The Massacre at El Mozote

Posted on 12 February 2017 by Mark Danner

In December 1981 soldiers of the Salvadoran Army s select, American trained Atlacatl Battalion entered the village of El Mozote, where they murdered hundreds of men, women, and children, often by decapitation Although reports of the massacre and photographs of its victims appeared in the United States, the Reagan administration quickly dismissed them as propaganda In the end, El Mozote was forgotten The war in El Salvador continued, with American funding.When Mark Danner s reconstruction of these events first appeared in The New Yorker, it sent shock waves through the news media and the American foreign policy establishment Now Danner has expanded his report into a brilliant book, adding new material as well as the actual sources He has produced a masterpiece of scrupulous investigative journalism that is also a testament to the forgotten victims of a neglected theater of the cold war. Free Read The Massacre at El Mozote [ author ] Mark Danner [ Kindle ePUB or eBook ] – kino-fada.fr the depravity of the US during the Cold War The US had one objective in the Cold War Stop Communism It did not matter what tactics the governments we gave billions of dollars to used to secure that objective it only mattered that countries in Latin America and Africa fell into non Communistic hands Sign the check and don t ask questions Don t worry about the death tolls, or who has gone missing Ignore intelligent reports from El Salvador that say an entire village has been destroyed al the depravity of the US during the Cold War The US had one objective in the Cold War Stop Communism It did not matter what tactics the governments we gave billions of dollars to used to secure that objective it only mattered that countries in Latin America and Africa fell into non Communistic hands Sign the check and don t ask questions Don t worry about the death tolls, or who has gone missing Ignore intelligent reports from El Salvador that say an entire village has been destroyed all because rebels were supposedly in the area No, fund the war, achieve your objective and don t ask about the atrocities that were committed to...When I was a college student, I majored in Latin American Studies, and many of my classes explored the functions of the military in various Central American countries In my junior year, I joined up with a bus full of strangers from Austin, and we headed to Georgia for an annual protest designed to force the closur...Massacre at El Mozote is an extension of a New Yorker article, so it s fairly short and not particularly dense It chronicles the course of the Salvadoran civil war leading to the massacre and the response by the US government to the news It s a standard Cold War imperialist atrocity narrative the US gave arms, advice, and training to the Army of the military junta government to keep them in power against a popular rebellion supported by the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, who presumably had someth Massacre at El Mozote is an extension of a New Yorker article, so it s fairly short and not particularly dense It chronicles the course of the Salvadoran civil war leading to the massacre and the response by the US government to the news It s a standard Cold War imperialist atrocity narrative the US gave arms, advice, and training to the Army of the military junta government to keep them in power against a popular rebellion supported by the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, who presumably had something to do with Communism Danner starts with the background 12 year civil war, starting with a purge of the urban left first union leaders and activists, then teachers, then girls in jeans and tennis shoes , evolving into a counterisurgency against guerillas in the m...A little under two years ago I witnessed the first ever change of government in El Salvador as the people voted in the leftist FMLN party over ARENA, the rightest who had ruled the country for its entire existence At the time, I believed that the threat of a leftist Chavez type victory would be dangerous here in El Salvador I also believed that the left would bring little of the promised change Now, I can say that only one of those was actually ...Danner is extremely reserved in his prose here he lets the facts speak for themselves Still, this is one of the most devastating accounts of anything that I ve ever read And then to read about Reagan administration and its lackeys at media outlets like the Wall Street Journal, as well as the right wing campaigns to punish the reporters from the Washington Post and New York Times who wrote the first stories on the massacre which were partially successful they got the NYT s reporter taken out Danner is extremely reserved in his prose here he lets the facts speak for themselves Still, this is one of the most devastatin...During the Cold War, the US created a habit of supporting numerous fascist regimes in Latin America This book details the US relationship in regards to an atrocity that occurred in El Mozote in El Salvador Post 9 11, George W Bush stated that if you fund a terrori...Took methan a month to get through this book partially because of the content and its historical significance, or lack there of according to some It is disheartening to read how there was such a lack of legitimate evidence gathering shortly after reports of the massacre, so as to not compromise the US government s agenda in their foreign policies I appreciate Danner including the press and governmental documents statements referenced th...This book chronicles the worst atrocity that has occurred in Central America the massacre of 767 non combatant civilians in December, 1981 by the Salvadoran army in the village of El Mozote, and likely manyvictims whose remains did not permit counting Not a dramatic narrative, the author focuses on telling the facts preceding the situation, the event, and the denial and obfuscation by both the Salvadoran re...Extensively investigated and thoroughly detailed, this human rights disaster was brought to my attention only recently for a graduate course in human rights For this massacre to have happened under the administration of a certain Gipper further casts a darkening shadow over the legacy so many people cough conservatives have been tripping over themselves to praise What should we protectPolitical ideology or innocent human lives More attention should be paid to El Salvador as it is Extensively investigated and thoroughly detailed, this human rights disaster was brought to my attention only recently for a graduate course in human rights For this massacre to have happened under the administration of a certain Gipper further casts a darkening shadow over the legacy so many people cough conservatives have been tripping...The author Mark Danner, a journalist and teacher, is now currently Chancellor s Professor of English and Journalism at the University of California at Berkeley and James Clarke Chace Professor of Foreign Affairs and the Humanities at Bard He has written a compelling and graphic account which first appeared in The New Yorker magazine of a massacre committed by the El Slavadoran Army in and around the town of El Mozote in December 1981, during the Salvadoran civil war Subsumed by...

English
12 February 2017

Mark Danner