Celestino tells the history of military repression and the early phase of armed resistance in Chalatenango leading up to the “Final Offensive” of 1981.
- Chapter:
- Chapter 5: Guerrilla Experiences
- Interviewee:
- Celestino "Ebaristo"
Transcription
In 1980 we evacuated the communities. That is when the operations began, and when they killed my dad, then my mom, and my mother-in-law. We evacuated to the area around El Portillo, Chupamiel, Los Filos, and La Cañada. Those were our liberated zones. We started to prepare our squads as repression began. There were collective and selective assassinations: this guy, this guy, and then this guy. So we had to migrate. By 1981, the revolutionary masses insurrected. But there was one problem: we didn’t have any arms. We had people but no arms, and the people were only half trained to defend themselves. By 1981, we said we would launch an offensive because they were already leaving us soldiers in the nearby areas. We said we’d launch an offensive. That was the wrong named for it; it was called the final offensive. But that was the wrong name because it was barely the first offensive, yet they named it the final offensive. During that campaign, some comrades died in the town square in Chalatenango. They were from here. Later, we received word that the army was—if we had put pressure on them for five more minutes we would have been able to enter the military quarters. The soldiers had already run out of ammunition. But at that moment they wounded the commander of our operation and we had to pull back.