30 YEARS LATER, THE SALVADORAN PEOPLE WEPT AFTER THE OFFENSIVE

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With attacks on several military garrisons, the offensive launched by the then-guerrilla group Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) against the Salvadoran capital began on November 11, 1989.

From the early hours, Comandos de Salvamento, with their few ambulances but a great spirit of service, rushed to the places where the defenseless population became victims of the bloody clashes between the army soldiers and the FMLN combatants who had left the mountains to invade the city, with the objective of taking total control.

Fierce clashes that caused the deaths of innocent civilians and left scars in the minds of minors who sought refuge from the rain of bullets that reached their homes—and there were Comandos de Salvamento, those from Cruz Verde in yellow uniforms, evacuating and assisting the wounded from both sides.

Comandos de Salvamento, whose shield was a simple flag, entered the areas of the bloody combat, where the FMLN combatants had taken up positions and set up their trenches to fight face-to-face with the Salvadoran army.

Amílcar Velasco, Rudy País, Mario Chiguila, Patricia Linares, Alberto Guzmán, Luis Colato, Miguel Martínez (Rosco), among hundreds of other Comandos de Salvamento members who, during the days of war experienced by the capital’s residents during the offensive, exposed their lives day after day in order to rescue and bring thousands of women, elderly people, and children to safety, taking them to secure places far from the fighting.

To those hundreds of men and women who, in their yellow uniforms, demonstrated that great spirit of service, we thank them for each of the lives they saved. This earned us the respect of both sides in the conflict; it was worthy of a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize, and they were called “Anonymous Heroes.”