Civil War and Refugee Camps

The murder of Romero was the catalyst that plunged the country into civil war for the next twelve years and resulted in the death of 75,000 people. For perspective, the population today of El Salvador is 6 million.  The insurgents called themselves the FMLN.  In the first years of the war the FMLN may have come close to achieving victory but were ultimately ground down by the government and the associated right wing death squads.

The United States, under both Carter and Reagan, supported the Salvadoran government with weapons despite the US government's misgivings about the Salvadoran government's repression and brutal tactics.  At the time Nicaragua had experienced a revolt by the Cuban-friendly Sandanistas, and the USSR was in Afghanistan.  The US was operating with a cold war mentality and El Salvador suffered for it.  Both the Carter and Reagan administrations expressed concern with the actions of the Salvadoran government without effecting any restraint on its part.

To protect its people the Lutheran church created a refugee camp called Fey Esperanza (translation: Faith and Hope), located not far from the capital.

Fey Esperanza

The dorms at Fey Esperanza

A tapestry in the chapel at Fey Esperanza depicting the war.  Note the dead person at the bottom has a wound in his side, same as Christ.

Fish ponds for raising tilapia.  Lately the Lutheran church has decided to use Fey Esperanza again for growing food, and offering employment for a few people.

The woman on the left was a resident here during the war.  She answered our questions (thru our interpreter) but she looked sad and distant. Many people suffer from PTSD; she may be one.

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We visit the site of another civil war refugee camp on the shore of Lake Loopango.  It's is in a secluded spot; we take boats across the large, deep lake filling a volcanic caldera to get there.

This site was abandoned for years but now the church has an idea to both grow coffee here and simultaneously turn it into an eco-tourist destination.  Coffee was previously grown here but the existing coffee plants (shrubs really) are of an of breed that are subject to disease.  Replanting will be expensive; the church does not have the funds.

A trio serenades us with folk music.

 

 

They have made a trail part-way up the mountain.  We hike it, seeing the old coffee plants under the forest canopy.

This woman was a refugee here during the war.  This is her first visit back since.

About to head back across the lake