Use of images from the collections of the Tom & Ethel Bradley Center is strictly prohibited by law without prior written consent from the copyright holders. The responsibility for the use of these materials rests exclusively with the user. The Bradley Center may assist in obtaining copyright/licensing permission to use images from the Richard Cross collection. http://www.csun.edu/bradley-center/contact
Description
A crowd of people stand in line while waiting to vote on election day in Santa Tecla. Standing next to them is an armed Salvadoran Army soldier tasked with providing security at the polling place. He is armed with a Heckler & Koch (H&K) G3 battle rifle, a weapon designed in Germany but of unknown origin. The Salvadoran government reported that 1,551,687 persons went to the polls although researchers at the University of Central America in San Salvador said the number of voters was between 600,000 and 800,000. There were long lines but not too many polling places, only thirteen, for example, in the capital of San Salvador. The U.S. administration considered the elections a democratic success but parties representing political views to the left of the Christian Democrats were not even represented, and many Salvadorans voted in fear of reprisals by the Salvadoran armed forces against those who didn't vote. Journalist Lynda Schuster of The Wall Street Journal, for example, reported that soldiers had threatened to kill the villagers of San Benito if they didn't cast a ballot. During those years Salvadoran were required to carry around an identification card, called cédula, which was stamped after the person had voted. As journalist Raymon Bonner writes in his book Weakness and Deceit, “thousands of Salvadorans peasants walked many miles, endured long lines, stood in the blistering sun solely because they wanted their cédulas stamped, not because they had faith in the democratic process or were opposed to the guerrillas.” Richard Cross took this image in 1982 while covering the presidential election and War of Liberation in El Salvador. Una multitud de personas yacen parados en fila mientras esperan votar durante el día de la elección en Santa Tecla. Parado junto a ellos se osberva a un soldado del ejército salvadoreño armado encargado de proveer seguridad al sitio de votación. Él sostiene un fusil de combate Heckler & Koch (G3), un arma diseñado en Alemania pero de origen desconocido. El gobierno salvadoreño informó que 1 millón 551,687 personas acudieron a las urnas aunque investigadores de la Universidad Centroamericana en San Salvador dijo que el número de votantes estaba entre 600 mil y 800 mil. Había largas colas pero no demasiados lugares de votación, solo trece, por ejemplo, en la capital de San Salvador. La administración de Estados Unidos consideró las elecciones como un éxito democrático, pero los partidos que representaban los puntos de vista políticos a la izquierda de los demócratas cristianos ni siquiera estuvieron representados, y muchos salvadoreños votaron por temor a represalias de las fuerzas armad
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