The El Mozote Massacre: Recent Salvadoran Efforts To Redress the Crimes

On December 11, 1981, the Salvadoran military detained and systematically executed virtually all of the 200 men, women and children in the small village of El Mozote in the northern part of the country.[1]

On the 30th anniversary of the Massacre (December 10, 2011), the Salvadoran Foreign Minister, Hugo Martinez, went to El Mozote and asked for forgiveness for the “blindness of state violence” and to honor “the memory of hundreds of innocent people who were murdered” in that Massacre.[2]

A month later, on January 16, 2012 (the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Salvadoran Peace Accords ending the country’s civil war), Salvadoran President Mauricio Funes went to El Mozote and announced various efforts to redress the crimes relating to the Massacre.[3]

Funes publicly acknowledged that Salvadoran soldiers of the Atlactal Battalion had committed the massacre and apologized on behalf of the State for this atrocity. He asked for forgiveness for what he called “the biggest massacre of civilians in the contemporary history of Latin America.”

Funes said there could be no true peace until there is justice to provide compensation to victims and penalties for perpetrators. He also announced the following in response to the massacre:

• He asked the Attorney General to review existing legislation and propose amendments or new laws to allow criminal sanctions to be imposed on those who participated in the worst human rights violations. Funes also noted that the Salvadoran Supreme Court already had decided that the General Amnesty Law did not protect those guilty of war crimes and could not be used to self-amnesty those who were in charge of the military during the period 1989-1994 (government officials from the Arena political party).
• Funes instructed the Armed Forces to stop honoring former officers who were linked to this massacre, including Domingo Monterrosa Barrios, who was the commander of the Brigade involved.
• He requested political parties and others to stop honoring people who could be linked to such violations, which was interpreted as a message to the ARENA political party to stop honoring its founder, Roberto D’Aubuisson, and to the FMLN party to do likewise with Shafik Handal.
• The government will conduct an investigation to identify all victims of the massacre.
• The government will create a National Reparations Program for Victims of massacres and other human rights violations.
• The government will declare El Mozote a cultural center.
• The government will establish a community health clinic for El Mozote.
• The government will assist agricultural production in the area, construct paved roads and improve potable water service, build a lodging house for elderly people without families and provide computers to the local school.

I do not know whether and to what extent these promised actions were actually implemented. I invite comments with information on this issue.

Interestingly the apology by Foreign Minister Martinez and the announcement by President Funes came while a case regarding the Massacre was pending in the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. Its judgment on the merits was issued on October 25, 2012 and made public on December 10, 201s. It will be discussed in a subsequent post.