El Salvador Human Rights Violations, 1988-1989

The civil war in El Salvador, especially in light of the billions of dollars that the U.S. has provided to the war-torn country, is a highly sensitive and extremely controversial issue. Following a brief introduction, this program offers a number of videotaped interviews with El Salvadorans who have been beaten, tortured, and/or raped by the government's military forces. Roughly covering a span of spring of '88 to late summer of '89, the confessionals are a virtual catalog of horrors, as the interviewees relate the circumstances of their ordeals, and point to the scars which cover their bodies. Calling El Salvador a "military with a country," the program concludes with the plea of the late archbishop Oscar Romero: "In the name of God, stop the repression." As a documentary, the program is too slim in scope to be enlightening--we do not come away feeling more knowledgeable about the subject; we are simply sickened. What we see is information--sad and shocking information, to be sure--but raw data without the benefit of contextual analysis. For this reason, this video would be of limited use to general library video collections. Not recommended. (Available from: Aylmer Press, P.O. Box 2735, Madison, WI 53701.)