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
Three Salvadoran Army soldiers, all members of the Atlacatl Battalion, smoke a cigarette as they rest after having participated in a counter-insurgency operation near Usulután. They each hold a Heckler & Koch (H&K) G3 battle rifle chambered to fire 7.62x51mm NATO ammunition of German design, but unknown origin. Next to them leaning on the wall is an unidentified anti-tank weapon. 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 limpian armas dentro de un campamento cerca de Usulután. Junto a ellos se observa una canasta llena de pan. El soldado sobre la derecha limpia un lanza granadas M79, un arma diseñada, fabricada y suministrada al gobierno salvadoreño por los Estados Unidos. El soldado sobre la izquierda mira hacia delante y un fusil de combate Heckler & Koch (H&K) G3 de calibre 7.62x51mm OTAN de diseño alemán pero de fabricación y origen desconocido. Detrás de ellos al fondo de la imagen se observa a un niño y a un soldado limpiando un arma. El niño tiene nueve años y es un huérfano adoptado y puesto al servicio del ejército salvadoreño. Richard Cross tomó esta fotografía en 1982 durante su estadía en El Salvador cubriendo las elecciones y la guerra de liberación.
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