Figure 1.--Here a mother and child mourn theur lost husnand and father. This press photo was captioned, "Juanita de Agila and her son pray at the grave of her husband, Mario, who was shot and killed in El Salvador last year by Marxist guerillas. He was director of the youth group of First Baptist Churvh, San Salvador. Agila nd the youth group were returning from a conference in Honduras when guerrilla snipers mistook, their church van for a military vehicke and opened fire." This is a good examo\ple of the press treatment of events in Central America. The author asumes that Agila's killing was a mistake on the part of the FMLN guerrillas. It may have been, but how does the author know. A reasonable question is how can a church van be condused with a military vehicle. I have traveled extebsively and lived in Latin America, including areas near military bases. I have never once confused a church van with a military vehicle. It seems more likely that the FMLN fifgters were shooting at any vehicle moving on the road. The journalist who wrote the caption clearly had the mind set that the gurrillas killed civilians only by accident. Photographer: Joann Pinneo.

The Civil War raged on in El Salvador, fueled by Soviet and Cuban arms funneled through Nicaragua and U.S. aid to the Salvadoran military government. The Government by all accounts harshly repressed dissent. The exact loss of life will never be knowm. Estimates of about 60,000-75,000 people killed are generally given. Most were apparently civilians. The Government conducted operations in government-controlled areas, including bombing raids. Right-wing death squads wiped-out entire villages believed to be actively assisting the guerrilla efforts. One of the most agrgious incidents was the attack the village of El Mozote (1981). An estimated 1,000 people were killed. The Government at first dedined the incident. After the War, however, mass graves were uncovered, proving that large numbers of people were killed. The FMLN adopted a tactic of destroying the country's infrastructure, blowing-up bridges, cutting power lines, destroying coffee plantations and anything else to weaken the economy supporting the government. The FMLN also murdered and kidnapped civilians. The American press which seems to have favored the FMLN suggests that the guerilla attacks were more precisely targetted on government officials and the military. Now it is probably true that the FMLN did not target whole villages, but the idea that civilians were not targeted seems unlikely. We have not yet found a detailed and unbiased account of casualties. As the war continued, guerrilla tactics became more advanced and they became better armed. The FMLN progressed from using machetes and pistols to automatic weapons and grenade launchers. Their actions became more though out and strategic. The fighting persisted despite efforts to negotiate an end to the conflict. The FMLN refused to participate in presidential elections believing that they were rigged by the Government. The Government for its part declined to participate in peace talks organized by the FMLN. The Government's resources were fully committed to destroying the insurgency and received massive Americn support. The counttry's infrastructure began to destingrate and the economy suffered.

Created: 3:45 AM 12/7/2012
Last updated: 6:51 AM 10/26/2015