Last U.S. President to go after them physically, without more information, was Ronald Reagan:
Reagan also funded anti-communist groups in Nicaragua who were fighting the elected government of Daniel Ortega. His government's power also suffered from economic sanctions imposed by Reagan. It was later discovered that the United States had attempted to damage the economy by the mining of Nicaragua's harbours. Reagan also funded death squads in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala in the 1980s. He also backed the Guatemalan government that killed an estimated 100,000 Mayan Indians during this period.
In 1981 Reagan sent Donald Rumsfeld, his Middle East envoy, to Iraq. This resulted in Reagan selling Saddam Hussein "dual-use" items, including helicopters and chemicals. He also armed the Mojahedin in Afghanistan that eventually evolved into the Taliban.
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAreagan.htm~~~~~~~~~~Reagan & the Salvadoran Baby Skulls
By Robert Parry
January 30, 2007
Ronald Reagan’s many admirers may find this idea offensive, but – given a new report by the Washington Post – it might be fitting to have a display at Reagan National Airport to show how Salvadoran baby skulls were used as candle holders and good luck charms. Perhaps the presentation could contain skeletal remains of Guatemalans and Nicaraguans, too.
It might be modeled after skeletons on display in Cambodia from the slaughters by the Khmer Rouge. After all, it was President Reagan – more than any other person – who justified and facilitated the barbarity that raged through Central America in the 1980s, claiming the lives of tens of thousands of peasants, clergy and students, men, women and children.
Reagan portrayed the bloody conflicts as a necessary front in the Cold War, but the Central American violence was always more about entrenched ruling elites determined to retain their privileges against impoverished peasants, including descendants of the region’s Maya Indians, seeking social, political and economic reforms.
One of the most notorious acts of brutality occurred in December 1981 in and around the Salvadoran town of El Mozote. The government’s Atlacatl Battalion – freshly trained and newly armed thanks to Reagan’s hard-line policies – systematically slaughtered hundreds of men, women and children.
When the atrocity was revealed by reporters at the New York Times and the Washington Post, the Reagan administration showed off its new strategy of “perception management,” denying the facts and challenging the integrity of the journalists.
More:
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2007/012907.htmlAnyone who would like to read more about the U.S.-sponsored massacres in El Salvador, please take time to click on the thumbnails in the google images section:
http://images.google.com/images?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2004-37,GGLD:en&q=El+Salvador+%2b+massacreOne story accompanying a photo I would not want to post:
~snip~
The name "El Mozote," once a village in Morazan department in northeast El Salvador, does not appear on the Army's web site. It was there that this good soldier, so admired by his men and well liked by the U.S. military advisors, in command of the Atlacatl battalion, wrote his page in the annals of world atrocity. That story should not be forgotten.
In El Mozote and neighboring small villages, between December 10 and 13, 1981, the men of the Atlacatl murdered in cold blood at least one thousand men, women and children. There was no combat there; these civilians were not even guerrilla sympathizers. Most of them were Protestants, politically conservative and supporters of the government, who believed they had good relations with the Salvadoran military. For that reason they had ignored warnings from the FMLN that they should evacuate their homes before the coming army sweep through the area. Some people even arrived in El Mozote from other towns, thinking that they would find a safe haven there until the fighting was past.
The murders were carried out deliberately. First, men were tortured for information that they did not have, and then killed. Most of the women were repeatedly raped before being murdered. Hundreds of children came last. A little boy who escaped saw his two year old brother hung from a tree by a soldier. A survivor--from El Mozote itself there was only one--heard some soldiers saying that they didn't want to kill the children; their lieutenant told them they themselves would be shot if they didn't obey orders. This woman, whose name is Rufina Amaya Marquez, lost her husband and four children in the massacre. While hiding to save her life, she heard her own children among many others screaming for help as they were butchered. Finally, all the buildings of the town were burned, and with them the bodies of hundreds of victims wounded and dead.1
The troops were not out of control. Their commanders, including Col. Monterrosa, were present during the operation, which was done at their orders. Why? There is only one answer: it was terrorosm. If even people such as these, whom the army knew did not support the guerrillas, were slaughtered, what must happen to villagers who did help the FMLN? Years later reporter James LeMoyne heard as unguarded answer from Monterrosa himself. "Yeah, we did it," he said. "We killed everyone. In those days I thought that was what we had to do to win the war. And I was wrong."2
It is worth repeating that the rapid response (counter insurgency) battalion Atlacatl was organized, trained, and equipped by the United States. The unit's preparation was begun in 1980 and completed early in 1981. The Atlacatl and its commander continued to be favored by U.S. military advisors in El Salvador.
More:
http://www.math.dartmouth.edu/~lamperti/Trojan_Horse.html
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