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Image / Soldiers resting, Usulután, El Salvador, 1982

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Title
Soldiers resting, Usulután, El Salvador, 1982
Creator
Cross, Richard, 1950-1983
Date Created and/or Issued
1982-03
Publication Information
California State University, Northridge
Contributing Institution
California State University, Northridge
Collection
Richard Cross Photographs (Bradley Center)
Rights Information
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
Two Salvadoran Army soldiers, both members of the Atlacatl Battalion, sit on a street after having participated in a counter-insurgency operation near Usulután. The both hold a Heckler & Koch (H&K) G3 battle rifle with a retractable stock chambered to fire 7.62x51mm NATO ammunition. The rifle is of German design, but of unknown origin. The Atlacatl Battalion was the first rapid-reaction infantry unit in El Salvador to be trained and equipped by the United States. The Battalion massacred more than one thousand people in six hamlets located in the municipality of Meanguera, in northern Morazán Department, El Salvador between December 11 and 13, 1981. Forty to 50 percent of the victims were murdered in El Mozote on 11 December. In spite of early reports of the massacre by journalists Raymond Bonner of the New York Times, and Alma Guillermoprieto of the Washington Post, the U.S. government denied it happened and the massacre remained underreported until the 1990s. Richard Cross took this image in 1982 while covering the presidential election and War of Liberation in El Salvador.
Dos soldados del ejército salvadoreño, los dos miembros del Batallón Atlacatl, yacen sentados sobre una calle despúes de haber participado en una operación de contrainsurgencia cerca de Usulután. Los dos cargan un fusil de combate Heckler & Koch (H&K) G3 con la culata retractil de caliber 7.62x51mm OTAN. El fusil fue diseñado en Alemania pero su origen y fabricación se desconocen. El Batallón Atlacatl fue la primera unidad de infanteria de reacción rápida en ser entrenada y suministrada por los Estados Unidos. El Batallón masacró a más de mil personas en seis aldeas ubicadas en el municipio de Meanguera, en la parte septentrional del departamento de Morazán en el Salvador entre el 11 y 13 de diciembre de 1981. Entre cuarenta y cincuenta por ciento de las víctimas fueron asesinadas durante el 11 de diciembre. A pesar de los reportes de la masacre por los periodistas Raymond Bonner del diario New York Times y de Alma Guillermoprieto del diario Washington Post, el gobierno estadounidense negó los hechos y la masacre recibio poca cobertura periodística hasta la década de los noventa. Richard Cross tomó esta fotografía en 1982 durante su estadía en El Salvador cubriendo las elecciones y la guerra de liberación.
Type
image
Format
Photographs
image/jpeg
color slides
Extent
35 mm
Identifier
99.01.RCr.sl.B21.01.04.16
http://digital-collections.csun.edu/cdm/ref/collection/p17169coll1/id/12780
Subject
El Salvador. Ejército--Infantry
Soldiers
Rifles
Military maneuvers--El Salvador--Usulután (Department)
El Salvador--History--1979-1992
Civil war
Place
Usulután (El Salvador)
Relation
99.01.RCr.sl.B21.01.04.16.tif
Richard Cross Photographs
California State University Northridge. University Library. Special Collections & Archives. Tom & Ethel Bradley Center

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