El Mozote Massacre in El Salvador
On November 6, 2019, authorities of the General Prosecutor of the Republic and the forensic medicine had located the remains of 11 people killed during El Mozote massacre in 1981 at the local cemetery of Cacaopera. Supported by the Argentine group of forensic anthropology, the forensic medicine team collected the remains and personal effects of the victims to realize some analysis for the trial opened to found truth about El Mozote Massacre. The relatives of the victims were present during the searching.
The tragic event is one between others known as El Mozote massacre that occurred in 7 villages of this North East region of El Salvador during El Salvador's 1980-1992 civil war. On December 11, 1981, 12 people were killed and between them 4 children and one little baby born three days ago, when a soldier of the battalion Atlácatl launched a grenade on their group. They were trying to hide them from the Army in a place named "la cueva del Cerro Ortiz". The few survivors buried the dead people at the same place before escaping. They came back to the place only in 1994 to recover the remains and bury them in the local cemetery of Cacaopera.
According to official figures, 986 people, including 558 children, were killed during El Mozote Massacre. In December 1981, the soldiers of the battalion Atlácatl, loyal to the Salvadoran dictatorship, conducted an anti-guerrilla operation. Most of the events occurred during December 10-13. For a long time the perpetrators of an operation mostly directed against the civil population were protected by an Amnesty Law that had prevented the investigation of serious crimes in the civil war. But after the Inter-American Court of Human Rights condemned the Salvadoran State for the massacre in 2012, the Supreme Court of Justice declared in July 2016 as unconstitutional the Amnesty Law. Then, a court began a trial against 18 soldiers involved in the case. An estimated 75,000 people were killed or went missing during the civil war.
The Battalion Atlácatl were created by the infamous US's Army School of the Americas and the Salvadorian soldiers of the battalion started to operated in the country in March 1981. In the early 1990's, a report from the Truth Commission for El Salvador appointed the battalion Atlácatl as responsible of several other massacres like the El Calabazo massacre and the murder of six Jesuit priests.
El Mozote Massacre in El Salvador
On November 6, 2019, authorities of the General Prosecutor of the Republic and the forensic medicine had located the remains of 11 people killed during El Mozote massacre in 1981 at the local cemetery of Cacaopera. Supported by the Argentine group of forensic anthropology, the forensic medicine team collected the remains and personal effects of the victims to realize some analysis for the trial opened to found truth about El Mozote Massacre. The relatives of the victims were present during the searching.
The tragic event is one between others known as El Mozote massacre that occurred in 7 villages of this North East region of El Salvador during El Salvador's 1980-1992 civil war. On December 11, 1981, 12 people were killed and between them 4 children and one little baby born three days ago, when a soldier of the battalion Atlácatl launched a grenade on their group. They were trying to hide them from the Army in a place named "la cueva del Cerro Ortiz". The few survivors buried the dead people at the same place before escaping. They came back to the place only in 1994 to recover the remains and bury them in the local cemetery of Cacaopera.
According to official figures, 986 people, including 558 children, were killed during El Mozote Massacre. In December 1981, the soldiers of the battalion Atlácatl, loyal to the Salvadoran dictatorship, conducted an anti-guerrilla operation. Most of the events occurred during December 10-13. For a long time the perpetrators of an operation mostly directed against the civil population were protected by an Amnesty Law that had prevented the investigation of serious crimes in the civil war. But after the Inter-American Court of Human Rights condemned the Salvadoran State for the massacre in 2012, the Supreme Court of Justice declared in July 2016 as unconstitutional the Amnesty Law. Then, a court began a trial against 18 soldiers involved in the case. An estimated 75,000 people were killed or went missing during the civil war.
The Battalion Atlácatl were created by the infamous US's Army School of the Americas and the Salvadorian soldiers of the battalion started to operated in the country in March 1981. In the early 1990's, a report from the Truth Commission for El Salvador appointed the battalion Atlácatl as responsible of several other massacres like the El Calabazo massacre and the murder of six Jesuit priests.
