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Description
U.S. advisor, sergeant Thunberg, training Salvadoran soldiers how to load ammunition into a M-90 recoilless rifle at the Ilopango military base, El Salvador. 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. El sargento Thunberg, asesor de los Estados Unidos, entrena a soldados salvadoreños sobre cómo usar el cañón sin retroceso M67 de origen estadounidense en la base militar de Ilopango, El Salvador. 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 fueron 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 C.I.A. 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 Military uniforms Air bases Military assistance, American Recoilless rifles Military education Military training camps
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