Salvadoran women speak:female accounts of their struggle within a Revolution, 1981-1992

Abstract

This study analyzes the crime of rape perpetrated against women by members of both the security and guerrilla forces during the armed conflict in El Salvador. Throughout my dissertation I argue that both contentious parties employed sexual assault as a tool to dominate and subordinate women during the Salvadoran armed conflict. Although aimed at different targets and with distinctive effects, the two contentious parties sexually abused women under the auspices of a patriarchal structure that protected them from punishment. To address the perpetration of these crimes by both the security forces and the guerrilla forces, I introduce the concepts of “idealized perpetrators” versus “unimaginable perpetrators.” My case study of El Salvador demonstrates that rape committed by members of the insurgency generally has been neglected or overlooked. It is likely, moreover, that these findings can be extended to Latin America more broadly, where most truth commissions and scholars have asserted that sexual violations perpetrated by rebel forces against women in their own rank and file were either absent or minimal. I claim, therefore, that most Latin American truth commissions’ reports have what I call a “blind spot.” Research for this study relied mostly on oral history sources. Although able to access several primary and secondary sources, few addressed rape by either belligerent party during the Salvadoran armed conflict. By interviewing female victims and by providing them a space to share their testimonies, my research has opened the avenue for the creation of new historical sources.