The following are lists of massacres that have occurred in El Salvador (numbers may be approximate). There were some 27 separate documented civilian massacres[1][2][3] in the Salvadoran Civil War era alone (1979–1989), in total the war directly claimed 70,000 to 80,000 lives. Additional ongoing violence related to the massacres and their obfuscation has claimed numerous activists, religious leaders, university professors, mayors, and foreigners in the decades following the civil war until the present day.
This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (May 2011) |
Name | Date | Location | Deaths | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
La Matanza | 22 January 1932 – 11 July 1932 | Western El Salvador | 10,000[4] to 40,000 | Led to decline of native Pipil (Nahuat) language and lack of linguistic self-identification due to induced climate of fear |
Student massacre of 1975 | 30 July 1975 | National Hospital Rosales, San Salvador | unknown (over 100)[5] | |
Cathedral Slope massacre | 8 May 1979 | San Salvador Cathedral, San Salvador | 24[6] | Civil War followed |
Name | Date | Location | Deaths | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
Sumpul River massacre | 14 May 1980 | Sumpul River near Las Aradas, Chalatenango | 300 to 600[7] | |
Santa Cruz massacre | 11-19 November 1981 | Victoria, Cabañas | Unknown | |
El Mozote massacre | 11 December 1981 | El Mozote, Morazán | up to 900[8] | Carried out by Atlácatl Battalion of the Salvadoran Army |
Santa Rita massacre | 17 March 1982 | Santa Rita, Chalatenango | 8[9] | Carried out by Atonal Battalion of the Salvadoran Army, 4 Dutch journalists among those killed |
El Calabozo massacre | 21–22 August 1982 | El Calabozo, San Vicente | more than 200[10] | Carried out by Atlácatl Battalion of the Salvadoran Army |
Massacre of Tenango and Guadalupe | 28 February–1 March 1983 | Suchitoto, Cuscatlán | 250 mostly women and children[11] | Carried out by Salvadoran Army |