Salvadoran Minister of Defense General José Guillermo García, second left, along with members of a U.S. congressional delegation, speaks at a press conference in San Salvador, El Salvador, March 1, 1983. Pictured from left are U.S. representative Bill Richardson, General García, and U.S. representatives Jim Oberstar (1934-2014) and James Jeffords (1934-2014) with John McAward from the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee. The conference was called to address the Salvadoran Air Force's admission that it used napalm purchased from Israel against insurgents and civilians in the country's ongoing civil war.
Photographer John Hoagland (1947-1984) observes soldiers from the Atlacatl Battalion advance during a military operation in Tenancingo, El Salvador, September 27, 1983. Hoagland, a contract photographer for Newsweek magazine, was shot and killed by the Salvadoran army in crossfire during an ambush by guerrillas from the Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional, Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, FMLN, on March 16, 1984 in Suchitoto, El Salvador.
Photographer John Hoagland (1947-1984) observes soldiers from the Atlacatl Battalion advance during a military operation in Tenancingo, El Salvador, September 27, 1983. Ivan Montecinos, a photographer for United Press International (UPI), stands behind Hoagland. Hoagland, a contract photographer for Newsweek magazine, was shot and killed by the Salvadoran army in crossfire during an ambush by guerrillas from the Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional, Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, FMLN, on March 16, 1984 in Suchitoto, El Salvador.
Journalists interview local residents as they move their belongings before an assault by the Atlacatl Battalion during a military operation in pursuit of guerrillas from the Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional, Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, 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 Salvadoran rapid response counterinsurgency battalion and was implicated in some of the most infamous human rights violations of the twelve-year armed conflict.
Journalists interview local residents as they move their belongings before an assault by the Atlacatl Battalion during a military operation in pursuit of guerrillas from the Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional, Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, 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 Salvadoran rapid response counterinsurgency battalion and was implicated in some of the most infamous human rights violations of the twelve-year armed conflict.
Judge Bernardo Rauda Murcia sits during an interview a day after convicting five former members of El Salvador's National Guard for the murders in December of 1980 of four United States churchwomen, Zacatecoluca, El Salvador, May 26, 1984. The trial was the first time in Salvadoran judicial history that a jury had convicted a member of the armed forces for a politically-motivated slaying. The case figured prominently in debate in the United States Congress over whether El Salvador should continue to receive military aid, which helped sustain support for the investigation and conviction of the five guardsmen. Several Salvadoran military officials, including then-head of the National Guard General Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova and then-Minister of Defense General José Guillermo García, were later found to have "assisted or otherwise participated in" attempts to cover up the killings.
At a press conference, a leader of the left-wing labor union coalition Movimiento de Unidad Sindical y Gremial de El Salvador, Unitary Trade Union and Guild Movement of El Salvador, MUSYGES, displays a headline in the El Mundo daily newspaper reporting threats by the right-wing death squad Éjercito Secreto Anticomunista, Secret Anticommunist Army, ESA, in San Salvador, El Salvador, October 5, 1984. The Salvadoran political elite viewed labor unions as subversive enemies of the state and considered its leaders to be as dangerous as the guerrilla insurgency. El Salvador is a country burdened with one of the most rigid class structures in all of Latin America. Resistance to labor unions and land redistribution can be attributed to the economic oligarchy's overwhelming influence in the political and military spheres, as well as their connection to right-wing death squads.
At a press conference, a leader of the left-wing labor union coalition Movimiento de Unidad Sindical y Gremial de El Salvador, Unitary Trade Union and Guild Movement of El Salvador, MUSYGES, displays a headline in the El Mundo daily newspaper reporting threats by the right-wing death squad Éjercito Secreto Anticomunista, Secret Anticommunist Army, ESA, in San Salvador, El Salvador, October 5, 1984. MUSYGES was founded in 1983 as a result of the coordination amongst union activists working clandestinely in urban zones. Although it dissolved in November of 1984 over factional disputes, MUSYGES, in its short existence, led demands against state repression and wage controls in place since 1980 and opened space for labor organizing later in the decade.
In territory held by leftist guerrillas from the Fuerzas Populares de Liberación, FPL, a father holds his son near Santa Anita, Chalatenango department, February 21, 1981. About a quarter of the country's population, nearly one million people, are thought to have been displaced during the twelve-year civil war, half of them internally while the other half fled abroad. A large number of Salvadorans who fled abroad to escape the civil war sought refuge in the United States.
Lieutenant Colonel Domingo Monterrosa speaks to a crowd of civilians during a military operation to clear the rural area of ERP guerrillas, San Miguel department, El Salvador, September 5, 1984. Just weeks after his visit, Monterrosa was killed along with 13 other Salvadoran army soldiers in a helicopter explosion near Joateca, Morazán department on October 23, 1984. FMLN guerrillas led by Joaquín Villalobos, who had previously denounced Monterrosa and his command authority over the Atlacatl Battalion for carrying out the December 1981 civilian massacre in El Mozote, claimed responsibility for the helicopter crash.
Lieutenant Colonel Domingo Monterrosa speaks to a crowd of civilians during a military operation in Botejon, San Miguel department, El Salvador, September 5, 1984. Three weeks after this visit, Monterrosa was killed along with 13 other Salvadoran army soldiers while the soldiers were retrieving a booby trapped FMLN radio transmitter on October 23, 1984 in Joateca, Morazán department. FMLN guerrillas led by Joaquín Villalobos, who had previously denounced Monterrosa and his command authority over the Atlacatl Battalion for carrying out the December 1981 civilian massacre in El Mozote, claimed responsibility for the helicopter crash.
Lieutenant Colonel Domingo Monterrosa, right, speaks with one of his junior officers, left, as soldiers from the Atlacatl Battalion pursue guerrillas from the Ejército Revolucionario del Pueblo, ERP, in San Miguel department, El Salvador, August 23, 1983. Monterrosa trained at the School of the Americas and headed the controversial Atlacatl Battalion, one of the rapid reaction counterinsurgency battalions coordinated and funded by the United States. The Atlacatl Battalion, under Monterrosa’s command, was responsible for the infamous El Mozote massacre of December 1981, which remains the largest single massacre in recent Latin American history.
Lieutenant Colonel Domingo Monterrosa, second left, confers with soldiers from the Atlacatl Battalion during a military operation against guerrillas from the Ejército Revolucionario del Pueblo, ERP, in San Miguel department, El Salvador, August 23, 1983. Monterrosa trained at the School of the Americas and headed the controversial Atlacatl Battalion, one of the rapid reaction counterinsurgency battalions coordinated and funded by the United States. The Atlacatl Battalion, under Monterrosa’s command, was responsible for the infamous El Mozote massacre of December 1981, which remains the largest single massacre in recent Latin American history.
Salvadoran Lieutenant Colonel Domingo Monterrosa (1940-1984), commander of the Atlacatl Battalion, consults a map during a military operation in San Miguel department, El Salvador, August 23, 1983. Monterrosa was killed in a helicopter explosion along with 13 other army soldiers while they were retrieving a booby trapped FMLN radio transmitter in Joateca, Morazán department, October 24, 1984. FMLN guerrillas led by Joaquín Villalobos, who had previously denounced Monterrosa and his command authority over the Atlacatl Battalion for carrying out the December 1981 civilian massacre in El Mozote, claimed responsibility for the helicopter crash.
Salvadoran Lieutenant Colonel Domingo Monterrosa (1940-1984), commander of the Atlacatl Battalion, consults a map during a military operation in San Miguel department, El Salvador, August 23, 1983. Monterrosa was killed in a helicopter explosion along with 13 other army soldiers while they were retrieving a booby trapped FMLN radio transmitter in Joateca, Morazán department, October 24, 1984. FMLN guerrillas led by Joaquín Villalobos, who had previously denounced Monterrosa and his command authority over the Atlacatl Battalion for carrying out the December 1981 civilian massacre in El Mozote, claimed responsibility for the helicopter crash.
A captured member, second right, of the paramilitary militia Organización Democrática Nacionalista, Democratic Nationalist Organization, ORDEN, stands with his family behind a table of weapons following the takeover of their village by leftist guerrillas from the Fuerzas Populares de Liberación, FPL, in San Antonio de la Cruz, El Salvador, February 20, 1981. ORDEN was established in the late 1960s with support from the United States Army Special Forces by General José Alberto Medrano, known as the father of Salvadoran counterinsurgency. ORDEN, along with the Agencia Nacional de Seguridad Salvadoreña, National Security Agency of El Salvador, ANSESAL, widely considered to be the origin of the death squads, were employed by the military to infiltrate and terrorize rural populations considered subversive to the regime. Although ORDEN was nominally disbanded in 1979, many of its members were folded into civil defense units who continued to use extrajudicial violence and torture to repress the civilian population throughout the armed conflict.
One of five captured members of the paramilitary militia Organización Democrática Nacionalista, Democratic Nationalist Organization, ORDEN, stands behind a table of weapons following the takeover of their village by leftist guerrillas from the Fuerzas Populares de Liberación, FPL, in San Antonio de la Cruz, El Salvador, February 20, 1981. ORDEN was established in the late 1960s with support from the United States Army Special Forces by General José Alberto Medrano, known as the father of Salvadoran counterinsurgency. ORDEN, along with the Agencia Nacional de Seguridad Salvadoreña, National Security Agency of El Salvador, ANSESAL, widely considered to be the origin of the death squads, were employed by the military to infiltrate and terrorize rural populations considered subversive to the regime. Although ORDEN was nominally disbanded in 1979, many of its members were folded into civil defense units who continued to use extrajudicial violence and torture to repress the civilian population throughout the armed conflict.
An unidentified member of the United States clergy offers communion on the third anniversary of the killing of four U.S. churchwomen in La Libertad, El Salvador, December 2, 1983. On December 2, 1980, Maryknoll sisters Maura Clarke and Ita Ford, Ursuline nun Dorothy Kazel, and lay missionary Jean Donovan were abducted, sexually abused, and executed near the airport in San Salvador by soldiers of the National Guard. The case figured prominently in debate in the United States Congress over whether El Salvador should continue to receive military aid. Several Salvadoran military officials, including then-head of the National Guard General Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova and then-Minister of Defense General José Guillermo García, were later found to have “assisted or otherwise participated in” attempts to cover up the killings.
An unidentified member of the United States clergy addresses a memorial service on the third anniversary of the killing of four U.S. churchwomen in La Libertad, El Salvador, December 2, 1983. On December 2, 1980, Maryknoll sisters Maura Clarke and Ita Ford, Ursuline nun Dorothy Kazel, and lay missionary Jean Donovan were abducted, sexually abused, and executed near the airport in San Salvador by soldiers of the National Guard. The case figured prominently in debate in the United States Congress over whether El Salvador should continue to receive military aid. Several Salvadoran military officials, including then-head of the National Guard General Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova and then-Minister of Defense General José Guillermo García, were later found to have “assisted or otherwise participated in” attempts to cover up the killings.
A Salvadoran army helicopter circles a landing zone with a military resupply of food during an operation in San Miguel department, El Salvador, September 1, 1983. The military operation was conducted by the Atlacatl Battalion, a rapid reaction counterinsurgency unit funded and trained by U.S. Special Forces at Ft. Bragg.