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Forensic experts will exhume remains in the El Mozote massacre case in El Salvador this Thursday + Friday. The grave is believed to contain remains of seven victims—including five children—all of the Marquez family. Aged 35, 30, 10, 9, 7, 5, and 3 at the time of massacre (1981).
More than 500 children were murdered in the El Mozote massacre. The military massacred close to 1,000 victims total in El Mozote and surrounding villages Dec. 11-13, 1981. At the time, US funded Salvadoran forces to tune of $1 million per day in civil war against leftist rebels.
Many remains have not been located. Many surviving victims don’t remember where family members might have been buried. Shallow mass graves like this one turn up as farmers work the land. If/when more remains get exposed in similar way, more exhumations would be ordered.
Revisiting testimonies heard in court last year in the El Mozote massacre case in El Salvador. Gutting. elfaro.net/es/201808/el_s…
Also struck by how defence tried to discredit survivors by asking specifics about distances. One witness pressed about distances said he didn't know how to read or write or measure distances, but wouldn't hesitate take everyone to visit places in question. elfaro.net/es/201808/el_s…
Forensic anthropologists investigated the site of the suspected mass grave today at El Mozote, but found human remains are not buried there. The location lined up with where a family of seven victims lived + preliminary findings justified investigation, but no answers this time. 
Florentín Ramos seen here was headed to work the land with his dad when they found kid’s clothes and bone fragments in the dirt. When I asked how he reacted when he realized what they’d found he looked somewhat puzzled. “Unfortunately for me it’s normal to find remains,” he said.
38 years after the massacre, it’s difficult to find + identify remains. Surviving relatives don’t remember specific locations. Military burned houses, often w/ bodies inside, complicating identification. More exhumations could be ordered if locals turn up more suspected graves.
Identifying remains also complicated by the fact so many victims were young children. Remains of small children deteriorate more quickly than those of adults, the Inter-American Court ruling on the El Mozote case pointed out.
corteidh.or.cr/docs/casos/art…
corteidh.or.cr/docs/casos/art…
