History

I have some shocking news for you!  From the late 1980s to the early1990s there was a civil war going on in El Salvador.  This troubled me because this is the first time I am hearing about it this year.  It was a horrific, brutal, and inhumane civil war.  In El Salvador it was not that the common people were initiating the fight against the government; they were defending themselves against their government.  I think the violence in El Salvador turned up a notch after the assassination of Archbishop Romero in 1980.  In spite of this, the United States supported the war, and throughout the decade spent  six billion dollars on aid and military training for the El Salvadoran army.  The United States' reason for backing the government in El Salvador was to suppress the spread of communism in Central America.  Yet it was the right-wing army in El Salvador that destroyed the very essence of civilian life.  The army ran civilians from their homes with continuous bombing, killed their livestock, burned their crops, and heartlessly gunned down anyone remaining in the villages.  Hearing this I was extremely upset!  These people were suffering and it doesn't seem like anyone knew about it.

It was not until 1989 after 6 Jesuit priests, their house keeper, and her daughter were dragged from their beds and gunned down that the rest of the world was informed of the situation in El Salvador.  Soon after these brutal murders Speaker of the House Tom Foley put together a special force headed by Congressman Joe Moakley to investigate.  When Moakley arrived in El Salvador he encountered several difficulties when trying to find those responsible for the deaths of the Jesuits, due to massive corruption in the military, conspiring among officers, and an immense amount of lying on behalf of those involved.  After several intense investigations Moakley released the Truth Commission Report which revealed that the El Salvadoran army was responsible for the deaths of the Jesuits. 

In 1992 the United Nations aided in peace talks, which ended the 12 year civil war with the signing of the Peace Accords.  Through the Peace Accords the civilian army was ordered to turn over their weapons to the United Nations and 102 Salvadoran officers had to be released from the military.  Soon after the country began its period of rebuilding.  Most of the Accords were followed, allowing the people to feel safe and free to return to what was left of their homes and families.  In 1992 free elections were held in El Salvador for the first time.  The thing that still bothers me about the whole situation in El Salvador is that the United States, who overall spent 6 billion dollars helping the government destroy the country, has only contributed a small amount in helping rebuild El Salvador.

Works Referenced

Enemies of War. 26 Feb. 2001. http://www.pbs.org/enemiesofwar

Enemies of War. Dir. Esther Cassidy PBS, 2001  (video)

Photograph from: http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/nsa/publications/elsalvador2/espho.html