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        {"code":"25441","sect":"El Salvador","sect_slug":"el-salvador","hits":"9137","link":"https:\/\/elfaro.net\/en\/202104\/el_salvador\/25441","link_edit":"","name":"U.S. Government Hid Presence of U.S. Advisor in El Mozote Massacre, Expert Says","slug":"u-s-government-hid-presence-of-u-s-advisor-in-el-mozote-massacre-expert-says","info":"A United States military advisor, Sergeant Major Allen Bruce Hazelwood, was in Moraz\u00e1n with Coronel Domingo Monterrosa, commander of the Atlacatl Battalion, during the El Mozote massacre in December of 1981. This revelation from expert witness Terry Karl, given in April 2021 during pretrial hearings in El Salvador, expands the known scope of U.S. involvement in the Salvadoran civil war and the reasoning behind the United States covering up the massacre perpetrated by the Salvadoran Army.","mtag":"Impunity","noun":{"html":"Nelson Rauda and Roman Gressier","data":{"nelson-rauda-and-roman-gressier":{"sort":"","slug":"nelson-rauda-and-roman-gressier","path":"nelson_rauda_and_roman_gressier","name":"Nelson Rauda and Roman Gressier"}}},"view":"9137","pict":{"cms-image-000035772-jpg":{"feat":"0","sort":"35772","name":"cms-image-000035772.JPG","link":"https:\/\/elfaro.net\/images\/cms-image-000035772.JPG","path":"https:\/\/elfaro.net\/images\/cms-image-000035772.JPG","back":"","slug":"cms-image-000035772-jpg","text":"&lt;p&gt;Plaintiffs in the trial of the alleged military perpetrators of the El Mozote massacre converse before the testimony of U.S. expert witness Terry Karl. Photo: V\u00edctor Pe\u00f1a\/El Faro &lt;\/p&gt;","capt":"\u003Cp\u003EPlaintiffs in the trial of the alleged military perpetrators of the El Mozote massacre converse before the testimony of U.S. expert witness Terry Karl. Photo: V\u00edctor Pe\u00f1a\/El Faro \u003C\/p\u003E"},"cms-image-000035773-jpg":{"feat":"0","sort":"35773","name":"cms-image-000035773.JPG","link":"https:\/\/elfaro.net\/images\/cms-image-000035773.JPG","path":"https:\/\/elfaro.net\/images\/cms-image-000035773.JPG","back":"","slug":"cms-image-000035773-jpg","text":"&lt;p&gt;During her ten-hour testimony, Terry Karl revealed that a U.S. military advisor was present in El Mozote at the time of the massacres in two cantons and five villages around and including El Mozote in December of 1981. Photo: V\u00edctor Pe\u00f1a\/El Faro&lt;\/p&gt;","capt":"\u003Cp\u003EDuring her ten-hour testimony, Terry Karl revealed that a U.S. military advisor was present in El Mozote at the time of the massacres in two cantons and five villages around and including El Mozote in December of 1981. Photo: V\u00edctor Pe\u00f1a\/El Faro\u003C\/p\u003E"},"cms-image-000035774-jpg":{"feat":"0","sort":"35774","name":"cms-image-000035774.JPG","link":"https:\/\/elfaro.net\/images\/cms-image-000035774.JPG","path":"https:\/\/elfaro.net\/images\/cms-image-000035774.JPG","back":"","slug":"cms-image-000035774-jpg","text":"&lt;p&gt;Stanford political scientist Terry Karl after her second day of expert testimony in pretrial hearings on the 1981 El Mozote massacre. Photo: V\u00edctor Pe\u00f1a\/El Faro&lt;\/p&gt;","capt":"\u003Cp\u003EStanford political scientist Terry Karl after her second day of expert testimony in pretrial hearings on the 1981 El Mozote massacre. Photo: V\u00edctor Pe\u00f1a\/El Faro\u003C\/p\u003E"},"cms-image-000041388-jpeg":{"feat":"1","sort":"41388","name":"cms-image-000041388.jpeg","link":"https:\/\/elfaro.net\/images\/cms-image-000041388.jpeg","path":"https:\/\/elfaro.net\/images\/cms-image-000041388.jpeg","back":"","slug":"cms-image-000041388-jpeg","text":"&lt;p&gt;Stanford political scientist Terry Karl after her second day of expert testimony in pretrial hearings on the 1981 El Mozote massacre. Photo: V\u00edctor Pe\u00f1a\/El Faro&lt;\/p&gt;","capt":"\u003Cp\u003EStanford political scientist Terry Karl after her second day of expert testimony in pretrial hearings on the 1981 El Mozote massacre. Photo: V\u00edctor Pe\u00f1a\/El Faro\u003C\/p\u003E"}},"pict_main__sort":41388,"date":{"live":"2021\/04\/27"},"data_post_dateLive_YY":"2021","data_post_dateLive_MM":"04","data_post_dateLive_DD":"27","text":"\u003Cp id=\"docs-internal-guid-929a1ebd-7fff-14ca-b4dc-c2750fcf7fa7\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"\/es\/202104\/el_salvador\/25438\/Terry-Karl-Estados-Unidos-encubri%C3%B3-la-presencia-de-uno-de-sus-asesores--en-la-masacre-de-El-Mozote.htm\" target=\"_blank\"\u003E\u003Cem\u003ELeer en espa\u00f1ol\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EA United States military advisor, Sergeant Major Allen Bruce Hazelwood, was in Moraz\u00e1n with Coronel Domingo Monterrosa, commander of the Atlacatl Battalion, during the El Mozote massacre in December of 1981. This revelation from expert witness Terry Karl, given on Monday, April 26 during pretrial hearings in El Salvador, expands the known scope of U.S. involvement in the Salvadoran civil war and the reasoning behind the United States covering up the massacre perpetrated by the Salvadoran Army.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EAccording to Karl, a Stanford political scientist and internationally recognized expert on human rights violations during the Salvadoran civil war, the omission until this week of the role of Hazelwood in public accounts of the massacre owes to a \u201csophisticated cover-up\u201d orchestrated by the Reagan administration and the civil-military junta which ruled El Salvador at the time. \u201cHad [Hazelwood\u2019s presence at El Mozote] come to light at the time, it would have cut off United States aid,\u201d said Karl, adding: \u201cThe participation of an advisor in wartime activities is against our laws, and it was illegal at the time.\u201d\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EBetween December 11 and 13 of 1981, the Salvadoran Army deployed almost an entire elite battalion to El Mozote and seven nearby cantons in northern Moraz\u00e1n, killing 978 unarmed civilians. Most of them, 533, were children. 477 of those children were under 12 years old, and 248 under six. For years the governments of El Salvador and the United States denied that the massacre had occurred. Later, they questioned the identities of the victims in suggesting they were guerrillas. In 2012, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights pronounced the Salvadoran state guilty of the crime.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EMonterrosa\u2019s Atlacatl Battalion was an elite commando unit directly dispatched by the High Command. \"The main idea at the time was that it was a unit not bound to a specific territory,\" Karl explained, contrasting with other units of the Armed Forces consigned to the various departments across El Salvador. \"Atlacatl was the first military unit to be able to rapidly deploy, but also connected to the top [of the chain of command] because it wasn't tied to a specific brigade.\"\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EHazelwood \u2014 also identified in some parts of Karl\u2019s report as Hazelton \u2014 \u201cwas known as one of the best sources for the United States for information regarding a segment of the [Salvadoran] officer corps that distrusted the United States,\u201d wrote Karl in the first version of her expert report prepared for the El Mozote case, dated April 2019, and reviewed by El Faro. A 2018 documentary on the Dutch television network Zembla identified Hazelwood as having inside knowledge of the plot of Coronel Mario Reyes Mena to murder four Dutch journalists in 1982. Karl suggests that the same could have been true in the case of El Mozote, especially when taking into account the deep trust, according to reports, that Hazelwood and Monterrosa shared.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cThe documents and sworn statements suggest that Hazelton could have been aware beforehand of what was to come, though there is no implication that he supported the decision of the Salvadoran officers to kill civilians in any of these cases,\u201d reads Karl\u2019s report.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E    \u003Cfigure class=\"pict pict_land pict_move_posc 0 cs_img cs_img--curr rule--ss_c\" data-shot=\"pict\" data-hint=\"pict\"\u003E \u003Cdiv class=\"pict__pobj text-overflow\"\u003E\u003Cimg src=https:\/\/elfaro.net\/get_img?ImageWidth=1920&ImageHeight=1280&ImageId=35774 class=\"pobj\" style=\"max-width: 100%\" rel=\"resizable\" alt=\"Stanford political scientist Terry Karl after her second day of expert testimony in pretrial hearings on the 1981 El Mozote massacre. Photo: V\u00edctor Pe\u00f1a\/El Faro\" \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E \u003Cfigcaption class=\"pict__text cs_img_caption folk_content typo_buttons line--ss_s0c line--ss_s0c--auto block full-width text-overflow rule--ss_l relative\"\u003E \u003Cdiv class=\"__content block-inline full-width align-top tint-text--idle relative\"\u003E Stanford political scientist Terry Karl after her second day of expert testimony in pretrial hearings on the 1981 El Mozote massacre. Photo: V\u00edctor Pe\u00f1a\/El Faro \u003Cdiv class=\"photographer text_italic rule--ss_l tint-text--idle\"\u003E \u003C\/div\u003E \u003C\/div\u003E \u003C\/figcaption\u003E \u003C\/figure\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003ETwo representatives of the U.S. Embassy were present for the first day of Karl\u2019s testimony. \u201cThe United States supports the trial of the massacre at El Mozote,\u201d said Jonathan Lloyd, the embassy\u2019s political attach\u00e9. \u201cWe\u2019re supporting the rule of law and an independent trial here in El Salvador, and we believe that efforts to guarantee accountability for human rights violations are important for ensuring justice for the victims,\u201d he said, without referring to the presence of a U.S. military officer during the massacre.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E\u201cI Won\u2019t Say He Didn\u2019t Order It\u201d\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EKarl\u2019s sworn testimony is part of the discovery phase of the El Mozote trial, and will form the basis of evidence presented during the trial. She first traveled to El Salvador in 1981, and has since conducted research on human rights violations during the Salvadoran civil war through official documents, academic work, and direct interviews. Over the past four decades, she has interviewed dozens of political, social, and military figures, from across the political spectrum, who were central to the war \u2014 from Major Roberto D\u2019Aubuisson to members of the guerrilla, also including U.S. diplomats and military officers intimately involved in the country\u2019s affairs in recent decades.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EShe\u2019s also an expert on the 12,000 documents on the El Mozote massacre written by civil society groups, international human rights organizations, and the United States and Salvadoran governments. \u201cI think I\u2019ve read them all,\u201d said. In recent years she has also offered testimony in other major cases against civil war abuses: the U.S. trial of Captain Saravia for the murder of Archbishop \u00d3scar Romero; the Jesuit massacre case in Spain; and the U.S. trials of former defense ministers Guillermo Garc\u00eda, the highest-ranking official accused in the Mozote case, and Eugenio Vides Casanova for torture.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E    \u003Cfigure class=\"pict pict_land pict_move_posc 0 cs_img cs_img--curr rule--ss_c\" data-shot=\"pict\" data-hint=\"pict\"\u003E \u003Cdiv class=\"pict__pobj text-overflow\"\u003E\u003Cimg src=https:\/\/elfaro.net\/get_img?ImageWidth=2000&ImageHeight=1333&ImageId=35772 class=\"pobj\" style=\"max-width: 100%\" rel=\"resizable\" alt=\"Plaintiffs in the trial of the alleged military perpetrators of the El Mozote massacre converse before the testimony of U.S. expert witness Terry Karl. Photo: V\u00edctor Pe\u00f1a\/El Faro\" \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E \u003Cfigcaption class=\"pict__text cs_img_caption folk_content typo_buttons line--ss_s0c line--ss_s0c--auto block full-width text-overflow rule--ss_l relative\"\u003E \u003Cdiv class=\"__content block-inline full-width align-top tint-text--idle relative\"\u003E Plaintiffs in the trial of the alleged military perpetrators of the El Mozote massacre converse before the testimony of U.S. expert witness Terry Karl. Photo: V\u00edctor Pe\u00f1a\/El Faro \u003Cdiv class=\"photographer text_italic rule--ss_l tint-text--idle\"\u003E \u003C\/div\u003E \u003C\/div\u003E \u003C\/figcaption\u003E \u003C\/figure\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThe final report Karl submitted to the court is dated in 2020. Hers is the second session of expert testimony in the case since the testimony of Argentinian anthropologists in August of 2018, and she\u2019s the first U.S. citizen to testify.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EShortly after the audience began on Monday, the judge granted a short recess upon the request of the military\u2019s high-powered defense attorney, Lisandro Quintanilla. Just days before the hearings resumed, Quintanilla, one of the defense attorneys who requested the recusal of Judge Jorge Guzm\u00e1n, motioned unsuccessfully to have the audience postponed. \u201cThey always throw up obstacles,\u201d said Rosario S\u00e1nchez, a survivor of the massacre in the canton of La Joya who was present in the courtroom. Her nephew, Amadeo S\u00e1nch\u00e9z, added: \u201cAll my life.\u201d The S\u00e1nchez family lost 24 relatives in the massacre.\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EOn Tuesday, in the second portion of her expert testimony, Karl opened by discussing the role of clandestine U.S. weapons, funding, and disgruntled Vietnam veterans working as mercenaries in El Salvador \u2014 particularly with the Atlacatl Battalion \u2014 to \"fight communism.\"\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EAs the C.I.A. and military attach\u00e9s began to fear a guerrilla victory over the Armed Forces, they ramped up clandestine support for the Battalion, Karl elaborated. \"It was all under the table, as well as the financing,\" said Karl. \"The mercenaries were also hard-liners in their way of thinking. The commandos talked about the need to kill civilians, an idea not in the periphery but shared by the mercenaries.\"\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThese preliminary hearings took place in the middle of the defense lawyers legal onslaught against Judge Guzm\u00e1n, who is facing two requests that he recuse himself. If one of those requests succeeds, the hearings will be canceled and the process left in limbo.\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThe El Mozote case, as with the rest of the country\u2019s judicial cases, were delayed in 2020 because of the pandemic. The last hearing with actual testimony took place in January of 2020, in which one of the accused, General Juan Rafael Bustillo, admitted that something \u201cawful\u201d took place in El Mozote, and that the massacre was a \u201cmoment of madness\u201d from Monterrosa. The case is now in its final phase of the initial hearing, in which the judge will decide if there is sufficient evidence to begin a formal trial, with the possibility of a prison sentence for the implicated officials.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EFor months, as part of his investigation, Judge Guzm\u00e1n has tried, without success, to access the archives of the Salvadoran Army. His efforts included a public standoff with President Nayib Bukele in September and October of last year. During that period, the Army, on at least five occasions, refused to carry out a judicial order to allow him to inspect their offices and archives.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThis backdrop underscores the importance of Karl\u2019s testimony, which by Tuesday night had spanned ten hours. The attorneys have yet to even begin asking her questions.\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EOne of the pieces of evidence that Karl presented about Bruce Hazelwood\u2019s role in the massacre was a statement from Aryeh Neier, who was director of Human Rights Watch, then known as America\u2019s Watch, in 1982. In an interview given in 2019, Neier told Karl that Elliot Abrams, then Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights, complained to him about a January 11, 1982 New York Times article written by Raymond Bonner, in which he described the participation of an American advisor in a torture session that took place in El Salvador. Abrams denied that there was an advisor at the torture session, but he said to Neier, \u201cI\u2019d like to be able to say the same about El Mozote.\u201d He was referring to Hazelwood.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E    \u003Cfigure class=\"pict pict_land pict_move_posc 0 cs_img cs_img--curr rule--ss_c\" data-shot=\"pict\" data-hint=\"pict\"\u003E \u003Cdiv class=\"pict__pobj text-overflow\"\u003E\u003Cimg src=https:\/\/elfaro.net\/get_img?ImageWidth=2000&ImageHeight=1333&ImageId=35773 class=\"pobj\" style=\"max-width: 100%\" rel=\"resizable\" alt=\"During her ten-hour testimony, Terry Karl revealed that a U.S. military advisor was present in El Mozote at the time of the massacres in two cantons and five villages around and including El Mozote in December of 1981. Photo: V\u00edctor Pe\u00f1a\/El Faro\" \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E \u003Cfigcaption class=\"pict__text cs_img_caption folk_content typo_buttons line--ss_s0c line--ss_s0c--auto block full-width text-overflow rule--ss_l relative\"\u003E \u003Cdiv class=\"__content block-inline full-width align-top tint-text--idle relative\"\u003E During her ten-hour testimony, Terry Karl revealed that a U.S. military advisor was present in El Mozote at the time of the massacres in two cantons and five villages around and including El Mozote in December of 1981. Photo: V\u00edctor Pe\u00f1a\/El Faro \u003Cdiv class=\"photographer text_italic rule--ss_l tint-text--idle\"\u003E \u003C\/div\u003E \u003C\/div\u003E \u003C\/figcaption\u003E \u003C\/figure\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThe revelation about the presence of U.S. advisor Hazelwood bears, more than just historical importance, specific judicial importance. One of the objectives of the prosecution and the victims\u2019 lawyers in the trial is to specify the individual responsibility of the accused Salvadoran officials. Karl\u2019s testimony is a key part of those efforts, especially due to the interview Hazelwood gave to the United Nations Truth Commission in 1992, increasingly pertinent following the revelation of his presence at the time and place of the massacre.\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EAccording to the document presented by Karl, Hazelwood said in the interview that \u201c[Colonel Domingo] Monterrosa was in the barracks when the operation began on the day of the massacre, but went out into the field because \u2018things\u2019 were still happening,\u201d and that Colonel Natividad C\u00e1ceres Cabrera \u201cbegan the murders.\u201d Finally, about the military decision to carry out the operation in El Mozote on December 11, 1981, he said, \u201cI won\u2019t say that Monterrosa didn\u2019t order it.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EThe Importance of the Coverup\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EKarl detailed the cover-up plan that was put in place after the massacre, explaining how it made it difficult to get to the truth about what happened. \u201cIn the Mozote case, more than in any other case except for the Jesuits Massacre, there was an intense cover-up because it took place during such an important moment,\u201d she said. On January 28, 1982, President Ronald Reagan certified before Congress that El Salvador had made strides in terms of the Army\u2019s reduction of abuses and violations of human rights. He justified an enormous flow of military aid to El Salvador\u2019s Armed Forces. Just one day earlier, the Washington Post and the New York Times had published articles about the massacre.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EIn 1981, the U.S. Embassy heard rumors about what happened in Moraz\u00e1n, and Ambassador Deane Hinton sent two people in his charge to investigate: a young official, Todd Greentree, and Vietnam War veteran John McKay, who had experience in guerilla warfare. \u201cSomething horrible happened here,\u201d McKay wrote in his report.\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EAccording to Karl, even though they were sent on a mission to disprove that a massacre had taken place, they concluded that it, in fact, had. In their report they also documented the cover-up and the systematic intimidation the Salvadoran Army engaged in: \u201cWe did not obtain cooperation from the Salvadoran Army, and the soldiers were with us the whole time so we couldn\u2019t do interviews with people who were obviously traumatized,\u201d they wrote.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cGreentree and McKay had gathered circumstantial evidence to support what villagers had told the Washington Post and New York Times,\u201d journalist Raymond Bonner writes in his book, \u003Cem\u003EWeakness and Deceit\u003C\/em\u003E. \u201cGreentree and McKay concluded \u201cthere had been a massacre.\u201d Bonner was one of two journalists, along with Alma Guillermoprieto, who first revealed the massacre to the world.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EDespite internal reports, the official line of the U.S. Embassy was that the massacre was \u201cpure FMLN propaganda,\u201d according to Karl. \u201cI can\u2019t say that Reagan knew, but a lot of people in government did know what had happened,\u201d she said in her testimony. Karl explained that, during the 1980s, El Salvador was \u201cthe most important country in terms of foreign policy for the United States.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EKarl summarized the first day of her testimony with six conclusions.\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EOne, that the Salvadoran Army made Moraz\u00e1n its principal target because it feared the formation of an FMLN rearguard stronghold. Two, there was an extermination strategy that did not differentiate between combatants and civilians. Three, the high command, including the minister and vice minister of defense, along with the army chief of staff, were responsible for the military strategy, with the chief of staff being responsible for operational tactics. Four, the officer corp ordered, coordinated, carried out, and covered up the massacre. Five, an operation like the El Mozote Massacre, which included the participation of a third of the Armed Forces, only could have been carried out with the direct participation of the high command and the chief of staff. Six, officials in Moraz\u00e1n directly transferred the kill orders to the troops.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp style=\"text-align: right;\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u003Cem\u003E*Translated by John Washington and Roman Gressier\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E"}

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