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Word of the Day: Desaparecido [1]
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Date: 2025-04-04
Peek-a-boo! That’s a game that parents often play with and teach infants. They put their hands over their eyes and then quickly move their hands away from their eyes, saying, “Peek-a-boo!” In this context, it means, “I see you!” And very young children love the game. They, too, begin putting their hands over their eyes. When they remove them, they laugh and laugh—such fun.
It’s an ancient game; nobody knows how old. An older form of the word is “peep-bo,” which William Shakespeare used in King Lear (1605-1606).
For children before the age of one, the game is of special importance. When they put their hands over their eyes, it is as if the world literally disappears because they have not developed the cognitive ability called “object permanence.” When they put their hands on their eyes or close them, they can’t remember that the world they don’t see still exists. Around the age of one, they will develop object permanence, so they know their mother or father is still there while their hands are over their eyes.
Imagine if we never learned object permanence, if every time we closed our eyes, our loved ones disappeared—devastating. Yet this has been the experience of families, especially in 12 countries in Central and South America, like El Salvador. But if we focus there, then out of respect and solidarity, the word of the day is the Spanish word, desaparecido, i.e., disappeared, which, to be clear, is the past participle of the Spanish verb desaparecer (to disappear).
The Salvadoran Civil War lasted from 1979 to 1992. Death squads sanctioned by the right-wing government and military desaparecido 8,000 to 10,000 people. The death squads included Orden, Mano Blanca (“White Hand”), and Maximiliano Hernández Martínez Brigade. Then, as now, the U.S. had blood on its hands because it supported the Salvadoran military with funding and training. These were our Cold War-era anti-communist policies that supported right-wing dictators while opposing left-wing dictators—nice. Salvadoran military officers leading death squads were often trained at the U.S. Army School of the Americas located at Fort Benning, Georgia.
To be desaparecido in El Salvador meant to
1 Be secretly abducted and executed by a death squad.
2 Not officially acknowledge that the person was missing.
3 Hide the body and deny state involvement.
The desaparecido included priests, nuns, activists, students, farmers, union leaders, indigenous people, political dissidents, and more.
You might not remember the Salvadoran Civil War. After all, it is the smallest country in Central America. But you may remember Archbishop Óscar Romero, who was brazenly assassinated on March 24, 1980, in San Salvador, the capital city, while celebrating Mass. A death squad killed him because he openly criticized the military and their responsibility for the desaparecido. In 2018, Pope Francis canonized him as a saint for his advocacy for the poor and his martyrdom.
Reaching back 46 years, people in El Salvador remember the desaparecido. There is the Monumento a la Memoria y la Verdad, i.e., The Monument to Memory and Truth. It is a wall that bears the names of over 30,000 victims, including the desaparecido. There are the CoMadres, the Mothers of the Desaparecido, who continue to demand information and justice. Families and activists hold marches and memorial services on anniversaries of major days dedicated to remembering the desaparecido, including August 30, which is the International Day of the Disappeared.
Americans should know the word desaparecido because from the 1950s to the 1980s, the CIA, Department of Defense, Department of State, and others in the U.S. supported right-wing governments—four in Central America and eight in South America—that were guilty of this despicable action.
Trump’s desaparecido is different but just as illegal and despicable. The 238 men, mostly Venezuelans, that he has deported to the Terrorism Confinement Center (Cecot) mega-prison in El Salvador, have been disappeared—not yet gone forever, but peek-a-booed. Not yet killed, but they will surely be victims of cruel and unusual punishment, if not by the guards, then by other inmates—likely both.
The lie that these were all criminals is being erased day by day. The Trump administration has said as much. And some crimes were petty. The lie that they were members of the Tren de Aragua gang is also being dismantled.
Reuters, for example, has reviewed 50 cases to find that 27 deportees were never ordered deported. Apparently, 24 or more of the 50 came into the U.S. using a smartphone app known as CBP One, meaning they entered legally. Trump discontinued this program. Ten men were arrested when they showed up for a required immigration check-in—following the rules. Eight of those who were removed were detained at the border under the last administration and remained in detention until they were put on a plane. (Source:
https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/trump-deported-238-venezuelans-el-salvador-dozens-have-active-asylum-cases-2025-04-01/)
None of these men could address their accuser—the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)—in court to contest the facts. If the Trump administration had facts, truth, and law on their side, they would have been confident that they would prevail as due process unfolded. We can only conclude that the facts in many cases would not back up their claims, actions, and deportations to El Salvador. Of course, the biggest lie is that because of the presence of some Tren de Aragua gang members, we are at war with Venezuela—the basis of invoking the 1798 Alien Enemies Act. This is dishonest and malicious since we are not at war with Venezuela.
To identify these gang members, ICE uses the “Alien Enemy Validation Guide.” It has a point system to assess gang membership. While it uses criminal convictions and court records—hard data—it also uses tattoos, hand gestures, and clothing which are so subjective as to be ridiculous.
But there is more. Sarah Kinosian, Kristina Cooke, and Ted Hesson of Reuters write, “‘The lack of specific information about each individual actually highlights the risk they pose,’ U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official Robert Cerna said in a court filing on March 17, 2025. ‘[It] demonstrates that they are terrorists with regard to whom we lack a complete profile.’” (Source: Ibid) This is truly the kind of Double Speak that George Orwell warned about in “1984.”
The outrage increases because of Kilmar Armando Abrego-Garcia, from El Salvador. He was stopped while driving in Prince George’s County, Maryland, with his autistic, non-verbal, five-year-old son. His American wife, Jennifer Stefania Vasquez Sura, must now raise three children, all of whom have special needs, without him. Abrego-Garcia had a 2019 protective court order blocking his removal to El Salvador. He could be deported, if deemed necessary, to any country but El Salvador because of fear of persecution. This happened due to an inexcusable administrative error—sloppy, which describes ICE. Now, they say that they can not undo the mistake by returning Abrego-Garcia to the U.S. El Salvador’s GDP of $34 billion in 2023 ranked 103rd in the world, smaller than Wyoming’s GDP which is the smallest state GDP in the U.S. (Source:
https://www.worldometers.info/gdp/gdp-by-country/#google_vignette) To assert that Trump can’t bring him back is a joke—not funny.
These rushed deportations ignored due process to support Trump’s planned invocation of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act. As with everything with Trump, it was all for show. Just like Kristi Noem, Homeland Security Secretary, who wrote on Twitter/X, we are “Getting these dirtbags off our streets and out of our country.” She went to El Salvador to get a photo shoot like a big game hunter with her trophies. Given that she is a dog killer, her actions make sense. Is ICE the new Death Squad?
But this and other illegal detentions and deportations are causing Trump to lose support even among the right wing. Conservative podcaster Joe Rogan said, “You got to get scared that people who are not criminals are getting, like, lassoed up and deported and sent to, like, El Salvador prisons.” Commenting on the arrest and detention of Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate student and green card holder who participated in pro-Palestinian protests on campus last spring, far-right pundit Ann Coulter wrote on Twitter/X, “There’s almost no one I don’t want to deport, but unless they’ve committed a crime, isn’t this a violation of the first amendment?” (Source:
https://www.msnbc.com/top-stories/latest/joe-rogan-ann-coulter-break-with-trump-immigration-rcna199344)
As history shows, the weaponization of immigration policy for political gains leads to grave injustices. The parallels between past disappearances and contemporary deportations underscore the need for accountability. The lessons of the desaparecido should remind us that when due process is ignored, and human rights are trampled, the consequences can be dire. This is not just history repeating itself—it is a warning.
Understanding the word desaparecido is not just an exercise in language but a recognition of the past and a call to vigilance for the present and future. If we allow people to be disappeared—whether through state-sanctioned murder or unjust deportation—we are complicit. History teaches us that silence in the face of injustice only allows oppression to persist. Our resistance to these outrages must grow strong enough to force the Trump administration to follow the law.
Day 74: days left to January 20, 2029: 1,387 days
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