December 2, 1980 - American Nuns Kidnapped, Raped & Murdered by U.S. Trained Salvadoran Death Squad

The Four American Women

This story begins in El Salvador a third world country located in Central America that borders Guatemala and Honduras on one side and the Pacific Ocean on the other (2). These three countries are considered to be three of the top five most dangerous countries in the World. El Salvador is home to the third highest murder rate in the world at 51.83 per 100,000. Its neighbors to the north Honduras and Guatemala own the highest and fourth highest murder rates, Honduras (first) with 60.87 and Guatemala (fourth) with 45.17. To help put in perspective of how these numbers are the murder rate in the United States is 5.22 and the World average homicide rate is 9.63 (3).

On the evening of December 2, 1980 4 American were slain in cold blood by an El Salvadoran murder squad. Maura Clarke, Jean Donovan, Ita Ford, and Dorothy Kazel were on their way from the airport where Maura and Ita had just arrived from Nicaragua. The 4 women were pulled from their car at gunpoint, raped and murdered. Their bodies were simply tossed to the side of the road. The original report to the public was that the 4 women were victims of a horrible robbery. This was a lie and an easy one to pass off to newly elected President Reagan. The Salvadorans knew from top to bottom who was responsible for this horrid crime. They knew who ordered, and carried it out. The catch to this is we also knew who

The Slain Bodies of the American Women

was responsible, we knew the names of everyone involved but we did what some would call “turned a blind eye” to it. We did this because there was at the time a greater cause at hand. We were well aware of the brutal methods of the Salvadoran military, in fact this was the reason these murders were overlooked because President Reagan was more concerned with defeating the uprising in the impoverished third world country that he viewed as a threat to the United States, then bringing the men responsible for this crime to justice (5).

It’s because of these actions by our former President that these brutal murders are considered one of the most notorious in the history of the Western Hemisphere.

- Jack R. and Jenna S.