List of massacres in El Salvador

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The following are lists of massacres that have occurred in El Salvador (numbers may be approximate). There were some 27 separate documented civilian massacres[1][2][3] in the Salvadoran Civil War era alone (1979–1989), in total the war directly claimed 70,000 to 80,000 lives. Additional ongoing violence related to the massacres and their obfuscation has claimed numerous activists, religious leaders, university professors, mayors, and foreigners in the decades following the civil war until the present day.

Pre-war

Name Date Location Deaths Notes
La Matanza 22 January 1932 – 11 July 1932 Western El Salvador 10,000[4] to 40,000 Led to decline of native Pipil (Nahuat) language and lack of linguistic self-identification due to induced climate of fear
Student massacre of 1975 30 July 1975 National Hospital Rosales, San Salvador unknown (over 100)[5]
Cathedral Slope massacre 8 May 1979 San Salvador Cathedral, San Salvador 24[6] Civil War followed

Salvadoran Civil War era

Name Date Location Deaths Notes
Sumpul River massacre 14 May 1980 Sumpul River near Las Aradas, Chalatenango 300 to 600[7]
Santa Cruz massacre 11-19 November 1981
Victoria, Cabañas
Unknown
El Mozote massacre 11 December 1981 El Mozote, Morazán up to 900[8] Carried out by Atlácatl Battalion of the Salvadoran Army
Santa Rita massacre 17 March 1982
Santa Rita, Chalatenango
8[9] Carried out by Atonal Battalion of the Salvadoran Army, 4 Dutch journalists among those killed
El Calabozo massacre 21–22 August 1982 El Calabozo, San Vicente more than 200[10] Carried out by Atlácatl Battalion of the Salvadoran Army
Massacre of Tenango and Guadalupe 28 February–1 March 1983 Suchitoto, Cuscatlán 250 mostly women and children[11] Carried out by Salvadoran Army

References

  1. ^ Informe de la Comisión de la Verdad para El Salvador: “De la locura a la esperanza”, Naciones Unidas, San Salvador – Nueva York 1992-1993.
  2. ^ Book "Condoning the killing : ten years of massacres in El Salvador" con introducción del senador Brock Adams.
  3. ^ La muerte de los que no combatían en la guerra Revista Enfocus
  4. .
  5. ^ El Universitario, Época XIII, No 14, 2010
  6. ^ "1979: El Salvador cathedral bloodbath". 9 May 1979.
  7. ^ "La masacre del Sumpul (1980)" [The massacre of the Sumpul (1980)]. ChalatenangoSV (in Spanish). 16 November 2015.
  8. . Retrieved 4 November 2012.
  9. ^ "Report of the UN Truth Commission on El Salvador". Derechos Human Rights. 29 March 1993. pp. 69–75. Retrieved 16 September 2020.
  10. . Retrieved 4 November 2012.
  11. ^ "Demandan del fiscal general apertura de archivos militares por masacre de Tenango y Guadalupe". 3 November 2017.