PGHIMC - Pittsburgh Independent Media Center

(Corrected) Recovery of Memory
by C Saturday, Dec. 11, 2004 at 11:02 AM
maxfarrand@hotmail.com

Hey, nobody's perfect.

Today, 11 December 2004, we remember the 23rd anniversary of the massacre at El Mozote, El Salvador. Twenty three years ago today, approximately nine hundred civilians, mostly women and children, were slaughtered by elements of the Salvadoran Army's US-trained elite Atlacatl Battalion.

One woman survived. Her name is Rufina Amaya. She heard the soldiers. "If we don't kill them now, they'll just grow up to be guerillas. We have to take care of the job now."

And she heard her three children. "They were crying, 'Mommy, Mommy! They're hurting us! Help us! They're cutting us! They're choking us! Help us!" She continues:

"Then I heard one of my children crying. My son, Cristino, was crying, 'Mama Rufina, help me! They're killing me! They killed my sister! They're killing me! Help me!' I didn't know what to do. They were killing my children. I knew that if I went back there to help my children I would be cut to pieces. But I couldn't stand to hear it, I couldn't bear it. I was afraid that I would cry out, that I would scream, that I would go crazy. I couldn't stand it, and I prayed to God to help me. I promised God that if He helped me I would tell the world what happened here."

She did. And the Reagan Administration, poised to deliver millions of dollars in military aid to the Salvadoran government, said the massacre was Communist Guerilla propaganda. The administration wrote off El Mozote and the human rights certification process. "...it is a political cop-out by a lot of congressmen," Elliot Abrams, Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs at the time said.

The UN Truth Commission, charged with investigating the incident, writes: "Those small skeletons are proof not only of the existence of the cold-blooded massacre at El Mozote but also of the collusion of senior commanders of the armed forces, for they show that the evidence of the unburied bodies was there for a long time for anyone who wanted to investigate the facts. In this case, we cannot accept the excuse that senior commanders knew nothing of what had happened. No action was taken to avoid incidents such as this."

And US complicity was apparent: There were the only shells found at the village: spent M-16 cartridges, stamped "MADE IN DEARBORN, MI; UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT", and a training school known as the School of the Americas.

The SOA trained ten of the twelve officers in charge of the Atlacatl Battalion, as well as two thirds of the officers cited in the UN report, From Madness to Hope: The 12-year War in El Salvador. These soldiers were trained in the techniques necessary to carry out the scorched-earth policy at El Mozote. These skills include infantry tactics, 'psychological' operations, and unit command courses.

When will we stop training the killers of innocent women and children? When will we be able to weigh America's contribution to the world, not in blood and bones, but in hope and reconciliation?

The hidden wars of the past are becoming our secret present...and it must stop.

Contact your congressperson and tell them: "EL MOZOTE: NUNCA MAS! NEVER AGAIN! Close the SOA!"

IN PA:
Melissa Hart
Allegheny/Butler/Westmoreland Counties
4655 Route 8, Suite 124G
Coventry Square Shopping Center
Allison Park, PA 15101

Ph.412-492-0161
Fx.412-492-0178

Tim Murphy
504 Washington Road
Pittsburgh, PA 15228
Ph: (412) 344-5583
Fx: (412) 429-5092

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