Perquin and El Mozote - in the Mountains of Morazán 

     Last weekend, February 2 and 3, I traveled with a group of 14 volunteers of the CIS (Centro de Intercambio y Solidaridad) to Perquin and El Mozote, in the Department of Morazán, El Salvador. We left early on Saturday, and arrived in a town called Cacaopera in the mid-morning. We had been told there was an indigenous museum there, and since it was on the way, why not take a look? We failed to find the museum, and circled around on a dusty road back to the main highway between Gotera and Perquin. 

Our group in the heat of mid-day Cacaopera 

      We arrived at Perquin early in the afternoon, and after lunch, visited the Museum of the Revolution. It was cool and pleasant as the sun lost its force, and we walked through the photo and physical exhibits of the museum. There was room full of photos of fallen comrades, some of them soldiers, some of them victims of the death squads from civil society: Marianela Garcia Villas, President of the El Salvador Committee on Human Rights, assassinated March 14, 1983; Herbert Ernesto Anaya Sanabria, Committee on Human Rights, assassinated by the police 1986; Maria Magdalena Henriquez, El Salvador Committee on Human Rights, assassinated 1982 by the police; America Fernanda Perdomo, Committee on Human Rights, disappeared August 19, 1983; Ramon Valladares Pera, CDH, assassinated October, 1980; Miguel Angel Portillo, “Augustin”, killed in battle November 13, 1989; Anastasio Aquino, who led an indigenous uprising in the 19th century and whose head was stuck on a pole after he was executed; Campañero Saul, died in battle November 23, 1990, Comandante Goyo, died in battle November 25, 1989, and it goes on and on, the faces smiling through the dirt and stress, gone in the struggle. There is a room full of weapons, rifles, mortars, machine guns made all over the world, M-16, M-60, M-62 mortar, M-79 grenade launcher, M-26, AK-47, 81 mm mortar, G-37.62, 90 mm cannons. 

     There is a room set up as was Radio Venceremos, the literally underground radio that played music and broadcast news from the world and the war, and that drove the El Salvadoran and US government leadership crazy. They were never able to stop the broadcasts, and the architect of the El Mozote massacre, Colonel Monterrosa, died sitting on one of the transmitters in a helicopter as he flew off with what he thought was war booty, but which was really a booby trapped prize that he had been lured into capturing. 

                              Mario (right)of the Perquin Museum in front of Monterrosa’s helicopter, with Oscar Garcia of the CIS

     We spoke with Mario, a founder of the museum. He said the museum has two purposes, first, to remember the fallen, and second, to make a record for future generations. He noted the twenty years of war that racked El Salvador from 1972 to 1992, through coups, juntas, facades of government like the Duarte government that always were only excuses to increase the level of US intervention. The struggle was strongest during the Reagan/Bush-padre years. In those years the region of Central America was in a state of war, from Nicaragua to Honduras to El Salvador and Guatemala. 

     He went on to note that we remember the history so that we do not repeat the war. The museum does not want to politicize the history. The Peace Accords were signed, but there is not peace. The transition to peace appears to be longer than the war, and the political Left and Right still fight the war. It is important to know the history in order to provide an understanding of the truth – how to interpret the Peace Accords. It is important to direct ourselves to meeting the needs of the people, not to politicize the battle. 

    He noted the divided nature of the Left, that the five tendencies of the FMLN are still divided. Only three of the 13 signers of the Peace Accords are still in the party. Mario was a member of the ERP faction, the National Army of the People, and he had on a t-shirt that said, in block letters on the back, “LOS VETERANOS DE ERP NO A LA VIOLENCIA 2006”. The t-shirt was from a November 11, 2006 meeting, on Veteran’s Day, at Perquin, of many hundred of veterans of the Salvadoran conflict. The testimonies of the veterans were recorded by the children of the veterans. 

     Mario said that we cannot live in the past, but must go forward, no forgetting but using the lessons to move us forward. One year of war leaves 20 years of scars.

A bomb crater from a US-made 500 pound bomb, preserved from over 20 years ago 

     We left the museum for the overnight stay in the mountains of Morazán. On the ride north, we passsed Arambala, a small town marked with a mural of Che’, Oscar Romero, Faribundi Marti, and Schafik Handal. This is a common theme, the conflation of the armed struggle and the nonviolent struggle, since both have risen organically out of the repression and are pursued with the spirit of humanity. We stayed at the “llano el muerto”, part park, part motel, with cabins and hammocks for those with the temerity to sleep under the full deck of bright starts. It was about 2 kilometers from the Honduran border and the north wind howled through the night, cold and clear, a train rumbling through the pine forests. 

     On Sunday, we traveled to El Mozote, a barrio of the municipality of El Meanguera that is the site of the massacre in 1981 of over a thousand civilians, the majority elderly, women and children. It is a story well told by Mark Danner in his book, "The Massacre at El Mozote”. It is a story of US complicity in training the murderous battalion that executed it, the Atlacatl Battalion, and in supporting the murderous commander Colonel Monterrosa. If the US officials in El Salvador had acknowledged this massacre, the war could have been shortened. It would be ten years before the world would discover the truth. El Mozote is hallowed ground, and the church and grounds have been reconstructed, gardens planted and there is a committee that provides a guide. 

Here is the garden where 146 children were murdered. 

We were shown this wall pocked by bullets that had passed through the people lined up against it. 

          The mountains of Morazán. 

      And on the way back, we passed the Rio Sapo for a cool swim in the cascades of waterfalls and swimming holes in the 1500 acre preserved area.  -Joe DeRaymond