CIVIL WAR IN EL SALVADOR

By Fernando de Leon

In El Salvador the civil War started in 1987, this war began because the government doesn’t give peoples a good salary, so at that time a big group of people started to collect a lot of guns, weapons, and bombs and finally they make a army group.

          At that time my dad (Jacob) live in the capital of El Salvador called San Salvador, during this time my dad was 18 years old, and he told me that he was scare to have 18 years old because during this time if you were 18 or 19 years old, the army will captured you and send you to fight in the war.

          One day my dad was walking in the street with his friend, and suddenly an army car with soldiers stops him and his friends and they try to run away but they cant because if they would run, the soldiers will shot and kill them. Then the soldiers arrest my dad and his friends too, my dad was so scared because he thought that the soldiers will kill him, but the soldiers just brought my dad to barracks to training him and his friends.

The next day my dad tries to communicate with his family but the soldiers didn’t let him to communicate with his family. Then the soldiers started to training my dad, his training was about learn how to shot people in the head and heart, and how to kill people without a gun. Every day my dad had to weak up at 5:00 AM to go run, and after run he have to take a shower and then go eat, and he had to do this routine for about 3 month, and after that he had to pass a test to be assigned has a army soldier.

          The test was about fight with a general soldier, and build bombs, and guns it was hard for him because he was very nervous to make something wrong, then finally in 1989 my Dad pass the test and he was so excited and scare at the same time because he want to go fight but he don’t want to die or be killed.

          My dad was ready to fight, the army give to my dad a bag pack felled of guns, bombs, assigned and enough food to survive, and my dad’s bag pack also had parts of a camping home. Finally my dad was ready, he was a member of a group of 13soldiers more, then the army send he and his group to a city of Usulután, Usulután was a place where the soldiers fought for a long time, in Usulután my dad went to a mountain, and there they started to build a camping home, and every time two soldiers had to watch if the enemy comes.

          One day in the night my dad was sleeping and then he hear voices and then his friends started to speak and saying the enemy the enemy then my Dad took his gun and started to shot everywhere then he started to run away of the battlefield, and after two hours he came back and he saw a lot of dead bodies and blood everywhere and he wait there for about three hours until their help comes, then finally another soldiers came on cars to take him and the dead bodies to a hospital.

          After that the two armies group make an agreement to stop fighting and they decided to end the civil war, when my Dad hear that the war was end he was so happy because he really wanted to see his family. As an appreciation the government gives my dad 10,000 dollars and some land, my dad was so happy and he cried about that. And now after many years ago the government is still in peace and this is the END…….. Thank you for read my story.