Edwin describes his first experiences in armed political activity and how he was wounded during a large military operation led by the Salvadoran Armed Forces with the participation of Guatemalan forces.
- Chapter:
- Chapter 5: Guerrilla Experiences
- Interviewee:
- Edwin
Transcription
[So, after La Cañada you were able to establish yourselves again in Patamera…]
In Patemera, we began to prepare the first military units and to arm them so we could face the army and the other repressive bodies, like the National Guard, the Treasury Police, and the National Police. I became part of the first groups, which were squads of about 30 people, and they moved us to the area of La Montañona, Las Vueltas, Ojos de Agua, and all that. They brought other people from San Vicente, Cabañas, and we formed the first squads of about 30 people. We were able to form a detachment and began some military activities. Well, before that we had done our first attack on January 10, 1981. We attacked the Chalatenango headquarters, even though we barely had any weapons. Each group consisted of twelve people and only two had guns. About 90 comrades died in that attack without achieving their goal. Our forces were hardly equal! We had two people with guns while the army had tanks and all those weapons! That’s when we saw the need to form a revolutionary army so that we could start going out. We started preparing and began our first actions, attacking the first army and National Guard garrisons. We attacked a post in Ojos de Agua, El Carrizal, La Laguna, and Las Vueltas. That’s when we began to arm ourselves with the same weaponry the army had, after the seizures. So the revolutionary army began to grow. After that, in an operation in 1981 in La Montañona I was wounded by some commandos that showed up. Fortunately, the bullet didn’t cause a lot of damage and I got my wound treated for the first time twelve days later. I was sleeping in the mud during those days because there had been an operation. It even included Kaibiles from the Guatemalan army. They brought in seven thousand soldiers, while we only had two hundred people with us.