El Salvador's military government is funded and backed by the USA. Thousands of political opponents are killed every year by death squads.
Father Santiago writes that:
"People are not just killed by death squads in El Salvador -- they are decapitated and then their heads are placed on pikes and used to dot the landscape. Men are not just disemboweled by Salvadoran Treasury Police; their severed genitalia are stuffed in their mouths. Salvadoran women are not just raped by the national guard; their wombs are cut from their bodies and used to cover their faces. It is not enough to kill children; they are dragged over barbed wire until the flesh falls from their bones while parents are forced to watch. The aesthetics of terror in El Salvador is religious. The intention is to ensure that the individual is totally subordinated to the interests of the Fatherland, which is why death squads are sometimes called the 'Army of National Salvation' by the governing ARENA party."
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| Two children killed by the National Guard. | Salvadorian soldier near the bodies of villagers. |
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| Death squad victims at El Playon in 1984. |
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| Two teenage sisters killed by death squad. |
