My Trip to El Salvador
Saturday, January 18th, 2003I went to El Salvador in January of this year to set up some technology for releif agencies there. Here’s my journal from the trip.
El Salvador
The smallest country in Central America, El Salvador is the only one that doesn’t have coastline of the Atlantic/Caribbean side. It’s about the size of Massachusetts and has a little over 6 Million people. The US has a long history with El Salvador, but like our history with all of Central America, it’s not a particularly proud one. When you think El Salvador, the phrase ‘death squad’ probably comes to mind. During the civil war that ended in 1992, the government and aristocracy employed gangs of vigilantes and armed them with American dollars. We supported the authoritarian government against the leftist FMLN. Most of El Salvador was caught in the middle, and untold thousands died. A powerful book that shows the conflict through the eyes of a poor woman is ‘One Day of Life‘, by Manlio Argueta. It was banned by the El Salvadoran government in the 80’s. I don’t think it is banned here any longer, which would be good, because I brought it with me.
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