FMLN « The Historical Truth Project

SSgt Thomas Handwork

Sgt Gregory Weber

Sgt Patrick Kwiatkowski

SSgt Bobby Joe Dickson

On June 19, 1985, Communist guerrillas dressed in military camouflage opened fire on an outdoor cafe in the Zona Rosa district of San Salvador, killing 13 people, including four off-duty U.S. Marines and two American businessmen. In July 1985, as part of the Combat Terrorism Act, the United States offered a reward of $100,000 for information leading to the conviction of the attackers. By September 1985, the Salvadoran government had arrested four men; one of them was Américo Mauro Araujo, a high-ranking Salvadoran Communist Party official. Seven others who were involved in the attack however, were never apprehended, but were killed in an earlier retaliatory raid.

The US Marines who were murdered by the Communists terrorists were Staff Sgt. Bobby J. Dickson, Staff Sgt. Thomas T. Handwork, Sgt. Patrick R. Kwiatkowski and Sgt. Gregory O. Weber

The Mardoqueo Cruz Urban Commando, an armed wing of the Marxist guerrilla group known as the Revolutionary Party of Central American Workers (PRTC), claimed responsibility for the killings. The PRTC was part of the broader FMLN coalition fighting the Salvadoran government.

Instead of merely making phone calls to the families of the slain Marines, President Reagan met with those families in person and delivered a public eulogy during an emotional ceremony at Andrews Air Force Base on June 22, 1985. During this ceremony, he pinned Purple Hearts on each Marine’s coffin and personally embraced and spoke with the mourning families.

In his remarks, President Reagan pledged, “They say the men who murdered these sons of America escaped and disappeared into the city streets. But I pledge to you today, they will not evade justice on Earth any more than they can escape the judgment of God. We…will move any mountain and ford any river to find these jackals and bring them and their colleagues in terror to justice.” Reagan words were an unmistakably clear promise.

Vengeance is Mine Saith Ronald Reagan

After comforting the grieving family members of the murdered Marines, an enraged President Reagan made it his priority if not solemn duty, to locate the Communist perpetrators of the terrorist attack and to see that they along with every one of their cohorts, pay for the attack with their lives. Reagan immediately went to work and instructed the Pentagon and the CIA to urgently verify the group responsible and to locate its training base.

Within a week, the CIA had not only identified the Communist Terrorist group by name but had also located the remote jungle training camp of the Communist Mardoqueo Cruz Urban Commandos. The CIA began to actively conduct both satellite and ariel reconnaissance of the camp in addition to close surveyance scouting by US Special Operations troops. Eventually a raid was conducted sometime between mid to late July of 1985.

The details of this raid are still classified but, some of the US Army Rangers who participated in the retaliatory assault on the camp have spoken up both on radio programs and in print interviews. This story has been covered by the Washington Post and the Spokane Spokesman-Review as well as other newspapers. The best accounts are from the two or three participants- former US Army Rangers- who have come forward anonymously to not only describe what happened but to make the point that after forty-years, it’s time the American public know the official story of what happened and why it had to be.

On the evening of the raid, a squad of eleven Army Rangers commanded by a Ranger Captain, were inserted several kilometers away from the terrorist base. President Ronald Reagan had repeatedly ordered that not a single Communist terrorist was to escape with his life. Reagan’s orders to the Rangers were succinctly clear, “No enemy prisoners! No enemy survivors! Kill them all!”

The Rangers arrived at the outer perimeter of the Communist Terrorist training base in the wee hours. Undoubtedly the names of their murdered brothers-in-arms were on their minds- Staff Sgt. Bobby J. Dickson, Staff Sgt. Thomas T. Handwork, Sgt. Patrick R. Kwiatkowski and Sgt. Gregory O. Weber. That early morning, all 83 Communist Guerrillas were about to pay the price for the cowardly murder of four unarmed off-duty US Marine Embassy Guards, who were enjoying a meal together as they sat in civilian clothes around a table outside the Zona Rosa café.

The progressive Western media who never met a Communist they didn’t like, had for years puffed the Salvadorian Marxist Insurgents as “rough…tough…dauntless and adept fighters to be feared. The indomitable warriors, bravely combatting inequality in the name of justice.” Yet that morning, all 83 of these Communist murderers- the alleged “rough, tough, fighters for justice,” would be wiped out by 11 American boys who had duty, honor and vengeance for their fallen comrades on their minds.

The whirring helicopter blades of two US Army gunships. which fired several rocket and canon bursts on the camp was the signal the Rangers had been waiting for. The Rangers burst through the camp’s perimeter with lightning speed as though the very banshees of Hell were on their heels.

Bursts from the Rangers’ M249 Squad Automatic Weapons (SAW) cut down the first wave of the camp’s defenders. Chaos ensued as the Communist terrorist, many awoken from their beds, futilely attempted to repel the Ranger’s assault on their camp. Soon realizing that they were outmatched, many of the “rough, tough, indomitable warriors,” discarded their weapons and began to run for their lives- fleeing a mere eleven US Soldiers. Yet, none of them seemed able to outrun the Ranger’s sheets of hot lead and steel projectiles spewing from their rifles. One of the cowardly fleers was apparently the Communists groups’ “Comandante,” or leader, who apparently attempted to high step away after dropping his rifle while still in his underwear. He too was cut down.

The Rangers moved into close quarter combat with their rifles registering shot after shot while twisted Communist bodies twirled downward to their ragged ruin in the jungle dirt below, in a final pathetic dance of death. Many screamed out in terror, others pleaded through broken English and begged for mercy only to receive their final comeuppance. Several dropped their rifles and thrust up their hands in a gesture of complete yet futile surrender. For the remaining Communist terrorists, the Rangers conserved their waning ammunition by fixing bayonets to their rifles. The Rangers repeatedly thrust their bayonets into their Communist enemies as their victims the “rough, tough, indomitable Communist warriors,” screamed and begged in horror.

Some as they lay wounded, raised their pitiful arms upward the air like defeated gladiators in the Roman Coliseum, begging their Emperor for his upward pointing thumb that might spare their lives. Yet, their Emperor that early morning was some 2000 miles away. His name was President Ronald Reagan, and his thumb remained pointed unambiguously downward. Thrust after thrust from the Rangers bayonets stained the camp’s rocky dirt terrain with Communist blood.

After the last screams and the final cries for mercy, the Rangers’ work was far from over. Three of the Rangers suffered minor wounds in the skirmish. The entire camp was littered with the mangled, bloody corpses of the Communist “fighters for justice.” Now the Rangers had to perform the tedious task of accounting for all 83 Communist terrorists and ensuring that they were all dead. None other than their Commander in Chief had ordered that not one of the Communist terrorists was to survive. After confirming that all 83 of the Communist Mardoqueo Cruz Urban Commandos were dead, the Rangers then searched each dead body for documents and identification. The camp itself was also searched for documents. As they worked, they took photographs of the faces of each corpse- per their orders. After that, the Rangers were extracted.

On July 31, 1981, Caspar Weinberger, then Secretary of Defense under President Ronald Reagan, announced that the United States had identified and taken action against those responsible for the killing of four U.S. Marines in El Salvador.

Over forty-years has passed since this daring and just retaliatory raid was conducted. It’s time the eleven American heroes who conducted this raid receive the credit which they deserve. If they did not receive medals for their actions at the time of the harrowing assault due to the classified nature of the operation, it’s time they receive them now. Contact President Trump and alert him to this lack of public recognition at the following link: Contact Us – The White House

The recent and despicable celebrations by communists in Great Briton and worldwide, over the death of Baroness Thatcher have yet again demonstrated how anyone who has made it their life’s mission to fight Communism, is forever vilified not just by Marxist but, by their progressive ideological cousins in the media, publishing and Hollywood. Think of any person, living or dead, who stood up to Communism and take note of how the internet, as well as popular media, is awash with hateful smears and character assassinations directed at them. No better example of this is demonstrated in the life of the Salvadorian politician Roberto D’Aubuisson.

Roberto D’Aubuisson, a career Salvadorian Army officer and politician, was born in Born in Santa Tecla, La Libertad Department, El Salvador and graduated from the national military academy in 1963. He was trained in communications at the School of the Americas, Fort benning Georgia, in 1972, subsequently joining Salvadoran military intelligence.

As a young officer, D’Aubuisson quickly gained a reputation as a bright and talented leader. Had his military career not been cut short in the 1980s due to his entry into electoral politics, many of his contemporaries believed he might have one day served in the top echelons of the Salvadorian Military.

One of the co-founders of the, Right of Center, ARENA Party, a young D’Aubuisson, as its standard bearer, led his fledgling party to an electoral victory in the 1982 National Assembly elections. The primary reason for the stunning success of the ARENA Party was its steadfast opposition to the Soviet financed and supplied Communist Terrorists which were holding the rural countryside hostage in its “take no prisoners” style of Marxist revolution.

The FMLN, the Marxist revolutionary organization in El Salvador, was notorious for raping women, kidnapping prominent citizens for ransom and assassinating Salvadorian public officials. This, when they weren’t engaging in a campaign of outright terror to intimidate and extort the people of El Salvador. They were as much a criminal organization as a political one. Whenever their troop levels ran low, mostly though desertions, they would simply kidnap young teenage boys from the countryside and press them into service.

FMLN abuses against the civilian population often took place outside of its conflict with the democratically elected government of El Salvador. Some of the people these Communist FMLN guerrillas kidnapped included the Salvadoran foreign minister in 1978 (he was subsequently executed). Beginning in the 1970s and continuing throughout the conflict, the FMLN summarily executed civilians suspected of being government informants. Such individuals were known as orejas, or “ears.”

Targeted killings and disappearances of civilians by the FMLN constituted serious violations of international humanitarian law to say nothing of the laws of El Salvador. Victims included more than eleven mayors, who were executed between 1985 and 1988 in areas the guerrillas considered their “zones of control.” Also killed were four off-duty U.S. Marines, who were machine-gunned at an outdoor café in 1985; and conservative public figures such as Attorney General José Roberto García Alvarado and intellectual Francisco Peccorini, both assassinated in 1989. Other episodes of FMLN abuse included the mass execution of a group of captured civilians in Morazán (1984), the kidnapping of the daughter of President José Napoleón Duarte (1985), and the killing of civilians who refused to stop at guerrilla roadblocks. Scores of civilians were killed and hundreds were wounded by the guerrillas’ indiscriminate use of land mines. On numerous occasions, the use of crude and inaccurate homemade weapons and explosives resulted in innocent civilian deaths.

Many of the family members of these FMLN victims sought revenge. Some of these family members were in the Salvadorian Army although most were not. Hence was born the myth of the so called “Right Wing Death Squads.” In short, a Salvadorian peasant or city dweller who sought spontaneous revenge against their Marxist tormentors for murdering a family member or friend was soon identified with some imaginary and vast Right Wing conspiracy involving the planned and organized murder of FMLN members. In truth, the vast majority of FMLN members were killed on the battlefield by government troops in open conflict. The FMLN barrowed a page from their ideological role model, Vladimir Lenin, who called on his followers to falsely accuse opponents of his revolution with engaging in the same murder and humanitarian abuses as they themselves were engaged in. Enter Roberto D’Aubuisson. D’Aubuisson, the face and voice of the Salvadorian people’s opposition to the Communist terrorists was soon labeled with being terrorists himself. Soon, the FLMN was painting D’Aubuisson, with help from their allies in the Western media, as being the head of the alleged “death squads. A devoted family man and devout Catholic, who seldom missed a Sunday Mass, he would soon even be accused of masterminding the death of the Salvadorian Catholic Archbishop as well as the rape and murder of several Catholic Nuns.

There was never objective (non-FMLN) evidence in support of any of the charges against D’Aubuisson but, that didn’t stop leftists in the Western media from repeating and expounding on the baseless charges as though they were an accepted fact. Years later, many in El Salvador have come to the conclusion that the murder of Archbishop Romero and the Catholic Nuns was actually performed by the FLMN for the sole and sinister purpose of blaming these shocking atrocities on the government and D’Aubuisson. They way the communist propaganda machine churned out the stories; one might believe that D’Aubuisson, a mere Army Major, was somehow coordinating the government’s “genocidal” campaign against the FLMN guerrillas. In truth, D’Aubuisson was a mid- level officer in the Salvadorian Army who did not set policy.

Had he not ventured into a successful career in politics, no one would have ever heard of this obscure Major. It was, rather, his success in rallying the Salvadorian people against the Communists which put him in the crosshairs of the FLMN. D’Aubuisson was ultimately the driving force in the eventual defeat of the communists.

Unable to kill him as they had tried to do, unsuccessfully, for years; they instead settled on a prolonged campaign to smear his name and besmirch his honorable character. Does this sound familiar?

Editor’s Note: The iconic photo of the late Major D’Aubuisson (above) was taken by the acclaimed photojournalist Mr. Robert Meacham.