With U.S. weapons, Salvadoran military massacred a village. The trial continues. [View all]

[Judi Lynn]

The story of the December 1981 attack carries on. Florida veterans recall their part in the country’s civil war.

By Ileana Najarro
Published Yesterday
Updated Yesterday

EL SALVADOR - Inside a dimly lit garage, sweating from the heat of the flat-top grill before her, Sofía Romero Pereira shapes the dough in her hands. She lays down pupusas — Salvadoran stuffed corn cakes — and the sizzle creates a symphony broken only by the occasional laughter from diners telling jokes.

More customers chat outside the garage’s open wooden doors, waiting for their orders under the flickering streetlights.

Romero’s house is a short walk from the town plaza, where the memorial stands.

This is El Mozote, a village in the northeast region of El Salvador. This is the place Romero, 58, first called home. This, she said, is where 32 of her relatives — including her parents, her grandmother and some of her siblings — were massacred.

Approximately 1,000 men, women and children, including infants and the elderly, were slaughtered by a Salvadoran battalion in El Mozote and surrounding villages over a period of days in December 1981. The soldiers were trained by the U.S. and came with American rifles.

It was near the start of the country’s civil war, with the right-wing military government fighting leftist guerrillas.

More:
https://www.tampabay.com/special-reports/2020/12/10/with-us-weapons-salvadoran-military-massacred-a-village-the-trial-continues/