March 8, 2007

Rufina Amaya, presente!

Posted by Kate Sheppard at 12:08PM

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Twenty-five years ago, hundreds of civilians were slaughtered in one of the most atrocious massacres in modern Latin American history. The story of the Massacre at El Mozote, in El Salvador's Morazon region, came to light mostly because of the testimony and strength of one remarkable woman, Rufina Amaya.

On Dec. 11, 1981, soldiers from the government's Atlacatl Battalion interrogated, tortured and executed everyone in the village -- men, women, children. None were spared but Amaya, who managed to sneak away. Her story was immortalized in several press accounts, and without it, the world would never have known of the massacre. She was known throughout the country as simply "Rufina," and her story spoke volumes of the experiences of the Salvadoran population in the 1980s as death squads terrorized peasants who would dare stand up to government oppression.

Rufina died this week of heart failure.

From the SOA Watch news release:

Rufina Amaya, human rights activist and survivor of the El Mozote Massacre passed on Tuesday, March 6, 2007 due to heart failure. She was a mother, grandmother, friend and hero to many.

In 1981 an SOA-trained Salvadoran army battalion known as the Atlacatl Battalion swept through the region of Morazon in a campaign to root out guerillas and their sympathizers. In a shocking turn of events, nearly one thousand peasants were slaughtered in the village of El Mozote.

As the sole survivor, Rufina's brave testimony of the massacre shed light on the atrocities committed by the Salvadoran military and uncovered the Reagan administration's role in providing training and millions of dollars in military aid to a government with a complete disregard for human rights.

The Atlacatl Battalion continued to commit atrocities in El Salvador, including the murder of six Jesuit priests and two Salvadoran women at the University of Central America on November 16, 1989

"God saved me because he needed someone to tell the story of what happened." Rufina Amaya continued to be an outspoken and compelling witness to what may have been the largest massacre in modern Latin American history until the day of her death.

Rufina's legacy will live on in the hearts of the people of Latin America and the world. .

I never got to meet Rufina, but after spending some time in El Salvador, it is clear that her spirit and her legend will undoubtedly live on in the quiet hills of Morazon and in the young people still fighting for justice there. Rufina Amaya, presente!