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How To Sympathize El Salvador

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How To Sympathize El Salvador
In 1981, El Salvador was engaged in a brutal Civil war between the right-wing government supported army and several tiny left-wing “reformist” groups, or the guerrillas. The right wing is the conservative or reactionary section of a political party or system and the left wing is the liberal, socialist, or radical section of a political party or system. The rightist leaders, at the time of this war were in charge of the government, the “reformists” felt that they were not given a voice in their society. They felt as if, year after year, “the military stole the ballot” (24) from their representatives. In other words, the war began because, “El Salvador’s stunted political development increasingly split the country…” (24).
The military viewed …show more content…
This man, Marcos Diaz, promised his neighbors that the soldiers would not bother them as long as they stayed in their homes. Because El Mozote had never been a militant town, and didn’t sympathize with either side, they found this to be another reason to believe the words of Marcos Diaz. Civilians from other towns also decided to stay in El Mozote hoping that they would be safe and could return back to their lives as soon as the soldiers moved out of their area. The day before the massacre at El Mozote, when the officers entered El Mozote, they ordered people to come out of their homes and made them lie in the dirt while they beat and questioned them about the guerrillas. The people of El Mozote assured the officers that they had no knowledge about the guerrillas and were not sympathizers, but the soldiers were not convinced. They eventually ordered the civilians back into their homes and made sure they did not rest. The children wailed and no one slept, fearing what tomorrow might …show more content…
The eyewitness accounts of some of the soldiers present and the stories that the survivors provided, made a historical event come to life. Imagining what these people went through that day, losing everything they have ever known and choosing to fight to live to tell the story had to be the most difficult experience. The story of the massacre at El Mozote is heartbreaking and the United States’ choice to sweep this under the rug in order to maintain their funding to the Salvadoran Army, was very
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