Promoting Human Rights and Healing in the Wake of Civil War in El Salvador

Abstract

During winter quarter of 2015, this task force within the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington set out to document the story of two civil war era massacres in El Salvador; Las Canoas and La Quesera. In collaboration with Asociación Pro­Búsqueda, a local NGO based out of El Salvador, the Unfinished Sentences, the University of Washington’s Human Rights Center’s branch for El Salvador, and under the instruction of Task Force Instructor Professor Angelina Godoy and Graduate Assistant Alex Montalvo, a team of ten undergraduate students conducted vigorous research on the two massacres and the context. The team traveled to El Salvador for eight days of intensive primary research and video documentation surrounding the stories of seven survivors of these two massacres. Along with the first ­ever official documentation of these atrocities, this task force has produced two short videos, both of which document the stories of survivors and their search for their forcibly disappeared family members, as well as Asociación Pro­Búsqueda’s work to help reunite these families. The following is the written documentation of these massacres.