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Description
A U.S. military advisor leans on a ledge at Ilopango Military Base in San Salvador. He is wearing glasses, a cap, a wrist watch, and a ring. Standing behind him is a group of young Salvadoran Army cadets. To his right there are three M60 light machine guns of U.S. origin. The training is part of a U.S. counterinsurgency training operation. The base, whose pilots were mostly trained in the United States, was run by General Juan Rafael Bustillo. The general was charged in 2017 for the El Mozote Massacre, where approximately 1,000 people were executed by the Atlacatl Battalion during “Operation Rescate” in December 1981. More than half of the victims were children and adolescents. Starting in Spring 1983, the Ilopango Military Base became the center of CIA operations in support of Nicaraguan Contras. Un asesor militar de los Estados Unidos yace recargado sobre un muro en la base militar Ilopango en San Salvador. El asesor lleva lentes, una cachucha, un reloj de pulsera y un anillo. Detrás de él se observa a un grupo de cadetes jovenes del ejército salvadoreño. A su derecha se observan tres ametralladoras ligeras M60 de origen estadounidense. El entrenamiento es parte de una operación de contrainsurgencia de los Estados Unidos. La base militar, cuyos pilotos fueron entrenados principalmente en los Estados Unidos, fue dirigida por General Juan Rafael Bustillo. El general fue acusado en el 2017 de la masacre de El Mozote, donde aproximadamente 1.000 personas fueron ejecutadas por la manos del batallón Atlacatl durante la “Operación Rescate” en diciembre de 1981. Más de la mitad de las víctimas fueron niños y adolescentes. A partir de la primavera de 1983, la base militar de Ilopango fue convertida en el centro de operaciones de la CIA en apoyo a las contras nicaragüenses.
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