Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here: The United States, Central America, and the Making of a Crisis

by Jonathan Blitzer

On the morning of December 8, three thousand Salvadoran troops led by the Atlacatl Battalion entered a string of remote mountain hamlets in the Morazán Department, in the eastern reaches of the country. It was part of a counterinsurgency campaign called Operation Rescue, aimed at reclaiming parts of the countryside from the guerrillas. Peasants in rural areas regularly ran the risk of being targeted by the military as guerrilla sympathizers, but in several of the towns, including one called El Mozote, residents felt they were protected. They’d always distanced themselves from the guerrillas, not wanting to provoke the government. When they learned that soldiers were closing in, they decided to stay put rather than abandon their homes.