime as a form of paramilitary control, specifically over the rural sectors of society. The civil defense patrols along with the Salvadoran National Guard were complicit in indiscriminate attacks on peasant cooperatives and villages suspected of subversive sympathies.
A crowd of local townspeople listen to a handcuffed Salvadoran man implicated in the killing of twelve local campesinos as he speaks to the media in the village of Los Mangos, Sonsonate department, El Salvador, April 7, 1984. The two men implicated in the murder, in which they reportedly threw the twelve men down a 180-foot well, were members of a civil defense unit associated with local death squads. Civil defense patrols were utilized by the Salvadoran state regime as a form of paramilitary control, specifically over the rural sectors of society. The civil defense patrols along with the Salvadoran National Guard were complicit in indiscriminate attacks on peasant cooperatives and villages suspected of subversive sympathies.
A view of Captain Carlos Rodolfo Muñoz Piloña, center, as he walks down a hallway in the Guatemalan National Palace on March 23, 1982, after the military coup d'etat that installed General Ríos Montt into power. Captain Muñoz was the mastermind behind the military coup.
A headless body lies at the bottom of a small hill in the Mejicanos neighborhood in San Salvador, El Salvador, October 1, 1982. The country was engaged in a twelve-year civil war between successive authoritarian regimes, backed by the United States, and the guerrilla coalition Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional, Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, FMLN. The conflict would claim over 75,000 lives before peace negotiations concluded in 1992.
Local residents mourn as a truck carrying caskets of dead relatives arrives in Guadalupe, San Vicente department, El Salvador, May 9, 1983. The dead were members of a local civil defense force killed by guerrillas from the Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional, Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, FMLN. Civil defense units in El Salvador were under military command and operated particularly in rural areas where guerrilla support was high.
View of a cache of weapons and propaganda materials recently seized by the military from a Ejército Guerrillero de los Pobres, Guerrilla Army of the Poor, EGP, safe house at the regional military garrison in Santa Cruz del Quiché, Guatemala, February 1, 1982. The EGP emerged in 1967 from dissident factions of the guerrilla organization Fuerzas Armadas Rebeldes, Rebel Armed Forces, FAR, Catholic followers of liberation theology, and students affiliated with the Juventud Patriótica del Trabajo, JPT, a youth wing of the Partido Guatemalteco del Trabajo, Guatemalan Labor Party, PGT. The EGP established themselves in the highlands where civilian support for their cause was high. Among their demands were land reform, access to healthcare, and a respect for human rights, particularly for the Maya population of the country.
View of a cache of weapons and propaganda materials recently seized by the military from a Ejército Guerrillero de los Pobres, Guerrilla Army of the Poor, EGP, safe house with General Benedicto Lucas García, far right, at the regional military garrison in Santa Cruz del Quiché, Guatemala, February 1, 1982. The EGP emerged in 1967 from dissident factions of the guerrilla organization Fuerzas Armadas Rebeldes, Rebel Armed Forces, FAR, Catholic followers of liberation theology, and students affiliated with the Juventud Patriótica del Trabajo, JPT, a youth wing of the Partido Guatemalteco del Trabajo, Guatemalan Labor Party, PGT. The EGP established themselves in the highlands where civilian support for their cause was high. Among their demands were land reform, access to healthcare, and a respect for human rights, particularly for the Maya population of the country.
Colonel Byron Lima Estrada, center, shows a group of international journalists a cache of weapons recently found by the military in a Ejército Guerrillero de los Pobres, Guerrilla Army of the Poor, EGP, safe house at the regional military garrison in Santa Cruz del Quiché, Guatemala, February 1, 1982. Col. Lima Estrada was commander of the Quiché department army garrison. He received U.S. Army counterintelligence training at Fort Benning, Georgia, the School of the Americas, and instruction from the U.S. Army Mobile Training Team (MTT) and the U.S. Military Assistance Program (MAP). Following his term as intelligence chief, Lima Estrada served as senior officer in key operational units during the Guatemalan Armed Forces' "scorched earth" campaigns in the 1980s. Lima Estrada was convicted in 2001 for the 1998 murder of Catholic Bishop Juan José Gerardi Conedera, which is considered one of the most infamous crimes of Guatemala's post-war history.
A group of international journalists are shown a cache of weapons recently found by the military in a Ejército Guerrillero de los Pobres, Guerrilla Army of the Poor, EGP, safe house with General Benedicto Lucas García, far right, at the regional military garrison in Santa Cruz del Quiché, Guatemala, February 1, 1982. Colonel Byron Lima Estrada, the Santa Cruz del Quiché garrison commander, center, observes the guerrilla equipment. In 1981 the military regime and the Guatemalan army initiated a brutal counterinsurgency program of scorched earth tactics to consolidate control over civilians and counteract the influence of the guerrilla insurgency. The genocidal policies enacted by President Fernando Romeo Lucas García and later by Efraín Ríos Montt were also intended to eradicate the culture and identity of the indigenous population. For his role as army general in the internal armed conflict, General Benedicto Lucas García was sentenced on May 23, 2018 to 58 years in prison for crimes against humanity, aggravated sexual violence, and enforced disappearance. Col. Lima Estrada was convicted in 2001 for the 1998 murder of Catholic Bishop Juan José Gerardi Conedera, which is considered one of the most infamous crimes of Guatemala's post-war history.
A Guatemalan army soldier looks over a cache of weapons recently found by the military in a Ejército Guerrillero de los Pobres, Guerrilla Army of the Poor, EGP, safe house at the regional military garrison in Santa Cruz del Quiché, Guatemala, February 1, 1982. The EGP emerged in 1967 from dissident factions of the guerrilla organization Fuerzas Armadas Rebeldes, Rebel Armed Forces, FAR, Catholic followers of liberation theology, and students affiliated with the Juventud Patriótica del Trabajo, JPT, a youth wing of the Partido Guatemalteco del Trabajo, Guatemalan Labor Party, PGT. The EGP established themselves in the highlands where civilian support for their cause was high. Among their demands were land reform, access to healthcare, and a respect for human rights, particularly for the Maya population of the country.
The body of a dead Salvadoran civilian is taken away in a vehicle after a previous day's firefight between members of the Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional, Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, FMLN, and Salvadoran security troops in San Salvador, El Salvador, October 24, 1984. The man was leaving work for his home in a government housing project. The twelve-year armed conflict would claim over 75,000 lives before peace negotiations concluded in 1992.
UPITN cameraman Godofredo Guedes, right, and sound man Luis Mejia, standing second left, film the casket of a Salvadoran civilian killed in crossfire between the Salvadoran Armed Forces and guerrillas from the Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional, Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, FMLN, in central El Salvador, July 1, 1983. The twelve-year armed conflict would claim over 75,000 lives before peace negotiations concluded in 1992.
Family members follow a hearse carrying the body of a civilian found murdered on the side of a road on the outskirts of San Salvador, El Salvador, June 1, 1983. The twelve-year armed conflict would claim over 75,000 lives before peace negotiations concluded in 1992.
Local residents move their belongings before an assault by the Atlacatl Battalion in pursuit of guerrillas from the Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional, FMLN, in Tenancingo, El Salvador, September 27, 1983. Residents would eventually return to their homes and farms. The Atlacatl Battalion was trained at Ft. Bragg in the United States by U.S. Special Forces as the first rapid response counterinsurgency battalion and was implicated in some of the most infamous human rights violations of the twelve-year armed conflict.
Local residents move their belongings before an assault by the Atlacatl Battalion in pursuit of guerrillas from the Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional, FMLN, in Tenancingo, El Salvador, September 27, 1983. Residents would eventually return to their homes and farms. The Atlacatl Battalion was trained at Ft. Bragg in the United States by U.S. Special Forces as the first rapid response counterinsurgency battalion and was implicated in some of the most infamous human rights violations of the twelve-year armed conflict.
Unidentified men look at two corpses in the city morgue in La Libertad, El Salvador, August 10, 1984. Both victims were shot in the face and showed additional signs of bruising. The twelve-year armed conflict would claim over 75,000 lives before peace negotiations concluded in 1992.
Unidentified men look at two corpses in the city morgue in La Libertad, El Salvador, August 10, 1984. Both victims were shot in the face and showed additional signs of bruising. The twelve-year armed conflict would claim over 75,000 lives before peace negotiations concluded in 1992.
Unidentified men look at one of two corpses in the city morgue, La Libertad, El Salvador, August 10, 1984. Both victims were shot in the face and showed additional signs of bruising. The twelve-year armed conflict would claim over 75,000 lives before peace negotiations concluded in 1992.