Salvadoran government officials Julio Adolfo Rey Prendes, left in white, Minister of Defense General Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova, middle, and President José Napoleón Duarte, middle speaking in microphone, address the press during peace talks with the insurgency coalition FDR-FMLN in La Palma, El Salvador, October 15, 1984. A military stalemate led to direct public peace negotiations for the first time in the civil conflict between the Salvadoran government and members of the Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional, Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, FMLN, and their political counterpart the Frente Democrático Revolucionario, Revolutionary Democratic Front, FDR. The two sides would engage in peace talks intermittently throughout the country’s twelve-year civil war before the signing of the 1992 Chapultepec Peace Accords.
Salvadoran government officials Julio Adolfo Rey Prendes, left in white, Minister of Defense General Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova, middle, and President José Napoleón Duarte, middle speaking in microphone, address the press during peace talks with the insurgency coalition FDR-FMLN in La Palma, El Salvador, October 15, 1984. A military stalemate led to direct public peace negotiations for the first time in the civil conflict between the Salvadoran government and members of the Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional, Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, FMLN, and their political counterpart the Frente Democrático Revolucionario, Revolutionary Democratic Front, FDR. The two sides would engage in peace talks intermittently throughout the country’s twelve-year civil war before the signing of the 1992 Chapultepec Peace Accords.
Salvadoran Minister of Defense General Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova, left, and the wife of Lieutenant Colonel Domingo Monterrosa, right, at the funeral procession with Monterrosa’s family and military officers following his death in a helicopter explosion in the Morazán department four days before, San Salvador, El Salvador, October 27, 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. Monterrosa trained at the notorious School of the Americas and was hailed by American advisors as the army’s best field officer.
Minister of Defense General Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova salutes during a military ceremony in San Salvador, El Salvador, September 1, 1983. Vides Casanova was head of the Salvadoran National Guard between 1979 and 1983 and served as Minister of Defense from 1983 to 1989. After a 15-year legal battle, he was found guilty in the United States by his command responsibility over Salvadoran security forces for acts of torture and extrajudicial killings, including the brutal slaying of four U.S. nuns in 1980. On April 8, 2015, U.S. immigration officials deported Vides Casanova to El Salvador from the United States, where he had resided as a legal permanent resident since 1989.
Salvadoran Minister of Defense General Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova, left, toasts U.S. Army Colonel John D. Waghelstein, right, as deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in El Salvador Kenneth W. Bleakley, center, oversees a ceremony honoring Col. Waghelstein prior to his departure from the country, San Salvador, El Salvador, June 1, 1983. As Chief of the U.S. Military Group in El Salvador, Waghelstein held command over the U.S. advisors stationed in the country and was one of the army's leading experts on counterinsurgency warfare.
Deputy Minister of Defense Rafael Flores Lima, left, and Minister of Defense General Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova, right, salute during a military ceremony in downtown San Salvador, El Salvador, September 1, 1983. The twelve-year Salvadoran civil war was rooted in class conflict. The country's high economic disparity had existed since Spanish colonial rule and continued after peace negotiations concluded in 1992. The landowning oligarchy and the military formed an early alliance in the country’s history that all but guaranteed an impermeable apparatus of consolidated control and impunity.
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.
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.
Salvadoran General Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova walks to the Federal Courthouse in West Palm Beach, Florida, USA, October 19, 2000. Vides Casanova was head of the Salvadoran National Guard between 1979 and 1983. After a 15-year legal battle, he was found guilty in the United States by his command responsibility over Salvadoran security forces for acts of torture and extrajudicial killings, including the brutal slaying of four U.S. nuns in 1980. On April 8, 2015, U.S. immigration officials deported Vides Casanova to El Salvador from the United States, where he had resided as a legal permanent resident since 1989.
United States Secretary of State George Shultz, center, makes an appearance for the media at the Salvadoran Foreign Ministry in San Salvador, El Salvador, January 31, 1984. Secretary Shultz is surrounded by, left to right, Salvadoran Foreign Minister Fidel Chavez Mena, U.S. Ambassador at Large Richard Stone, Salvadoran General Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova, Salvadoran President Álvaro Alfredo Magaña Borja, U.S. Ambassador Thomas R. Pickering and other Salvadoran and U.S. officials. Considered the "last major battle of the Cold War", the Central American conflicts drew significant attention from Washington, with officials frequently visiting the region to assess strategies as well as encourage the doctrines of military victory and democracy building.
An unidentified woman attends a memorial service on the third anniversary of the killing of four United States 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 woman attends a memorial service on the third anniversary of the killing of four United States 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.