Former soldiers of the Atlacatl Battalion testify against their superior in El Mozote trial

(LEA LA NOTICIA COMPLETA AQUÍ)

 

“You’re going to ask me about the El Mozote massacre, in Morazán, on december 1981”, said “Juan”, hidden behind a wooden screen and through a device that changed his voice. The two former soldiers declare under a pseudonym and their identities are only known by the prosecution and the judge. In judicial interrogations, witnesses have to give short answers to specific questions. This story uses only Juan’s key responses to recreate the story he told the court.

“It was during the first days of december. A few days before, I was at the headquarters of the Atlacatl Battalion in Opico, La Libertad. I joined on March 1, 1981. I was there because I earned a little more than where I was before, in the Second Infantry Brigade.

I was in the second company. There were six companies. Each company had 160 men. The commandor of the Atlacatl Battalion was my colonel Monterrosa and the second in command was Natividad de Jesús Cáceres.

My captain Mauricio Isaac Duke Lozano gathered us. He was a thin man, tall, white with curly hair. They told us to ride the trucks. I mounted one of the eight trucks with my bagpack. We came here to San Francisco Gotera. The company went down to buy and eat something. The bosses entered the barracks. Of those who entered I remember Pérez Reyes and Alvarado Guevara. They were there for around 45 minutes. When they come out again they ordered me to ride the truck. I took my backpack and we went to Perquin. There we slept in the bushes.

At 9 am of the following day, we stood in line to depart again. Sargent Julio César Vásquez Martínez and sargent Martínez Martínez were there. We started walking again. I did not know where we were heading. I did not know what we were going to do. We arrived by foot through dirt roads leading to El Mozote. We arrived between 11 am and noon.

The soldiers created groups and I was taking care of the backpacks. Apart from the groups, the rest of the unit had a peripheral order, taking care of the terrain that was flat and mountainous.

Liutenant Alvarado Guevara said that groups had to be made because they were going to kill people. He carried orders from Monterrosa and Monterrosa followed orders of the joint chief of staff. A soldier, a corporal or an officer cannot order himself. Alvarado Guevara said to take people to the corridors and courtyards of the houses. Other groups were told to start killing them. I saw Corporal Martínez Callejas, Corporal Reyes López and Saúl Moreno Granada shooting.

I was around fifty meters away taking care of the equipment. In the backpacks we carried ammunition, clothes, and food for three days, although a hungry man could eat it all the same day. We carried an M 16 rifle. The uniform was olive green and wore a patch of the Atlacatl Indian and another little blue thing in the uniform. We had a fiber and steel helmet.

I saw the people. Children between two and seven years old, women and men dressed humbly. The soldiers of the Atlacatl shot them dead. After they kill them, they called us to formation again. The people remained there. They started burning the tile and clay houses with matches.

I didn’t report this before because if I did, they killed me. Besides, I did not have the opportunity. I am poor and I am busy working. I told them it was an injustice with those creatures. But I couldn’t do anything to avoid it because I wasn’t their boss.

I was in El Mozote two days and two nights. Afterwards, we came back to the San Francisco Gotera road, about three hours away on foot. There the trucks arrived”.

 

GET NOTIFICATIONS OF NEW POSTS
RSS
Follow by Email

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *