Summary Of The Massacre At El Mozote By Mark Danner

The Massacre at El Mozote by Mark Danner summarizes one out of numerous mass executions that occurred during the Salvadoran Civil War. This particular book discusses the Massacre at El Mozote in 1981 led by the Atlacatl Battalion. This rapid response counter insurgency battalion was trained at the U.S. Army’s School of the Americas once located in Panama. Danner’s book highlights the Reagan administration’s response when photographs of the multitude of victims killed in this massacre were published in the United States. The Regan administration determined that the pictures were propaganda and decided to overlook the major massacre going on around them. The war continued with funding through the United States. Mark Danner originally wrote about

Danner states that the massacre is a primary story of the Cold War and how it was part of the anti-Communist crusade. One major issue mentioned in the book is the guerillas, turned politicians, trying to decide whether or not to purge officer corps. Throughout the novel Danner mentions events that were relayed to him by Rufina Amaya, who he visited while he was in El Mozote during his research for the newspaper article. Ms. Amaya was able to escape the attacks and survived. Concurrently with the events that Rufina Amaya recalls, the book also mentions archeologists digging up skulls and artifacts that remained after the massacre. The novel reveals the twelve year long war, which ended up in the murder of thousands of Salvadorans. Additionally, the book discusses how the soldiers under the Atlacatl Battalion came into the small village of El Mozote to interrogate individuals regarding the guerillas, thus resulting in men being tortured and executed. Women and children of the village would end up being raped and killed for no reason. As soon as the killings were over the soldiers set houses on fire to make sure the village was left in total devastation. Additionally, the book described how the massacre was created in phases. Once El Mozote was destroyed the army would move on to other surrounding

One of the reports sent back to Washington was that the Americans were not sure whether it was proven that acts of violence were taken out on civilians, but they were certain that guerilla forces did not do anything to remove them from the civil war. However, the summary did admit to civilians dying but could not fully determine how they were killed. This characterized how the United States pretended to not know about the massacre that took place and how these soldiers destroyed innocent lives. One main struggle towards the end of the book is when the author is trying to understand how the American representatives believed that the guerrillas did nothing to save the individuals. The Atlacatl Battalion was blamed for the killings of the people that resided in the village, and also blamed for the other villages damaged that were around El Mozote. Rufina Amya testified in court about the massacre to contribute to the investigation. Archeologists started to dig up bones and cartilage to be sent to San Salvador for further examination. With these findings, archeologists were able to find out who participated in shootings. However, remains of other victims of the massacre were left at El Mozote and have not been