The American Horror Story: Death Squads and the Disappeared in Central America
A lot here, so digest in bite-size morsels.
I was heavily invested in the antiwar movement during the early 80’s, to the degree of spending days and nights in jail and having agents of the FBI showing up at my places of employment a few times; of being abused by cops; of having my phone line tapped; and being followed by persons unknown. So, if I sound a bit “passionate” when these subjects are broached, there is good reason.
No doubt…. These are touchy political matters. Iran-Contra, to the mind of many, permanently de-legitimized the American political system, if the US-funded and orchestrated “civil wars” in Central America hadn’t already. As manager at New World Resource Center, and as an active member in the Sanctuary Movement, I had many opportunities to meet both American activists and refugees from Central America, hearing horror story after horror story of friends and family members being killed and/or disappeared simply because the victim happened to be a school teacher, a union member, a religious person, etc.
Like I said, historical memory is not easily erased. Neither are the cultural and political repercussions linked to those memories. Forty years may seem like a long time ago for those of us living in the spectacular now. But we didn’t have our parents macheted to death in front of us; or witness our brother being beaten, kidnapped, thrown into a van, and then driven away — never to be seen again. Again and again and again.
Our tax dollars, just like the massacre of thousands in Gaza, paid for the training of death squads and the endless supply of weapons that killed a countless number of innocent people in Central America. And while we rightfully fear that our complicity in supporting Israel could breed a new generation of bin-Laden-like”terrorists,” how could our complicity in the death and destruction in El Salvador, Nicaragua and elsewhere in Central America NOT create its own manifestation of blowback in the form of emigration to here?
If we are to acknowledge the wrongs of our past, where and when do our responsibilities and obligations end with respect to rectifying them? When did they end for indigenous Americans? For blacks? For women? For gays? For animals?
***In the wonderful show, Northern Exposure, the Indians celebrate Thanksgiving as the Day of the Dead with various traditions including costumes, parades and throwing tomatoes at white people.***
To quote our new president, “We’re not innocent.” We may not be able to totally reverse the wrongs of our history, but at minimum we need to own them — to compassionately admit and submit. This country never misses an opportunity to engage in wars; it’s long overdue for it to begin waging peace. Let it begin at home.
The Sanctuary Movement in Chicago
The sanctuary movement in Chicago arose in the aftermath of civil wars in El Salvador and Guatemala, funded in part by the US government, during which nearly one million refugees sought asylum in the United States between 1980 and 1991. Among those who had been killed in El Salvador were four US missionaries, and they became the face of a new organization: the Chicago Religious Task Force for Central America. It advocated for federal foreign policy changes toward Central America and encouraged domestic communities to host Central American refugees. In Chicago, they created a framework that connected undocumented immigrants with churches that were willing to provide them sanctuary.
Central America Wars, 1980's
+During the 1980s, the United States supported a counterinsurgency war in El Salvador and directed a guerrilla insurgency in Nicaragua.
+In December 1981, the Salvadoran Army massacred close to 1,000 men, women, and children in the village of El Mozote and in neighboring hamlets. +Denying that a war crime had taken place, the Reagan administration certified to Congress that same month that the Salvadoran government was making progress in human rights and requested more U.S. aid for the government.[1]
+In April 1985, former CIA director Admiral Stansfield Turner testified before a Congressional committee that the U.S.-backed Nicaraguan guerrillas, known as Contras, had engaged in numerous acts of “terrorism.”[2] Only the previous month, President Ronald Reagan had praised the Contras as “the moral equal of our founding fathers.”[3]
+In response to a suit by Nicaragua, the World Court ruled in June 1986 that the U.S.-directed war against Nicaragua constituted illegal aggression under international law and that the U.S. must cease its support for the Contras and make reparation payments to Nicaragua.[4] The U.S. refused to comply.
+After Congress had temporarily banned aid to the Contras, administration officials illegally raised money through arms sales to Iran and other means. The covert operation came to light in the Iran-Contra Congressional hearings in the spring of 1987, leading to the prosecution of fourteen U.S. officials and agents.[5]
+Although Congress had banned U.S. aid to the Guatemalan government based on human rights abuses, the Reagan administration aided this government’s counterinsurgency war as well.
+Between 1981 and 1990, an estimated one million refugees from El Salvador and Guatemala fled repression and violence in their homelands and entered the United States.[6]
+In late 1987, the Reagan administration’s Office of Public Diplomacy was forced to shut down after an investigation by the General Accounting Office concluded that the agency had engaged “in prohibited, covert propaganda activities designed to influence the media and the public to support the Administration’s Latin American policies.”[7]
+U.S. citizens opposed to U.S. intervention formed the Central America movement, a loose-knit coalition of over 1,000 local, state, and national organizations. Their efforts reinforced those of Latin American leaders promoting peace negotiations and an end to foreign intervention.[8]
+In the aftermath of the wars in El Salvador and Guatemala, truth commissions determined that state security forces and associated rightist paramilitary groups were responsible for 85% of assassinations and murders in El Salvador, and 93% in Guatemala, while leftist rebels were responsible for 5% in El Salvador and 3% in Guatemala.[9]
Salvador Film
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/salvador
Romero Film
