El Salvador Truth Commission The twelve-year civil war in El Salvador created an environment of fear and cruelty due to the fight between the government military forces and left-wing guerrilla groups that all merged under a joint movement known as the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN). The civil war resulted in a bloodbath where tens of thousands were murdered and human rights were violated mainly by death squads which were created by the military government. From 1979 to 1992, the Central American country was in a state of violence and saw tremendous turmoil with death squads targeting civilians, rebel guerrilla groups recruiting children soldiers, and the mass murder of thousands of people predominately in the rural areas. …show more content…
With these findings, it also created a list of recommendations that included judicial and legal reform, security and institutional reform, and forms to provide relief to the victims. The commission found that out of the 22,000 testimonies provided about 60% were extrajudicial killings, 25% disappearances, 20% torture, and the rest involved other methods of violence (Betancur, Figueredo Planchart and Buergenthal). In the Madness to Hope report, the group established that 85% of the acts were committed by government forces while 5% were attributed to the rebel groups like the FMLN. In addition, the commission exposed dozens of names of high level officials from the military and judicial branch that were involved in the monstrous acts committed at the time of the civil …show more content…
The final report failed to mention the involvement of the United States in the Salvadoran civil war. The United States poured millions of dollars into funding the government’s effort in targeting and harassing civilians that were accused of aiding left-wing guerilla groups. The El Salvadoran military forces were trained by U.S. military advisors specifically the Atlacatl battalion which was the group that committed the massacre at El Mozote (Danner). The United States was deeply involved in the El Salvador conflict through its funding and training of forces. Another critic of the report, the commission failed to pressure the government to implement its recommendations as well as intertwine its reasoning for reform with applicable laws in order to ensure that public officials are able to enforce the rules without outside pressure from the military. This weakness is displayed in the Salvadoran government’s actions in the following days after the report is released. The legislature agreed to pass a blanket amnesty law that covered all the crimes committed during the civil war (Buergenthal). The UN truth commission faced heavy criticism from organizations due to the lack of effort and action that has been covered since the release of the
Before reading this, I, like I am sure so many others, had no idea of the magnitude of injustices that can occur during these conflicts. Also, this was not very long ago, nor far away, and it speaks volumes of the differences in government ideology and politics. El Salvador is an extreme case of how a government will treat its citizens. Massacre at El Mozote truly was an eye-opener and I doubt I will soon forget it.
Even after the strong pressure by US Secretary of State, the Organization of American States resolves to condemn what they believed was communist infiltration in the Americas. Under the control of Colonel Carlos Castillo Armas, he received a strong financial and logistic support from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to prepare his Army in Honduran territory to attack Guatemala. The CIA's involvement had been approved by Eisenhower as a way to stop what they considered a spread of Communism in the Americas. In June, 1954 the troops of Carlos Castillo crossed the Honduran-Guatemalan border and began their attack against Arbenz government. By this time not only was Arbenz internationally isolated but he had also lost much support from his own army and peasant population. Most of the Guatemalans felt they were in a very weak position compared to the invading army, after they heard from an ally radio that reported a larger invading army and the bomber that dropped some bombs around Guatemala City. The demoralized population simply resigned to be defeated by Castillo. Arbenz himself was hard hit when the invasion began. When he realized that any kind of resistance would only bring more deaths and very little success for his movement he decided to do what was best and decided to announce
There was a war in Sierra Leone, Africa, from 1991 to 2002 where a rebel army stormed through African villages amputating and raping citizens left and right (“Sierra Leone Profile”). Adebunmi Savage, a former citizen of Sierra Leone, describes the reality of this civil war: In 1996 the war in Sierra Leone was becoming a horrific catastrophe. Children were recruited to be soldiers, families were murdered, death came easily, and staying alive was a privilege. Torture became the favorite pastime of the Revolutionary United Front rebel movement, which was against the citizens who supported Sierra Leone’s president, Ahmad Tejan Kabbah.
Cruz,M.,(2009, May). Global gangs in El Salvador:Maras and the politics of violence, Retrieved from http://graduateinstitute.ch/weddav/site/ccdp/shared/5039/cruz-global-gangs-in-El-Salvador.pdf
The Civil War in El Salvador lasted from 1980 to 1992, and the El SAlvadoran government was doing their best to minimize the threat of their opposition. Their main opposition, The Frente Farabundo Marti Para La Liberacion Nacional; otherwise known as the FMLN, was a guerrilla group that was organized to fight the corruption in the country. 175). One of the main goals of the organization was to create a new society that is not degrading its citizens and promotes equality. Throughout El Salvador’s history, one organization to the next would run the country through repressive actions and social injustice. One of the main reasons that the FMLN fought the acting government were due to these social restraints on the lower- class citizens in El Salvador.
Growing up in a developing country has really open up my mind about setting up for a better future. My home in El Salvador wasn't the most lavishness, but it's also not the worst. I grew up in a house with two levels; three bedrooms on the top floor, one on the bottom, a garage and laundry room at the lower level, and a small sale shop at the front of the house. Growing up in this home has been a meaningful place for me. Its where I found my sense of place.
The 1954 coup that deposed the democratically elected government of Guatemala has long been acknowledged to have been the result of CIA covert action. Recently declassified documents have shown a new, and more sinister light, on the CIA's involvement in an action that gave birth to some of the most brutally dictatorial regimes in modern history. No one at this point will dispute the original involvement, but there are still those who maintain that this is all water over the dam of history and that the US has not had direct responsibility for the actions of a Guatemalan government since the 1954 coup. (Evans-Pritchard)
...t years of the war started after 1980, and ended in 1992 with the Peace Treaty of Chapultepec, Mexico. This treaty did not bring the desired peace and progress to El Salvador. Instead, the fight continued in a way of political opposition without arms. The revolutionary forces became a political party that represents the rights of the workers. The right wing party, which was originally founded by D’aubuisson, stayed in power until the elections of 2009. The popular sectors of El Salvador still face extreme poverty and oppression caused by large companies. The church continues its work with the poor but in a more limited and conservative way. After 30 years of the death of Romero, the Salvadoran Church remembers him as the hero of the oppressed and the voice of the voiceless and cries on the fact that the church was never the same after the death of its major leader.
By the end of the 2000s, while it seemed to many that there was no end in sight to the violence, behind the scenes senior gang leaders in El Salvador admitted to having grown tired of the gang warfare. Many of them, reflecting on the destruction the inter-gang violence had wrought on the communities in which their mothers, wives, children and grandchildren lived, felt compelled to look for a solution.... ... middle of paper ... ... Having grown increasingly frustrated with these rampant displays of impunity by gangs, the Salvadoran public pressured its government to prioritize public security above all else.
The Central American country of Guatemala fought a bloody civil war for over 36 years. The internal conflict began in November of 1960 and did not end until December of 1996. The key players that fought where the Guatemalan government and the ethnic Mayan indigenous people that where extremely leftist compared to the Guatemalan government. The indigenous persons where joined by other non-government forces known as the Ladino peasantry and other rural poor. This civil conflict would escalate to a bloody series of events that inevitably would see the Guatemalan government regime held responsible for acts of genocide and other human rights violations.
In August 2011, four soldiers were sentenced to 30 years for each murder plus 30 years for crimes against humanity, totaling 6,060 years each for the massacre in a village of Dos Erres in (“Guatemala hands down”) Although there is an attempt being made to convict the guilty, there are many people who should be punished, but will likely never be found to be sentenced (“Guatemala hands down”). It is even common for many people who do not receive adequate “justice to form lynch mobs or hire assassins” (Birns). The escalated violence has caused the community of Guatemala to experience instability and insecurity. The impact today is continued by the organizations who initially caused the conflict, including the “state’s security system” such as “death squads, intelligence units, police deployments, and military counterinsurgency forces” (Birns).
War and violence in Central America is a result of governmental injustice due to the United States’ foreign policies. The United States supported El Salvador with weapons and money throughout the civil war. As a result of enforcing these policies, El Salvador’s poverty, population and crime rate increased. The books “…After…” by Carolina Rivera Escamilla and “The Tattooed Soldier” by Hector Tobar give us a glimpse of the issues Central Americans faced.
During the 1900’s two deadly wars were raging on, the civil war in Sierra Leone and the genocide in Rwanda. The civil war in Sierra Leone began in March 1991, while the genocide began in 1994. Combined these two wars killed upward of 1,050,000 people, and affected the lives of all the people that lived there. The conflicts in Sierra Leone and Rwanda occurred for different major reasons, but many little aspects were similar. Politics and Ethnicity were the two main conflicts, but despite the different moments rebellions and the murder of innocent people occurred in both places.
Regardless of the guiltless people, the US troops continued to investigate and demolish (American Atrocity: Remembering My Lai). House after house, family after family, the soldiers burned down buildings, beat and raped young girls and women, and murdered basically anyone in sight. Varnado Simpson, a squaddie who was sent to My Lai, indicated in December 1969: “Everyone who went into the village had in mind to kill. We lost a lot of buddies and it was a VC stronghold. We considered them either VC or helping the VC.” Though exact quantities remain hearsay, it is alleged that as many as 500 people comprising of women, children and the elderly were murdered in the My Lai Massacre (American Experience: TV 's Most-watched History Series).
Throughout the past 60 to 70 years there has been speculation as to the involvement of the United States in the overthrowing of Jacobo Arbenz’ regime. The United States, through the CIA, although not officially confirmed, did participate in overthrowing Arbenz and his government. It was because of Arbenz’ land reforms, including that of United Fruit Co., that the CIA decided to invade Guatemala. They intervened to prevent Guatemala from falling to Communism by invading her to overthrow Arbenz’ government, which they believed was already following Communistic ideals. The main reason the intervention has been criticized is because it makes it confusing for people to know whether the CIA’s intervention actually helped Guatemala. The CIA’s intervention