El Salvador War History: El Mozote

El Salvador is just 18 years removed from a brutal Civil War. International travelers are now just starting to visit the country again. The war was between the Salvadorian government and a rebel group known as the FMLN which was an umbrella of political groups fighting to end the repression of the poor in El Salvador. After 18 years and over 75,000 deaths, the Civil War ended, the FMLN was molded into a legitimate political party, and a general peace has persisted. There is an incredibly long history that led up to the war, too much to describe here, so please keep that in mind. We also have been amazed at the Salvadorian people, their resilience, and their eagerness for others to learn about their country both the good and bad.

Many visitors, us included, are interested in the history of the war. We have visited several sites and learned a lot about the conflict, but we came to Perquin - a small mountain town near the Honduran border - to visit an area that experienced some of the heaviest activity both prior to and during the war. In addition to the war museum and several old battle sites, we came to visit the site of one of the war´s greatest atrocities: the massacre at El Mozote. Keep in mind this is sensitive to read and for us, was very sensitive to visit.

In El Mozote in 1981, Salvadorian government soldiers swarmed the small, poor isolated village of El Mozote. They separated the men, women, and children and proceeded to torture and kill over 800 innocent civilians. The massacre was part of many similar events undertaken by deathsquads which were part of what the Salvadorian government called ¨Take the Water From the Fish¨ as well as ¨Razed Earth,¨ tactics used to terrorize the poorer populace and deter them from joining the rebellion.

El Mozote is little more than a few small wood, tin, and cement houses along with a tiny town square. In the town square there is a church and the attached parish was destroyed during the war. In the square, there is a memorial with a sculpture and a wall listing the names of hundreds of the victims, they are separated by family on individual wooden squares. There is also a grave plot for one family, chosen to be symbolically represent all the other victims whose bodies were never recovered and therefore not able to be buried.

Next to the church is where the greatest atrocity was found: the bodies of 146 people, 131 of them children stacked into a tiny room in the former parish. Part of the parish floor still remains, parts of which are black from where it was set on fire. They have turned the yard into ¨The Garden of the Innocents,¨ an incredibly beautiful memorial to the victims, especially the children. It is incredibly well done, rife with symbolism. There´s a beautiful mural of children playing under the stars and being lifted into heaven, several commemorative plaques, and a beautiful garden. Broken glass rebuilt into hearts and globes.

We were guided through these memorials by a local volunteer, an older woman who was clearly moved even though she sees the memorials every day. After the memorials, a local teenager walked us through town, showing us remaining structures covered in bullet holes and old bomb craters. He also pointed out the hill where women and children were taken away from the men to be tortured. The trees in town are young because almost the entire town was razed with bombs and fire. The boy was too young to remember, but he told us he had lost 4 aunts and uncles and 16 cousins in the massacre.

For us, it was almost too much to comprehend why people do things like this to each other. While waiting for the bus we had lengthy conversations about serious issues. Learning about events like these makes you realize how lucky you are to be who you are, and where you are. As hard as it was to hear these stories, we were happy to have seen the memorials, and to write about them so that the stories of the victims and their memories survive.