Harry Mattison, Neighborhood known as “La Fosa” (The Grave), San Salvador, February 1980
Now nearly thirty years after the commencement of the Salvadoran Civil War and more than a year since the election of Mauricio Funes (the first member of the F.M.L.N. leftist party to be elected in El Salvador since 1989), El Salvador still faces difficulties in economic growth, polarization of their people, violence, and drug trafficking. Change is never immediate.
A look back on the Salvadoran Civil War through pictures shows the damage done— damage with which the people of El Salvador are still coping.
John Hoagland, El Playon, well-known location where bodies of the “disappeared” are often found, Sonsonate, 1980
John Hoagland, American Civilians flee as guerrillas burn trucks on the coastal highway, Usulután, 1980–83
Eli Reed, Missing Persons Families looking for “disappeared” relatives in the “Book of Missing,” Human Rights Commission Office, San Salvador, 1982
It breaks my heart beyond words to think that this happened at all & to think that U.S. taxpayer dollars funded it. We need to make ourselves more responsible for what is going on in the world and not just be concerned with out comforts. Peace!
As the daughter of a first generation immigrant, my mother lived through the Salvadoran civil war and it was the Guerrillas that did more damage and destruction to the Salvador people than the Ejercito. Please do your research.