The effects of the El Salvadorian Civil War

Orlando told me that he had never seriously thought about moving out of the country during the civil war.  His entire family lived in El Salvador and his business was booming.  He said that, although he is naturally interested in the government, he has never been an outspoken proponent or opponent of any political party or movement.  He claims that that was the main reason he and his family have remained unharmed through all of the turmoil that has gripped El Salvador over the years.  Even after asking him pointed questions and listening to his various political stories, I still have no clue about his political leanings.  

Coming from the United States, I find this a strange way of thinking.  In the United States, it is encouraged, crucial, fundamental, and almost necessary that you openly support issues that you care deeply about.  However, through my travels through many countries around the world, remaining quiet about your political beliefs seems to be the more sane approach.

Orlando and Ana Maria had plenty of personal stories about their lives during the civil war.  One of the, however, stands out.  Orlando told me that one day during the mid-1980s, while he was outside of his factory with his brother and some his employees, a bus pulled up to deposit and collect passengers.  Suddenly, a woman who was a part of the guerrilla leftist movement, through a homemade grenade at the bus.  Orlando has deduced that she intended to injure or kill the bus driver and/or his passengers.  The bus driver quickly and instinctively shut the sliding door.  The grenade ricocheted off of the glass door and exploded near the woman who had thrown it.  It instantaneously, the grenade blew off both of her arms and completely disfigured her face.  As she hysterically screamed due the extreme pain and her unlikely impending death, two men who were with her tried desperately to obtain a car so that they could drive her to the hospital.  Orlando was frantically trying to evade the group of guerrillas.  Eventually they stopped a car in the street, carjacked it, and drove off, injured woman in tow.

In 1980, Oscar Romero, the Archbishop of San Salvador, was gunned down while giving a mass at a hospital.  Romero heavily preached and was an activist for the downtrodden in El Salvador.  He was basically aligned with the guerrilla movement.  Now, Romero has a similar reputation in El Salvador as Selena, the singer who was killed in 1995, does in the United States.  Everyone seems to worship him, although, like all people, he had his faults and vices.  Many people say that Romero's death officially threw the country into civil war.  After years of controversies within the administration of the Vatican, Romero will be canonized on May 23 of this year. 

Oscar Romero

The hospital chapel where Romero was killed

Romero mementos being sold near the main church in central San Salvador

El Salvador's civil war led to death squads, the recruitment of child soldiers, and other human rights violations, mostly by the government-supported military.  The civil war came to an end with the Chapultepec Peace Agreement in 1992, with both sides agreeing to share power in a democratically elected government.  All told, over 75,000 people were killed during the fighting and an untold number of disappearances remain a mystery to this day.