Today in Labor History January 16, 1992: The government of El Salvador and the FMLN rebels signed a peace accord, formally ending their 12-year-old civil war. 75,000 people died in that war, mostly civilians, and mostly at the hands of the military and government-supported death squads. 25% of the population became refugees. The U.S. taxpayers heavily subsided the Salvadoran government and its death squads and also trained many of them at the School of the Americas (AKA School of the Assassins), in Fort Benning, Georgia. The FMLN was named after Farabundo Marti, a Salvadoran revolutionary from the 1930s, who led a communist uprising that created the short-lived Salvadoran soviet, the first soviet in the western hemisphere. The Martinez dictatorship then slaughtered over 40,000, mostly indigenous people, in a genocide known as La Matanza. Martinez was one of the first world leaders to recognize Hitler.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #elsalvador #FMLN #FarabundoMarti #imperialism #DeathSquads #communism #indigenous #genocide #CivilWar #SchoolOfTheAmericas #dictatorship #hitler

Today in Labor History December 11, 1981: Over 800 people were slaughtered by the Salvadoran military in the village of El Mozote in one of the largest 20th century massacres in Latin America. Men, women and children were tortured and systematically executed by the U.S.-supported regime, which was trying to wipe out unions, leftists and peasant activists. The Atlacatl Battalion carried out the massacre. The Battalion was created in 1980 at the U.S. Army's School of the Americas and trained by U.S. military advisors.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #elsalvador #genocide #civilwar #elmozote #massacre #deathsquads #SchoolOfTheAmericas #imperialism #torture

Today in Labor History December 2, 1980: Four American missionaries were raped and murdered by a Salvadoran death squad. The Salvadoran Civil War began after a 1979 military coup. Catholic activists protested against the junta's oppression of the poor and working class. Death squads assassinated Óscar Romero, the Archbishop of San Salvador, March 24, 1980. After the four Americans were murdered, U.S. President Jimmy Carter suspended aid to El Salvador. However, succeeding President, Ronald Reagan, promptly authorized increased military aid. He also sent more U.S. military advisers, escalating attacks on civilians. His foreign policy advisor, Jean Kirkpatrick, claimed that "the nuns were not just nuns; they were political activists," as if this justified their rape and murder. After the release of declassified documents in the 1990s, New Jersey congressman Robert Torricelli stated that it was "now clear that the Reagan Administration was certifying human rights progress in El Salvador they knew the terrible truth that the Salvadoran military was engaged in a widespread campaign of terror and torture." During the Civil War, over 65,000 civilians were killed, plus another 5,300 disappeared, with over half a million people internally displaced, and another half million fleeing to other countries as refugees.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #elsalvador #rape #reagan #romero #deathsquads #murder #massmurder #SchooloftheAmericas

November 16, 1989 - Six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter were brutally murdered by U.S.-trained and-supported death squads in El Salvador.

In 1995 the United Nations Commission on the Truth for El Salvador linked the slayings to 19 members of the armed forces who were graduates of the School of the Americas (SOA, now known as Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation), a facility run by the U.S. Army at Fort Benning, Georgia.

Over its 59 years, the SOA has trained over 60,000 Latin American soldiers in counterinsurgency techniques, sniper, commando and psychological warfare, military intelligence and interrogation tactics. The graduates have consistently used their skills to wage a war against their own people.

Among those targeted by SOA graduates are educators, union organizers, religious workers, student leaders, and others who work for the rights of the poor.

#SchoolOfTheAmericas #WesternHemisphereInstituteForSecurityCooperation

Today in Labor History January 16, 1992: The government of El Salvador and the FMLN rebels signed a peace accord, formally ending their 12-year-old civil war. 75,000 people died in that war, mostly civilians, and mostly at the hands of the military and government-supported death squads. 25% of the population became refugees. The U.S. taxpayers heavily subsided the Salvadoran government and its death squads and also trained many of them at the School of the Americas (AKA School of the Assassins), in Fort Benning, Georgia. The FMLN was named after Farabundo Marti, a Salvadoran revolutionary from the 1930s, who led a communist uprising that created the short-lived Salvadoran soviet, the first soviet in the western hemisphere. The Martinez dictatorship then slaughtered over 40,000, mostly indigenous people, in a genocide known as La Matanza. Martinez was one of the first world leaders to recognize Hitler.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #elsalvador #FMLN #FarabundoMarti #imperialism #DeathSquads #communism #indigenous #genocide #CivilWar #SchoolOfTheAmericas #dictatorship #hitler

Today in Labor History December 11, 1981: Over 800 people were slaughtered by the Salvadoran military in the village of El Mozote in one of the largest 20th century massacres in Latin America. Men, women and children were tortured and systematically executed by the U.S.-supported regime, which was trying to wipe out unions, leftists and peasant activists. The Atlacatl Battalion carried out the massacre. The Battalion was created in 1980 at the U.S. Army's School of the Americas and trained by U.S. military advisors.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #elsalvador #genocide #civilwar #elmozote #massacre #deathsquads #SchoolOfTheAmericas #imperialism #torture

Today in Labor History June 19, 1985: Gunmen opened fire on an outdoor restaurant in San Salvador’s upscale Zona Rosa, killing 13, including four U.S. Marines and two U.S. businessmen. A broadcast by Radio Venceremos, the FMLN’s pirate radio station, said: "If U.S. Army members and CIA agents died in San Salvador, it was because they came to attack our people. No one had summoned them; they died as a result of the interventionist policy carried out by President Reagan, whose intervention grows day by day. Reagan will have to assume full responsibility for his deeds." I was in El Salvador in 1993 and some of the bullet holes were still visible from the Zona Rosa attack. And, even though peace had been officially declared at this point, there were still sporadic death squad murder occurring, even while I was there. I remember going to a peace march in San Salvador that was patrolled by armed United Nations monitors. Buses had driven in from every corner of the country, displaying banners of the department or town from where they came, as well as others demanding an end to governmental impunity and assassinations.

Mark Danner wrote a really horrifying, but excellent article in the New Yorker, 1993, about the dirty war the Salvadoran government had waged against its own people. It includes the story of how guerillas pretended to allow the Radio Venceremos transmitter to get captured by the ruthless Colonel Monterosa, when in reality they had packed it full of explosive to destroy the colonel. You can read it here: http://markdanner.com/1993/12/06/the-truth-of-el-mozote/

#workingclass #LaborHistory #imperialism #elsalvador #deathsquads #FMLN #reagan #cia #marines #civilwar #SchoolOfTheAmericas #radiovenceremos #pirateradio

Today in Labor History January 16, 1992: The government of El Salvador and the FMLN rebels signed a peace accord, formally ending their 12-year-old civil war. 75,000 people died in that war, mostly civilians, and mostly at the hands of the military and government-supported death squads. 25% of the population became refugees. The U.S. taxpayers heavily subsided the Salvadoran government and its death squads and also trained many of them at the School of the Americas (AKA School of the Assassins), in Fort Benning, Georgia. The FMLN was named after Farabundo Marti, a Salvadoran revolutionary from the 1930s, who led a communist uprising that created the short-lived Salvadoran soviet, the first soviet in the western hemisphere. The Martinez dictatorship then slaughtered over 40,000, mostly indigenous people, in a genocide known as La Matanza. Martinez was one of the first world leaders to recognize Hitler.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #elsalvador #FMLN #FarabundoMarti #imperialism #DeathSquads #communism #indigenous #genocide #CivilWar #SchoolOfTheAmericas #dictatorship #hitler

Today in Labor History December 11, 1981: Over 800 people were slaughtered by the Salvadoran military in the village of El Mozote in one of the largest 20th century massacres in Latin America. Men, women and children were tortured and systematically executed by the U.S.-supported regime, which was trying to wipe out unions, leftists and peasant activists. The Atlacatl Battalion carried out the massacre. The Battalion was created in 1980 at the U.S. Army's School of the Americas and trained by U.S. military advisors.

#WorkingClass #LaborHistory #elsalvador #genocide #civilwar #ElMozote #massacre #DeathSquads #SchoolOfTheAmericas #imperialism #torture