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Description
Two by two, Salvadoran soldiers learn how to use mortars laying on the ground at the Ilopanga air base, El Salvador. Next to them American advisers, some with earmuffs on, give them directiona on how to operate the trench guns. A year earlier, on January 27th, the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMNL) assaulted the Ilopango air base and destroyed seventy percent of the military air units. The air base, whose pilots were mostly trained in the United States, was run by Gen. Juan Rafael Bustillo (the general was charged in 2017 for the El Mozote massacre, when approximately 1,000 people were executed by the Salvadoran armed forces at the hands of 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 air base became the center of C.I.A. operations to supplying the Nicaraguan Contras. De dos en dos, los soldados salvadoreños aprenden a usar el cañón sin retroceso M67 de origen estadounidense tendidos en el suelo en la base aérea de Ilopango. Junto a ellos, asesores estadounidenses con almohadillas en las orejas les dan instrucciones sobre cómo operar cañón sin retroceso M67 de origen estadounidense. Un año antes, el 27 de enero, el Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional (FMLN) asaltó la base aérea de Ilopango y destruyó el setenta por ciento de las unidades aéreas militares. La base aérea, cuyos pilotos han sido entrenados principalmente en los Estados Unidos, fue dirigida por el general Juan Rafael Bustillo (el general fue acusado en 2017 por la masacre de El Mozote, cuando aproximadamente 1.000 personas fueron ejecutadas por las fuerzas armadas salvadoreñas en diciembre de 1981 . Más de la mitad de las víctimas eran niños y adolescentes). A partir de la primavera de 1983, la base aérea de Ilopango se convirtió en el centro de operaciones de la CIA para abastecer a la contra nicaragüense.
Civil War El Salvador Documentary photographs Soldiers El Salvador. Ejército El Salvador--History--1979-1992 El Salvador--Politics and Government--1979-1992 Assault rifles Military uniforms Air bases Military assistance, American Trench mortars Recoilless rifles Military education Military training camps
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