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Edited on Sat Apr-08-06 07:43 PM by Judi Lynn
tonight, butI'll post a few things to think about now, and hope to add other material later. Here's something I'm sure most people in the States haven't heard about: TORTURE IN EL SALVADOR:THE CENSORED REPORT FROM MARIONA PRISON
In late 1986, a 165-page report was smuggled out of the Mariona
men's prison in El Salvador. The report was compiled by five
imprisoned members of the Human Rights Commission of El Salvador
(CDHES). The report documents the "routine" and "systematic" use of at
least 40 kinds of torture on political prisoners.
The report made three main points: first, torture is systematic,
not random; second, the methods of torture are becoming more clever;
and finally, U.S. servicemen often act as supervisors. What is new to
torture in El Salvador, according to the study, is that the use of
torture, together with the continued (although diminished) use of
death-squad kidnappings of the "disappeared," are all a systematic
part of of the U.S. counterinsurgency program there.
The Marin Interfaith Task Force, from Mill Valley, California,
assembled the smuggled report from Mariona prison into a document
titled "Torture in El Salvador." Starting in September, 1986, the Task
Force has tried to generate media interest in the story. Suzanne
Bristol of the task force, said the group sent the report to the
nation's major newspapers, including THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE
WASHINGTON POST, THE BOSTON GLOBE, and the LOS ANGELES TIMES, as well
as to the wire services. By February, 1987, when Alexander Cockburn
wrote his article for THE NATION, UPI had run a Spanish-language story
and the report had received coverage on Spanish-language radio, in
Mexican periodicals and in Europe. Follow-up calls to the above papers
produced nothing, except for two letters in December from Art
Seidenbaum of the LOS ANGELES TIMES, who first wrote "You send plenty
of homework," and later wrote "We really have ... no staff for making
a 1500-word article out of a large series of reports."
As Cockburn noted, it was "during this period, on November 22,
Secretary of State George Shultz asked Congress to approve nearly $7
million in police aid for El Salvador in 1987, providing the necessary
certification that the government of El Salvador had 'made significant
progress during the six-month period preceding this determination in
eliminating any human rights violations, including torture,
incommunicado detention ...'"
Apparently only one newspaper gave the actual report substantial
coverage. The SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER ran two excellent articles by
free lance journalist Ron Ridenhour, who quoted State Department
spokesman James Callahan saying that the CDHES, the only Salvadoran
human rights group recognized by the United Nations, is a communist
"front organization." (It was Ridenhour's charges that led to the
revelations about the Army's massacre of civilians in My Lai.)
On October 26, 1987, assassins, probably belonging to the
Salvadoran security forces, murdered Herbert Ernesto Anaya, head of
the Salvadoran Human Rights Commission and the last survivor of that
commission's eight founders.
Anaya also was one of the five original researchers and authors
of the smuggled report from the Mariona men's prison.
(snip/...) http://www.skepticfiles.org/mys1/pc09.htm~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Here's what caught my attention, a moment ago, when I was attempting to find a representative photo of the funeral procession of El Mozote massacre victems (it was a very long, winding stream of citizens carrying coffins through mountain paths, in El Salvador while Reagan/Bush were in power. I'm posting the google page of photos of Mariona prison, as it isn't suitable for copying and pasting the photos. It would be my impression this is how a machete attack looks after the one-sided battle against unarmed prisoners. http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&hl=en&lr=&q=Mariona+massacre+&btnG=SearchYou will find what you read about the massacre at El Salvador to be real food for thought. Here's a quick summary: VILLAGE OF EL MOZOTE
On the afternoon of 10 December 1981, units of the Atlacatl Rapid Deployment Infantry Battalion (BIRI) arrived in the village of El Mozote, Department of Morazan, after a clash with guerrillas in the vicinity.
The village consisted of about 20 houses situated on open ground round a square. Facing onto the square was a church and behind it small building known as "the convent," used by the priest to change into his vestments when he came to the village to celebrate mass. Not far from the village was a school, the Grupo Escolar.
When the soldiers arrived in the village they found, in addition to the residents, other peasants who were refugees from the surrounding areas. They ordered everyone out of the houses and into the square; they made them lie face down, searched them and asked them about the guerrillas. They then ordered them to lock themselves in their houses until the next day, warning that anyone coming out would be hot. The soldiers remained in the village during the night.
Early next morning, 11 December, the soldiers reassembled the entire population in the square. They separated the men from the women and children and locked everyone up in different groups in he church, the convent and various houses.
During the morning, they proceeded to interrogate, torture and execute the men in various locations. Around noon, they began taking out the women in groups, separating them from their children and machine-gunning them. Finally, they killed the children. A group of children who had been locked in the convent were machine-gunned through the windows. After exterminating the entire population, the soldiers set fire to the buildings.
The soldiers remained in El Mozote that night. The next day, they went through the village of Los Toriles, situated 2 kilometres away. Some of the inhabitants managed to escape. The others, men, women, and children, were taken from their homes, lined up and machine-gunned.
The victims at El Mozote were left unburied. During the weeks that followed the bodies were seen by many people who passed by there. In Los Toriles, the survivors subsequently buried the bodies.
(snip) http://www.parascope.com/articles/0197/el_moz05.htmhttp://www.parascope.com/articles/0197/el_mozdocs.htm~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Photos of the destroyed town: http://mikeoso.homestead.com/mozote.htmlJanuary/February 1993 | Contents
THE MOZOTE MASSACRE
It was the reporters' word against the government's
by Mike Hoyt
Hoyt is associate editor of CJR.
EL MOZOTE, El Salvadore, Oct. 20 -- In a small rectangular plot among the overgrown ruins of a village here, a team of forensic archeologists has opened a window on El Salvador's nightmarish past. . . . Nearly 11 years after American-trained soldiers were said to have torn through El Mozote and surrounding hamlets on a rampage in which at least 794 people were killed, the bones have emerged as stark evidence that the claims of peasant survivors and the reporters of a couple of American journalists were true.
So begins Tim Golden's October 22 New York Times story, which describes the unearthing of skeletons by forensic experts working in what was once a collection of rural villages in northern El Salvador. A similar article, by Douglas Farah, appeared the same day in The Washington Post. Reporters from both papers had been the only journalists to report on the 1981 massacre, and both Raymond Bonner of the Times and Alma Guillermoprieto of the Post paid a price for their coverage, which drew immediate fire from Reagan administration officials and others on the political right. To Bonner and Guillermoprieto, and to photojournalist Susan Meiselas, who traveled to El Mozote with Bonner back in 1981, the belated confirmation of what they knew to be true was both welcome and disturbing, bringing back strong memories of the grisly scene they came upon at the end of a long walk through Morazan province, a guerrilla stronghold.
It was shortly before Christmas in 1981 that soldiers from the elite American-trained Atlacatl Battalion conducted a search-and-destroy operation around El Mozote. A few days after they entered the area, the guerrillas' clandestine radio station began to broadcast reports of a massacre of civilians in the area. Reporters started pushing the guerrillas, officially called the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, for proof. "There wasn't a reporter there who didn't want to go in with them," Bonner recalls.
The rebels, who had a sophisticated sense of how to use the media, offered guided behind-the-lines tours to reporters from America's two most important newspapers. Bonner and Meiselas were the first to go in, in early January. The journey involved traveling through government-held territory. Bonner remembers fording a river, carrying his clothing over his head, under a full moon. Meiselas says that what she most vividly remembers about their arrival in El Mozote was the sound, or the lack of it: "A very haunted village. Nothing moving. A plaza with a number of destroyed houses. And total silence."
(snip/...) http://archives.cjr.org/year/93/1/mozote.asp~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Book on the subject:The El Mozote Massacre
Anthropology and Human Rights
Leigh Binford
The 1981 slaughter of more than a thousand civilians around El Mozote, El Salvador, by the country's U.S.-trained army was the largest massacre of the Salvadoran civil war.The story was covered and soon forgotten—by the news media.It was revived in 1993 only when the U.S. government was accused of covering up the incident.
(snip/...) http://www.uapress.arizona.edu/BOOKS/bid999.htmHere's the more recent part of a US/Nicaragua timeline. A year to examine is 1980. There's so much I've got to read about these events, also. I have only scratched through to the most superficial level myself: 1954: Somoza sends mercenary forces to Guatemala to help U.S. forces oust socialist president, Jacobo Arbenz.
1955: Somoza pulls Nicaraguan troops from the Dominican Republic, who have intervened with U.S. military operations.
1956: Anastasio Somoza is assassinated and succeeded by his son, Luis Somoza Debayle.
For four years after his son's regime, close associates of the Somoza family maintain political control of Nicaragua.
1960: The U.S. dispatches its Caribbean Float to Nicaragua and Guatemala to protect administrations from popular sector uprisings
1961: US mercenaries depart from Nicaragua's Puerto Cabezas and invade Playa Girón, Cuba. They suffer a historical defeat known as the "Bay of Pigs."
1966: Somoza Debayle makes René Schick president . During a visit to the U.S., Schick volunteers Nicaragua to serve as an U.S. military base for invading Cuba.
1967: Somoza Debayle establishes a military autocracy, silencing his opposition through the National Guard.
1967: Somoza Debayle offers soldiers from his National Guard to fight in the Vietnam War.
1968: Nicaraguan functionaries, sent by Somoza Debayle, help overthrow Panamanian president, Arnulfo Arias.
1971: Somoza Debayle steps down from government, but retains the post, Chief of the Armed Forces. A governing coalition is formed, which is comprised of a Conservative and two Liberal executives.
1972: A devastating earthquake strikes Managua, leaving 6,000 dead and 20,000 injured. Somoza Debayle embezzles money from international relief funds. Martial law is declared; and Somoza Debayle is made Chief Executive of the Nicaraguan government. U.S. marines are sent to Nicaragua to insure Somoza's regime is instituted.
1974: Somoza is decreed president of Nicaragua.
1978: By the end of the decade, Nicaragua experiences an economic slowdown and circumstances are ripe for a revolution. Joaquín Chamorro, editor of the anti-Somoza newspaper, La Prensa, is assassinated. The public holds Somoza responsible. Led by the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), anti-Somoza guerrilla forces launch a violent uprising against the military. Nicaragua is plunged into a near civil war.
1979: Somoza resigns on July 17th, and flees to Miami, exiling to Paraguay. On July 20th, Sandinista forces enter Managua, and hundreds of thousands of Nicaraguans celebrate their triumph.
1980: Somoza is assassinated in Paraguay. The Sandinista government implements social programs, which receive international recognition for their gains in literacy, health care, education, childcare, unions, and land reform. For the first time in history, Nicaraguans are called to decide their own future. Just as they struggle for increased self-sufficiency, the Reagan-Bush administration begins funding the Contra War. The goal is to undermine the Sandinista regime. This ten-year war is fought at the cost of 60, 000 lives, 178 billion dollars, and the Nicaraguan infrastructure and economy.
1980: Political control is shifted to a five-member junta, which rules Nicaragua from 1980 to 1985. Among the junta members is Violeta Chamorro, the widow of the late journalist, Joaquín Chamorro.
1985: FSLN's presidential candidate, Daniel Ortega takes office and declares a state of national emergency, suspending civil rights. The Iran-Contra Affair begins. This U.S.-orchestrated operation secretly channels funds to the Contras soldiers, which is in direct violation with the Boland Amendment.
1988: Nicaragua is a disaster zone, ravaged by civil war and the onslaught of Hurricane Hugo. President Ortega agrees to the first round of peace talks with Contra leaders. A temporary truce is reached in March.
1990: The moderate UNO Coalition candidate, Violeta Chamorro is elected president of Nicaragua. Chamorro improves diplomatic relations with the U.S. At this time, the FSLN party still holds the majority of popular support in Nicaragua.
1991: The UNO coalition governs Nicaragua. They severely cut government spending on successful, Sandinista-led social programs in such areas as health care and education. On July 1st, right wing sectors attack Sandinista land reforms, which have redistributed land to small-scale farmers. The impact is felt across the nation.
1997: Arnoldo Alemán Lacayo, the Liberal Party's conservative candidate, wins the presidential elections- 49 to 39 percent over FSLN opponent, Daniel Ortega.
(snip/...) http://www.stanford.edu/group/arts/nicaragua/discovery_eng/timeline/ |
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