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.

The Battalion's mission: to eliminate everyone in the village who stood in their way of capturing 'the Guerrilla,' as the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) was known.

On the fatal day of December 10, soldiers rousted the civilians from their homes and gathered them in the central plaza where they were forced to lie down on the street.

[1] Soldiers then brutally kicked them, threatened and seized jewelry and valuables along with accusing the people of belonging to the FMLN.

After proceeding with the executions of all the inhabitants, they left obscene writings on the walls prior to burning the homes and the bodies.

The soldiers didn't settle with just eliminating the inhabitants, they made sure that the animals belonging to the deceased were killed and burned as well.

There were numerous complaints of human rights violations but a countless number of people did not report the abuse for fear of the military's retaliation.

This was a violation of their human rights according to the United Nations because the citizens were innocent without any link to the Guerrilla but that still did not influence the military's decision to kill every inhabitant.

[5] During the executions, the Atlácatl Battalion made sure to leave a mark behind with the victims to let the rest of the civilians in El Salvador know to not cross paths with them.

The military's torture methods were brutal, “Soldiers would dislocate body parts; apply electric shocks, acid burns, and severed limbs: tongues, ears, and gouged eyes.".

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that "No One shall be subjected to torture or cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment.

Now all that remained in the ghost town were dead bodies of men, women, young girls, boys, and babies.

The investigators also believed that children under ten years old were gathered in a room and cremated then crushed due to the fire destroying the homes.

[1] With the help of her testimony, the Truth Commission was able to investigate the happenings of those days and bring to light the crime committed by the military.

Amaya recounts how she saw a mountain of dead people stacked on top of each other, and at that moment she hurried to jump in a bush.