If Colonel Domingo Monterossa had read more classical mythology, he might be alive today. In that case he would, or should, face trial for one of the most atrocious war crimes of the 20th century. But instead Monterrosa himself has been mythologized--both by the armed forces of El Salvador and by their enemies and victims, the FMLN guerrillas and the people of Morazan province.
Lt. Colonel José Domingo Monterossa Barrios, perhaps more clearly than most of us, showed the world two faces. One was that of the good soldier, risen to command from humble beginnings, skilled and brave in combat, beloved by the men he led. Born in 1940 in the town of Berlin, Usulután Department, Monterrosa graduated from El Salvador's military academy in 1963 and was appointed second lieutenant that same year. A laudatory page on the web site of the Salvadoran Armed Forces says that he was one of the first commanders of the Parachute Battalion, that he fought with distinction in the 1969 "soccer war" with Honduras, and that he was alway accompanied by his German Shepherd dog "Hurricane" until the dog died in a training accident when his parachute failed to open. Among other special courses, he attended the U.S. Army's "School of the Americas" in 1966. More importantly, the Armed Forces' tribute says that Monterrosa was "an officer who was always at the side of his troops, human, friendly, sharing their hardships. He always maintained high morale in his units and enjoyed the respect and confidence of his companions in arms and his superiors." The brief biography adds that Colonel Monterrosa was the first commander of the "rapid response battalion" ATLACATL, an elite unit created, trained and equipped by the United States in 1980. Later he became commanding officer of the Third Infantry Brigade of San Miguel, the position he held "at the moment of the tragedy" in 1984. On the same web page you can listen to "The Ballad of Domingo Monterrosa" celebrating his "heroism" and service to the fatherland.
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
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http://www.math.dartmouth.edu/~lamperti/Trojan_Horse.html~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~OSI Forum: A Turning Point in Human Rights
The 1981 Massacre at El Mozote
In December 1981, Salvadoran soldiers trained in counterinsurgency tactics by U.S. military advisors carried out anti-guerrilla operations in the province of Morazon in northeastern El Salvador. On December 10, they entered the village of El Mozote. Although the army did not regard El Mozote as a town that harbored or was sympathetic toward the guerillas, the troops rounded up men, women, and children from El Mozote and several nearby villages over the next four days—and then tortured and executed them. A UN Truth Commission, established in 1992 after a peace agreement ended the civil war, concluded that at least 500 civilians were killed at El Mozote. Judicial investigations into the massacre started in 1990 have yet to result in any prosecutions. The investigations have been marked by interference from the armed forces and the president of El Salvador's Supreme Court.
Despite lack of progress in prosecuting those responsible for the massacre, human rights advocates consider El Mozote a turning point for the human rights movement because it marked the first time that an investigative approach was used to document abuses. (Previous efforts had relied largely on individual testimony.) In addition, the massacre prompted the first-ever use of the Geneva Conventions for assessing human rights abuse in Central America, and the reporting and investigations that followed El Mozote helped focus debate on U.S. responsibility for massive human rights abuses through its continued support for El Salvador's military. Currently, human rights advocates in El Salvador have been challenging the country's 1993 amnesty law and examining recent Supreme Court rulings for opportunities to prosecute those responsible for the massacre at El Mozote.
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Remembering El Salvador
During 1980 through 1992, El Salvador experienced a traumatic civil war that emerged from social injustices committed against the people and dissatisfaction with the government in place. Due to the level of the violence in the country targeted at the masses by the government, different leftist guerilla groups began to form in the years preceding the war. When Enrique Alvarez, one of the guerillas groups’ leaders, was killed in November 1980 by a right wing death squad, the different guerilla groups began to join together and became known as the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, FMLN, in January 1981. The FMLN believed that the violent actions of the government demanded a violent response and began their offensive. In the years that would follow, over 75,000 people would be massacred by the governments’ paramilitary death squads and over a million would become refugees.
A community that experienced these atrocities first hand, located in the department of Cuscatlan, is Copapayo. During the time preceding the attack, the community was always preparing for when the death squads would arrive. They would carry the little food they had and the clothes on their back whenever they heard that the death squads would arrive, often leaving without a moments notice. In November 1983, the community heard word from the FMLN that the death squads, led by Atlacatl Battalion Colonel Domingo Monterossa, were approaching. On November 1st and 2nd, the community members fled across the lake to the mountains, as they had done many times before On the second day, some members traveled by boat to the community to investigate and see if the soldiers had left. When they came back, the informed the rest of the community that they were not 100% sure if the death squads had retreated because they only were able to look around the community and did not go to the top of the hills to see if the death squads were still there. The next morning, the community members decided to return and travel back in small groups. They decided that they would stop at a destination point and reach the community through the back entrance. As they were traveling, some of the community members became separated which resulted in the death squads spotting them and rushing down the hill shooting. As the bullets began flying by, the people started to rush towards the river. Many were shot down along the way and those that reached the river and could not swim fast enough or hide in the algae to escape were shot in the water and drowned. After two days of continuous shootings, the death squads took control of the area and rounded up the remaining survivors they could find in a nearby community. The death squads killed all the men, brutally raped and tortured the young women with all sorts of objects, and shot the older women and children, few that survived thanks to their mothers bodies protecting them from the bullets. In the two days that the massacre occurred, 150 people died at the hands of the death squads.
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http://students.depaul.edu/~cmarti23/Articles.htmlThumbnail photos to click for images of El Mozote:
http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&hl=en&rls=GGLD%2CGGLD%3A2004-37%2CGGLD%3Aen&q=El+Mozote&btnG=Search
Citizens moving the remains of their loved ones for reburial.
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