In El Salvador, pretrial hearings on the 1981 El Mozote massacre are being held this week. Nearly 1,000 civilians from across seven villages were killed in the massacre carried out by U.S.-trained Salvadoran military officers. One of the expert witnesses, Stanford University political scientist Terry Karl, detailed the on-site presence of U.S. military adviser Allen Bruce Hazelwood with the Salvadoran Army at the time of the massacre, providing new insight into what Karl referred to as a “sophisticated cover-up” of the events on behalf of the Reagan administration and the Salvadoran military junta.

Terry Karl: “The presence of an American adviser with Salvadoran General Monterrosa, whose name is Allen Bruce Hazelwood, if this had been made public at the time, in my opinion and the opinion of Thomas Enders and other secretaries of state, this would have cut U.S. aid, because this is illegal.”