Civil War in El Salvador
04 April 2014 | Perquin, El Salvador
We travelled to the NE portion of El Salvador to see the Ruta de Paz (route of peace) where we visited the Museo de la Revolucion. Here is what Wikipedia says about the museum:
Museum of the Revolution (Spanish: Museo de la Revolución) is a museum commemorating the antecedents and events of the Salvadoran Civil War, which took place from approximately 1980 until 1992. The museum is located in Perquín, in the Morazán Department of El Salvador. This area was dominated during the war by the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN).
The museum includes an exhibit honoring the FMLN's radio network, Radio Venceremos, as well as the weaponry used during the war years and a downed helicopter that had carried military leader Lt. Colonel Domingo Monterrosa Barrios, a leader of the Atlacatl Battalion. An additional outdoor exhibit shows the crater created by a 500-pound U.S.-made bomb, together with a disarmed example of such a bomb. Former members of the guerrilla staff the exhibits and answer guests' questions.
We spent a couple of hours with Carlos, ex-guerrilla, now museum guide who told us the story of their struggle against the government for their right to basic human needs. It was very interesting and we feel lucky to have been told the story by an actual fighter who now wants the facts told so that it doesn't happen again.
After the museum we hiked to the top of a hill that overlooked Honduras. We found a few bomb craters and trenches here.
After stuffing ourselves with great food, we spent the night in a cabin at Perquin Lenca. The cabin overlooked the hills of Honduras and we slept soundly until the cicadas and roosters woke us up early.
On the second day of our trip we went to El Mazote where we talked with the daughter of the ONLY SURVIVOR of the El Mazote massacre. On Dec 11 of 1981 the army came to them telling them that they the Red Cross was coming to distribute food. Their actual plan was to kill them all. Over 600 people were killed that day. There are many stories of torture but the one that sticks in my head is the story told by the one surviving person. They took her 8 month old child from her, threw him up in the air and shot him. The woman managed to hide under some pineapple brush and got away. She was determined to get the truth about the armies cruelty out and told her story. Many didn't believe her but recovered photos and excavation of mass graves has proved here truthful.
We finished the day swimming in the Rio Sapo and puddling around in a lake formed in the crater of a volcano.