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MASSACRE OF HUNDREDS REPORTED IN SALVADOR VILLAGE
Author Name, ProPublica
1982-01-27 00:00:00
From Dec. 8 to Dec. 21, according to Salvadoran newspapers, soldiers from the Atlacatl Batallion took part in a sweep through Mozote and the surrounding mountain villages as part of one of the largest search-and-destroy operations of the war against the leftist guerrillas who are fighting to overthrow the United States-supported junta. According to the villagers, no Americans accompanied the troops on the sweep.
Asked whether the Atlacatl Battalion had been involved in an operation in the northern mountainous region of Morazan in December, Col. Cotto said he could not provide specific details about military operations.
''We have been at war since 1979 against the subversives,'' he said. As part of that war, he said, air force and army units, including the Atlacatl Battalion, are continually conducting operations throughout the country. 280 Children Reported Slain
In Mozote, 280 of the 482 peasants killed, according to the list the villagers have prepared, were children under 14 years old. In Capilla, vill agers say the soldiers murdered a father and his nine children, a m other and her five; in Cerro Pando, 87 adults and 62 children.
The Human Rights Commission has at other times also charged the army with killing large numbers of civilians during its operations. According to the commission, more than 100 were killed in the northern part of the province of Cabanas in November; 143, including 99 children under 16 years old, were said to have been killed in San Vicente in October, and about 300 in Usulutan in September.
Under banana trees at the edge of a cornfield near this village were 14 bodies. A child of about 5 or 6 years old was among the heap. Spent M-16 cartridges littered the dirt about 15 to 20 feet from the bodies. The rebels do have some M-16 rifles captured from army units, and they are standard issue for the Atlacatl Battalion.
A few peasants, handkerchiefs or oranges pressed against their noses to help block the stench, poked among the rubble for anything salvageable.
[END]
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