In Search of the Lost Children of El Salvador's Civil War

Pro-Busquéda’s ad for family members to submit their DNA into the database and find their biological family members. Photo credit Pro-Busquéda.

“‘I remember that day, the day I gave her away,’ Rosario says. It was in 1983, and the war had intensified, and more civilians were being caught in the crossfire between leftist guerrillas and the military-run dictatorship.” Monica Campbell, for PRI’s The World

The Cold War’s Disappeared Children

Latin America has a conflict-filled past of revolutions, dictators, dirty wars, gang wars, and chaos and violence associated with these. Over such a complicated history, it has not been uncommon for the abduction and disappearance of children to occur during conflicts, as happened in El Salvador, Argentina, Chile, Guatemala, Honduras, Brazil and many other countries around the world. During times of conflict, parties of war chose to take children from their parents as a tool to show their power over the victims. Those children were then recruited into the armed groups, killed, detained, or sold through illegal adoption networks for money. The United Nations (UN) in 1996 and 1999 identified the abduction of children during conflict as one of the six grave violations condemned by the UN Security Council. The need to protect children during conflict is very important as children are being used as tools to psychologically manipulate their parents.

During the Salvadoran Civil War that lasted from 1980-1992, the country was filled with conflict while various political and military parties fought for control; the government was run by the military, who were being trained and aided at the time by the US government. The military government was fighting against the various guerrilla groups such as the Faribundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) and the Democratic Revolutionary Front (FDR) just to name the main two. The military committed many human rights violations against the citizens while the guerrillas carried out kidnappings, bombings, and bank robberies. Many people disappeared and were killed during the conflict including children who were abducted from their families. There were hundreds or thousands of children snatched from their families that were given to wealthy or military families in El Salvador, some grew up on military bases or in orphanages while others were adopted overseas.

Lack of Information and Documentation

The exact number of abducted children does not exist, however the organization Unfinished Sentences discovered that 2,354 Salvadoran children received immigrant visas from the embassy during the war to be adopted as war orphans. Meanwhile, the organization Pro-Busquéda has only identified around 994 adopted Salvadoran children with 443 of those children being reunited with their biological families. Salvadoran families are pushing to find answers about their missing children and be reunited, however the military has discouraged efforts to link the disappearances to massacres and military offensives or to investigate the possible trafficking of kidnapped children. Six families who were victims of military abductions “successfully sued their government in the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, demanding the military release more information. Three years later, the military hasn't turned over the requested files and the mostly retired officers suspected of adopting stolen children have refused DNA tests” [1]. The military officials who are now retired have refused to give details about child abductions and provide DNA tests as it would go against their beliefs in the military institution that they were sworn to protect. There is also a lack of records of the adoptions and some orphanages and family court judges have refused to cooperate.

Children as Tools to Manipulate Society

Children are seen as innocent and full of hope in society therefore they need to be protected since they are the future generation. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child states that “recognizing that the child, for the full and harmonious development of his or her personality, should grow up in a family environment, in an atmosphere of happiness, love and understanding…” as well as prioritizes legal protection of children in order to preserve the child’s well-being and childhood. Therefore, parents and society prioritize their children as they are in need of protection and deserve to have a safe childhood.

During times of conflict, taking children from their parents is a way to evoke terror. Many of the children that were abducted were taken from civilian families that were suspected of cooperating and aiding the guerrillas. Therefore, the Salvadoran military took the children to motivate their families to be more compliant as a form of psychological torture. In 2012, Hugo Martínez, Minister of Foreign Relations asked for forgiveness "from these families that suffered infinite pain from being hit by the disappearance of their most beloved and most vulnerable ones.” [2] The apology was given from the Minister of Foreign Relations a representative of the state on behalf of the prior regime as he had no involvement with the military regime. It’s traumatic and painful to lose a loved one and wait to be reunited for over 30 years. Family members such as Alexandra Aquino-Fike report that “We haven’t had sufficient healing and we didn’t have a robust enough truth and reconciliation process like other post-war countries have had,” Aquino-Fike said. “So many families, including mine, who had a loved one forcibly disappeared, have really struggled with the trauma of not knowing what happened to their loved one.” [3] The children were innocent bystanders that were taken from their homes in order for families to be discouraged from joining the FMLN guerrilla to fight against the Salvadoran military.

Years later, people are finally getting answers and dealing with the trauma they have endured. Tobias Hecht states “‘In Central America many, many children are born sick and die hungry. They do not play. Their guns are often real guns, their chores are day-long labour, and their dreams are nightmares of killing. Most of their governments ignore them, reject them, or maltreat them. They have inherited centuries of exploitation and injustice, and now they are victims of war’. These political and economic circumstances have made it impossible for children “to be children” [4]. These Salvadoran children have endured conflict which has affected their lives forever, separating them from their families and forcing them to leave behind their childhood to deal with the trauma.

Testimonials and Documentation of History

Due to the lack of documentation, there are many organizations attempting to form databases and systems to reunite families and document the events that happened. One of the organizations is Asociación Pro Búsqueda de Niñas y Niños Desaparecidos (Association for Disappeared Children) which is a non-governmental organization in El Salvador. They work to reunite families with children who were abducted or surrendered during the war by using DNA testing which was also used to reunite Argentinian families after La Guerra Sucia or the dirty war. They have successfully resolved 443 cases through DNA testing.

Every child has a different story about their experiences, and organizations such as Pro-Búsqueda, the Children’s Search Association, and the The Unfinished Sentences Testimony Archive are working towards documenting their experiences. The families that adopted Salvadoran children were initially unaware of the circumstances the children had been through and have helped children like Óscar to reunite with their families (photo above, Credit to ProBusquéda). ‘I said to my family, I don’t want to die without meeting Oscar’s other family. It seemed impossible but Pro-Búsqueda with their work methodology was able to make it possible. To get to this moment was stressful, nervousness and all that, but it is worth the pain”[5].

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[1] Larry Rohter, “El Salvador's Stolen Children Face a War's Darkest Secret,” The New York Times, August 5, 1996.

[2] Summer Harlow, “Remembering the Lost Children of El Salvador's War,” The Christian Science Monitor, November 9, 2012.

[3] Reynaldo Leanos, “Families of Thousands Missing from El Salvador's Civil War Pin Hopes on New Commission,” NBCNews.com, Sept. 19, 2018.

[4] Tobias Hecht, Minor Omissions: Children in Latin American History and Society (Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin, 2002).

[5] "Óscar se reencontró con su familia biológica tras 38 años de espera," Pro-Búsqueda, January 21, 2019.