José Domingo Monterrosa Barrios (4 August 1940 – 23 October 1984) was a military commander of the

Armed Forces of El Salvador The Armed Forces of El Salvador ( es, Fuerza Armada de El Salvador) are the official governmental military forces of El Salvador. The Forces have three branches: the Salvadoran Army, the Salvadoran Air Force and the Navy of El Salvador. History ...

during the

Salvadoran Civil War The Salvadoran Civil War ( es, guerra civil de El Salvador) was a twelve year period of civil war in El Salvador that was fought between the government of El Salvador and the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), a coalition or ...

Early life

José Domingo Monterrosa Barrios was born on 4 August 1940 in Berlín,

Usulután Usulután () is the fifth largest city in El Salvador, and capital of the Usulután Department in the south-east of El Salvador. As of 2006, it is estimated to have population of 71,636 people. Usulután rests in a rich agricultural valley and ...

El Salvador El Salvador (; , meaning " The Saviour"), officially the Republic of El Salvador ( es, República de El Salvador), is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south b ...

. Monterrosa graduated from the

Captain General Gerardo Barrios Military School The Captain General Gerardo Barrios Military School (Spanish: ), abbreviated as the EMCGGB, is a military academy in El Salvador. It was established in 1868 and is named after Captain General Gerardo Barrios who served as President of El Salvad ...

in 1963 and attended the

School of the Americas The Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC), formerly known as the School of the Americas, is a United States Department of Defense school located at Fort Benning in Columbus, Georgia, renamed in the 2001 National Defens ...

in 1966.

Military career

In 1969, Monterrosa participated in the

Football War The Football War ( es, La guerra del fútbol; colloquial: Soccer War), also known as the Hundred Hours' War or 100 Hour War, was a brief military conflict fought between El Salvador and Honduras in 1969. Existing tensions between the two countr ...

against

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Oce ...

. In 1980, he was assigned to become the leader of the

Atlácatl Battalion The Atlácatl Battalion (Spanish: ) was a rapid-response, counter-insurgency battalion of the Salvadoran Army created in 1981. It was implicated in some of the most infamous massacres of the Salvadoran Civil War, and as a result, it was disbanded ...

, composed of who considered to be El Salvador's elite soldiers. The Atlácatl Battalion was held responsible for committing the El Mozote massacre in 1981. Monterrosa was allegedly seen arriving by helicopter by a local guide prior to the start of the massacre, as told by reporter

Mark Danner Mark David Danner (born November 10, 1958) is an American writer, journalist, and educator. He is a former staff writer for ''The New Yorker'' and frequent contributor to ''The New York Review of Books''. Danner specializes in U.S. foreign affa ...

; however, Danner also reported that Monterrosa had been contacted by a U.S. military advisor to share the outcome of the battle that had taken place in

El Mozote El Mozote is a village in the Morazán Department in El Salvador. It was the site of the El Mozote massacre during the civil war in December 1981 when nearly 1,000 civilians were killed by a Salvadoran Army unit known as the Atlácatl Battalion. ...

. At that point, Monterrosa was in the Atlácatl's headquarters. According to Danner's story, after the conversation with the U.S. advisor, Monterrosa boarded a helicopter and headed to Morazán. ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' reported in 2007 that Monterrosa had ordered the massacre. El Mozote was a tiny village located North of Morazán. Monterrosa was known to be obsessed with destroying the pro-rebel

Radio Venceremos Radio Venceremos (Spanish; in English, "'We Shall Overcome' Radio") was an 'underground' radio network of the anti-government Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) during the Salvadoran Civil War. The station "specialized in ideologica ...

, which "specialized in ideological propaganda, acerbic commentary, and pointed ridicule of the government". Monterrosa was a supporter of President

José Napoleón Duarte José Napoleón Duarte Fuentes (23 November 1925 – 23 February 1990) was a Salvadoran politician who served as President of El Salvador from 1 June 1984 to 1 June 1989. He was mayor of San Salvador before running for president in 1972. He los ...

's efforts to hold peace talks in 1984, and his death seriously weakened them.

Death

There are several versions of how Monterrosa was killed. One is that a malfunctioning helicopter crashed and killed its occupants including Monterrosa. Another version states that an FMLN

booby trap A booby trap is a device or setup that is intended to kill, harm or surprise a human or another animal. It is triggered by the presence or actions of the victim and sometimes has some form of bait designed to lure the victim towards it. The trap m ...

was set under a fake rebel radio transmitter that Monterrosa took with him as a victory trophy, in 1984. The bomb went off while he was in flight. Remnants of his helicopter can be found in the Museum of the Revolution in Perquin, Morazan department.

Legacy

The museum of El Salvador's Armed Forces has designated a special section for Monterrosa. After his death in October 1984, the Salvadoran congress honored Monterrosa with the title of "Heroe de Joateca" and declared him a national hero for his service to the country. In 2019, the new Salvadoran President

Nayib Bukele Nayib Armando Bukele Ortez (; born 24 July 1981) is a Salvadoran politician and businessman who is the 43rd president of El Salvador, serving since 1 June 2019. He is the first president since José Napoleón Duarte (1984–1989) not to have ...

ordered the removal of Monterrosa's name from one of the main military units of the Salvadoran Army. Years earlier, another Salvadoran president,

Mauricio Funes Carlos Mauricio Funes Cartagena (born 18 October 1959) is a Salvadoran politician and former journalist who served as President of El Salvador from 2009 to 2014. Funes won the 2009 Salvadoran presidential election, 2009 presidential election as ...

, asked for forgiveness from the state and the people of El Salvador for the crimes committed by state actors during the civil war, and directed the Army to review their behavior in those years.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Monterrosa, Domingo People of the Salvadoran Civil War Salvadoran military personnel 1984 deaths 1940 births Salvadoran anti-communists Captain General Gerardo Barrios Military School alumni