IV 

118TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. RES. 19 

Acknowledging the role of the United States in El Salvador’s civil war and 

urging increased United States support for strengthening civil society, 

human rights protections, and for humanitarian and development assistance for El Salvador. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JANUARY 10, 2023 

Mr. KHANNA submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the 

Committee on Foreign Affairs, and in addition to the Committee on the 

Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in 

each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 

RESOLUTION 

Acknowledging the role of the United States in El Salvador’s 

civil war and urging increased United States support 

for strengthening civil society, human rights protections, 

and for humanitarian and development assistance for 

El Salvador. 

Whereas January 16, 2023, marks the 31st anniversary of 

the signing of the Chapultepec Peace Accords which formally ended the 12-year Salvadoran civil war and established the United Nations Commission on the Truth for 

El Salvador (Truth Commission) that was charged with 

investigating and reporting to the Salvadoran people on 


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•HRES 19 IH 

human rights crimes committed by all sides during the 

course of the war; 

Whereas millions of Salvadorans in El Salvador and in diaspora communities throughout the United States and 

world continue to suffer from the multigenerational impact of the rampant destruction, violence, displacement, 

family separation, and trauma that the war inflicted on 

the country; 

Whereas the United States played a significant role in the 

civil war through its extensive military support for the 

Salvadoran army, and bears a special moral responsibility 

to support the Salvadoran people in their continued efforts to recover from the aftermath of the war; 

Whereas Salvadoran Army backed right-wing paramilitary 

death squads and left-wing guerrilla groups ravaged the 

country in a deadly spiral of political violence throughout 

the 1970s, with violence continuing to escalate after General Carlos Romero’s seized the Presidency in a fraudulent election in 1977; 

Whereas General Romero was ousted by a civil-military junta 

in a coup in October 1979, plunging El Salvador into a 

full-blown civil war; 

Whereas, in March 1980, Archbishop of San Salvador and 

critic of the military regime Oscar Romero was assassinated under the orders of the Salvadoran military, while 

presiding over mass, and the next week the Salvadoran 

military fired at the gathering of mourners grieving his 

death; 

Whereas, in December 1980, four American churchwomen 

were raped and murdered by members of the Salvadoran 


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National Guard, leading to President Jimmy Carter’s decision to temporarily cut off military aid to El Salvador; 

Whereas, in 1980, Salvadoran guerilla military groups formed 

the Farabundo Martı ́ National Liberation Front 

(FMLN), and announced plans for an armed insurrection, and through a series of coordinated military attacks, 

the FMLN seized control of numerous regions of the 

country and launched a full-scale attack on the Salvadoran Government on January 10, 1981; 

Whereas President Reagan responded to the FMLN’s attack 

by resuming and increasing military assistance to the 

Salvadoran Government, including funding for the formation of the Rapid Deployment Infantry Battalions, groups 

later identified by the UN-sponsored Truth Commission 

as ‘‘the primary agents of war crimes’’; 

Whereas, throughout the 1980s, the war between government, guerilla, and paramilitary forces resulted in systematic human rights violations, subjecting civilians to 

torture, mutilation, forced disappearance, summary executions, indiscriminate bombings, and mass rape, leading 

to the brutal killing of more than 75,000 Salvadorans; 

Whereas the Truth Commission found that more than 85 

percent of the killings, kidnappings, and torture had been 

perpetrated by government forces, which included 

paramilitaries, death squads, and army units trained by 

the United States; 

Whereas the largest single massacre of civilians in modern 

Latin-American history was carried out on December 11, 

1981, when the Salvadoran Army’s counterinsurgency 

battalion and other military forces occupied the village of 

El Mozote, and massacred approximately 1,000 civilians 


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over a three-day period with guns, machetes, and bayonets, with more than 45 percent of the dead under 12 

years old; 

Whereas the Atlacatl Battalion which executed the massacre 

at El Mozote had completed counterinsurgency training 

at the United States School of the Americas, now called 

the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC), and a United States military advisor 

was in Morazan with a commander of the Atlacatl Battalion during the massacre; 

Whereas during the Reagan administration, the United 

States provided $1–2 million per day in economic aid to 

the Salvadoran Government and significant training and 

equipment to the Salvadoran military, while deploying 

United States military personnel to accompany Salvadoran forces into battle and coordinate closely with the 

Salvadoran High Command on important strategic and 

tactical decisions; 

Whereas, on November 16, 1989, six Jesuit priests and faculty members of the Universidad Centroamericana Jose ́

Simeon Can ̃as (UCA) located in San Salvador—Father 

Ignacio Ellacurı ́a, Ignacio Martin-Baro ́, Segundo Montes, 

Amando Lo ́pez, Juan Ramo ́n Moreno, and Joaquı ́n 

Lo ́pez y Lo ́pez—and housekeeper Julia Elba Ramos and 

her daughter, Celina Mariceth Ramos, were executed by 

members of the Salvadoran Army; 

Whereas, on December 6, 1989, United States Speaker of the 

House of Representatives Thomas Foley appointed a Special Task Force on El Salvador chaired by Representative 

John Joseph Moakley, to monitor the Salvadoran Government’s investigation into the murders of the Jesuit 


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priests and two women and to investigate related human 

rights violations in El Salvador; 

Whereas the Speaker’s Task Force on El Salvador concluded 

that members of the High Command of the Salvadoran 

military were responsible for ordering the murder of the 

Jesuits and two women and for obstructing the investigation into these crimes, findings that were later confirmed 

by the Truth Commission in 1993; 

Whereas the international and Salvadoran outcry in response 

to the deaths of the six Jesuits and two women and the 

subsequent investigations into this crime served as a catalyst for the United Nations-mediated negotiations that 

led to the signing of the 1992 Chapultepec Peace Accords 

in Mexico City, marking a formal ending to the civil war; 

Whereas the 1992 Chapultepec Peace Accords created a 

foundational framework for a more open and democratic 

society in El Salvador, limiting the mandate of the 

Armed Forces to national defense, to help guard against 

their historic abuses in internal security matters; 

Whereas throughout the course of the war and for years following the formal ending of the civil war and the failure 

to implement the transitional justice reform called for by 

the Chapultepec Peace Accords, tens of thousands of Salvadorans migrated to the United States and other countries around the world to find refuge due to dangerous 

living conditions in El Salvador; 

Whereas the United States lacked adequate services for the 

resettlement of Salvadoran refugees, exacerbating poverty 

and violence in Salvadoran refugee communities struggling to build a new life in the United States and 

throughout Mexico and Central America; 


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Whereas the United States deported thousands of Salvadorans to El Salvador without adequately supporting the 

Salvadoran authorities to establish the means and institutions in place to absorb this population while protecting 

the safety of Salvadorans; 

Whereas after deportation, some of these individuals organized into armed gangs that continue to threaten El Salvador, Central America, and North America today; and 

Whereas the country of El Salvador continues to be ravaged 

by the aftermath of the civil war as political violence continues to threaten the daily lives of the Salvadoran people: Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 

2 (1) urges the President of the United States to 

3 formally acknowledge the involvement of the United 

4 States in the Salvadoran civil war, from 1979–1992; 

5 (2) condemns the atrocities committed by all 

6 sides of the war against civilians and supports tran7 sitional justice for the victims of atrocities to access 

8 truth, justice, and measures for accountability and 

9 redress; 

10 (3) urges the Administration to work through 

11 nongovernmental entities in El Salvador to increase 

12 investments in education, violence and gang preven13 tion and rehabilitation, human rights protection, job 

14 creation and job training, and strengthening civil so15 ciety and the judicial system; 


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1 (4) applauds the Administration’s recent exten2 sion of Temporary Protected Status for Salvadorans 

3 among other specified vulnerable populations until 

4 June 30, 2024, and urges the Administration to fur5 ther extend their Temporary Protected Status and 

6 for Congress to grant longer term protections and a 

7 pathway to citizenship for Temporary Protected Sta8 tus beneficiaries and comprehensive immigration re9 form for the millions of immigrant families rooted in 

10 communities across the United States; 

11 (5) recognizes the extraordinary contributions 

12 of the Salvadoran community in the United States; 

13 and 

14 (6) reaffirms the United States commitment to 

15 promoting democratic governance, peace, stability, 

16 human rights, and economic prosperity in El Sal17 vador, as well as the right of all people to enjoy the 

18 benefits of democratic institutions, the rule of law, 

19 and the freedom of religion, speech, press, and as20 sembly. 

Æ 


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