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On this day in 1981, the US-trained Atlacatl battalion of El Salvador’s military systematically massacred the entire village of El Mozote, nearly 1,000 ppl (533 children & 200 women). Soldiers tortured, beheaded, raped & fired on a building full of children, then burned it down. 
The Atlacatl was a “Rapid Deployment Infantry Battalion” specially trained for counter-insurgency warfare, trained by United States military advisors. The Carter & Reagan Admin's supported to El Salvador's dirty war as part of the US ‘Fight against Communism’ in Central America.
Soldiers separated men, women and older girls in groups, separating them from their children. The men were tortured and beheaded. The women were raped then machine-gunned. Girls as young as 10 were raped.
Children were killed by slitting their throats, by hanging them from trees, and other children were tossed in the air and bayoneted. After killing the entire population, the soldiers set fire to the buildings.
Rufina Amaya, a witness who had escaped the attack, described how the army killed her husband and her four children, the youngest of whom was eight months old and then lit their bodies on fire. nytimes.com/2007/03/09/wor…
She described seeing her husband being beheaded and hearing her son and daughter’s mortal scream. She heard her son yell: “Mama, they’re killing me. They’ve killed my sister. They’re going to kill me.”
The soldiers methodically executed everyone in the village. They killed children last, firing into a building they trapped children in, then set it on fire. A decade later, the remains of at least 143 child victims were found in that building, w/ the average age being 6.
Immediately after the massacre, the Reagan admin increased support for El Salvador’s right-wing regime and sent US Special Forces instructors. ceasefiremagazine.co.uk/el-salvador-30…
The Reagan admin denied the atrocity occurred & even tried to help El Salvador cover it up. The US still has many records on its support for the atrocities of the time in El Salvador that have not been released.
Some members of El Salvador’s the military are just starting to be put on trial for their crimes during the war & survivors hope there will be some justice, but the US has never apologized for its role in the massacre. nytimes.com/2018/05/26/wor…
