36 pages • 1 hour read
The Massacre at El Mozote
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BetaChapters 8-9Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 8 Summary: “Monterrosa’s Prize”
The first of the two, short concluding chapters, Chapter 8 focuses in particular on Lieutenant Colonel Monterrosa. Danner begins by putting the massacre at El Mozote and its effects in context within the larger Salvadoran conflict, calling it “the climax of the era of the great massacres” (140). Afterward, the tactics of the Salvadoran army shifted away from shock and awe, partly because they saw the effectiveness of the guerrilla propaganda that came out of the El Mozote massacre, and partly because it had accomplished what they wanted it to accomplish: “El Mozote was, above all, a statement [...] In the end, the guerrillas can’t protect you, and we, the officers and soldiers, are willing to do absolutely anything to avoid losing this war” (141).
Even if the outcome of the war had not become certain in the wake of El Mozote, “it had become less certain that [the Army] would lose” (141). El Salvador elected a center-right provisional president, Magaña, who helped “placate Congress,” and the narrative of El Mozote in the US shifted from “there is no evidence to confirm” that a massacre happened to there is “no evidence to support” the charges (141-42).
Meanwhile, Monterrosa had shifted his tactics in the aftermath of Operation Rescue, taking a less brutal approach and instead making attempts at “conquering hearts and minds” (142). This caused the guerrillas to see him as even more of a threat and to formulate “plans to kill him” (147). Using Monterrosa’s obsession with Radio Venceremos and the fact that he personally wanted to oversee any capture of radio equipment against him, the guerrillas, under the command of Villalobos, put into action an ambush. The goal of the operation was to make it seem like the army had captured yet another important piece of radio equipment, bringing Monterrosa personally to the scene. Despite the operation not going exactly as planned, Monterrosa did in fact “capture” the radio equipment as intended. Then, as Monterrosa’s helicopter began to lift off with the equipment on board, the guerrillas were able to remote detonate the explosives they had secreted there, killing Monterrosa.
Chapter 9 Summary: “Unearthing the Truth of El Mozote”
The turning point in the war came in November 1989, in the midst of a “general offensive that, in the political shock it provoked, would turn out to be the Salvadoran equivalent of Tet” (155). During this offensive, members of the Atlacatl Battalion murdered five Jesuit priests and attempted to frame the guerrillas. They were unsuccessful, however, and instead brought the heat of international scrutiny, counteracting the claims that reforms had been made. As people began to filter back to their homes from refugee camps, several made complaints in court about the brutality of the army’s actions nearly a decade earlier, including Rufina Amaya Márquez, leading to the “first full investigation of the El Mozote massacre, including the names of seven hundred and ninety-four dead” (158).
The results of the dig that begins the book are also presented, confirming the approximate date, nature, and scale of the massacre. Directly after the report was published, the “Salvadoran legislature pushed through a blanket amnesty that would bar from prosecution those responsible for El Mozote and other atrocities of the civil war” (159-60). While most of the American newspapers reported that rumors of the massacre had been confirmed, The Wall Street Journal “remained more circumspect” (160). The chapter ends with a description of the building that now houses Radio Venceremos. The structure is now a museum, and the twisted wreckage of Monterrosa’s helicopter is displayed there, “the most cherished monument in all Morazàn” (161).
Chapters 8-9 Analysis
These short final chapters serve as a sort of epilogue for the narrative as a whole, providing closure on a number of points and catching the narrative back up with where it begins—the unearthing of the bodies in El Mozote, over a decade later. Chapter 8 serves as a bookend to Chapter 3, in which we’re introduced to Monterrosa. Chapters 3 and 8 serve as mirrors of each other down to their chapter titles: “Monterrosa’s Mission” (Chapter 3) and “Monterrosa’s Prize” (Chapter 8). The irony in the title of the chapter where Monterrosa is killed, “Monterrosa’s Prize,” serves to emphasize the single-minded obsession he had with Radio Venceremos, which ended up being his tragic flaw. Monterrosa’s downfall also takes center stage at the very end of the book, as Danner describes the museum that Radio Venceremos has become, which houses the wreckage of his exploded helicopter.
The rest of this section (the bulk of Chapter 9), accelerates through time to catch the reader up to the present, in which the results of the Truth Commission report are revealed, though they had been hinted at and begun way back in Chapter 1. Ending the book in this way gives the narrative a sense of completion and resolution, tying together loose ends from the preceding chapters.
Finally, in the last section leading up to the description of the museum, Danner again takes the reader along a hypothetical “drive out from San Salvador today, along the highway toward Morazán” (160), tying back in the trope begun with the opening sentence of the book.
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