El Mozote

Monday we took an all-day field trip to the northeast of the country....the department of Morazan... where the war was particularily fierce....about 10 miles from Hondouras. One of the worst massacres of the war occured in the small canton of El Mozote where more than 1000 men, women and children were murdered by the military in 1981. Our guide told us the horrifying details of the 3 day event. The men were taken to one house, the women to another, and all the children were taken to a church building. The children were all murdered with knives and machetes and the building was burned to try to hide the crime but a wall fell, protecting some of the bodies for later discovery. The building with the murdered men was burned so badly that the bodies could not be found. The women were all raped before murder. The numbers in the little town were swollen by people from the countryside fleeing for safety in the community. One woman survived...Rufina Amaya... and she told the story all over the world. There is a memorial wall in the town with the names of the known members of the community but the number of victims continues to grow as excavation is still going on and bodies are being found to this day.

There is a rose garden near where the children were found and a children's memorial wall on the side of the church. The names of the children are listed there...the youngest being 3 days old. Three members of the pastoral team accompanied us on the trip and scriptures and prayers were offered in the rose garden. The team indicated that from the ashes of the tragedy have arisen hope for the people of El Salvador....what a price to pay!

From El Mozote we drove to Perquin, a nearby town that was a guerrilla stronghold during the war. There we toured the war museum dedicated to the guerrilla fighters and a mock guerrilla camp where we learned of how they lived during the fighting.

We climbed down into tunnels where the fighters could hide.

And walked across stick and rope bridges.

The day was sobering and troubling to say the least. I ask myself questions.....like "How could I be oblivious to all this going on in El Salvador in the 1980s?" and "What am I oblivious to today?".