A little under two years ago I witnessed the first ever change of government in El Salvador as the people voted in the leftist FMLN party over ARENA, the right-wing who had ruled the country for its entire existence. At the time, I believed that the threat of a leftist Chavez-type victory would be dangerous here in El Salvador. I also believed that the left would bring little of the promised change. Now, I can say that only one of those was actually true. The government has made little changes but now I believe that even if the left had intended to become Chavez-esque that they would not have succeeded. The people of El Salvador are not ideologues and change comes painfully slow. The idea of an extreme-left takeover of this country seems laughable now.
The most important findings of this book include the atrocious behavior of the American government as they supported an Army that clearly lacked control or discipline. They continued to fund a war on civilians because they feared a communist takeover. As in other ridiculous situations with the same storyline of this time, it seems the American government had this deep-seeded fear of a shadow named Communism that might one day turn into a person and try to kill them. Oh, how wrong they were. Several times throughout this book it quotes American government officials as saying that the killing of a few hundred civilians was preferable to a communist victory. Because, apparently, a communist victory by definition meant doom for MORE civilians later.
Some other points I noted during my reading were:
-The Salvadoran military officers had a distinct system whereby they became "kin" and sheltered each other and supported each other NO MATTER WHAT. This meant anything from shielding their companions from illegal acts they may have committed to supporting and even hand-picking the next president.
-There was a little mentioned faction of "progressive" military officers who favored more centrist policies and working with the agitated left. Some of these officers later defected and joined the guerrilla fighters with much success for the leftist movement.
-In many cases, civilians who were sympathetic to the left were killed simply because the left did not have the resources to protect their own people. They waged guerrilla war and the only way to protect their own was to have them flee. This is hard when you have lots of children, etc.
-Many of the arms the guerrillas used were bought from the Salvadoran Army via soldiers looking to make a buck.
-Most reminiscent of the Afghan war ie. Charlie Wilson's War quote about building schools before leaving a war zone : "If we don't kill them (the children) now, they'll just grow up to be guerrillas. We have to take care of the job now."
-When trying to downplay the massacre, the US govt used as evidence the way the guerrilla army was pushing news of the massacre. The govt said that was proof that it was propaganda. Just the fact that it was being pushed, meant it probably wasn't true.
-The people of El Mozote were part of a mass movement towards evangelicalism.The war is known to have catalyzed the left with the Catholic Church's liberation theology. The evangelicals had somehow managed to remain neutral in the eyes of the Army yet got caught up in one general's plan to weed out all the people with even remote cooperation with the left.
Knowing what I know now, after reading this book and spending two years here in El Salvador, it is pretty incredible that people are able to get on in a very civilized, Democratic way. Lots of blood was shed. I went to a cemetery just outside Mozote last Day of the Dead with a family in my community who saw an uncle and two brothers killed during the war. It's not like it was that long ago but yet people have been able to maintain a civilized way of dealing with each other. It is truly impressive.
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