El Mozote

El Mozote is a village in the Morazán department in El Salvador. It was the site of the El Mozote massacre during the civil war in December 1981 when nearly 1,000 civilians were killed by the US-trained Atlacatl Battalion, backed by the Salvadoran government.

Atlactl Battalion entered the village of El Mozote with a plan in mind. The Battalion’s mission: to eliminate everyone in the village who stood in their way of capturing the Guerilla. In the lapse of three days every inhabitant of the village was executed. On the fatal day of December 10, soldiers rousted the civilians from their homes and gathered them in the central plaza where they were forced to lie down on the streets