Figure 1.--The small town of San José las Flores played an important role in the Salvadoran Civil War. The caption of this press photo read, "A guerrilla fighter with child trolls though the rebel stronghold of San Jose las Flors in northern Chalatenango Province just before a breakthrough peace agreement was signed by government and DMLN negotiators to end the 12-year-old cicil war." The photograph seems to have been taken in 1992. Photographer: Thomas Long..

San José Las Flores is a municipality and city in northern El Salvador, Chalatenango Department, near the Honduran border. Las Flores played an important and strategic role during the country's Civil War. Las Flores was one of the first towns in northern El Salvador to be repopulated by refugees who fled the area by government bombing during the early-1980s. IDefying the military, civilians began returning home to to reconstruct the village (1986). This was part of a campaign of a number of towns throughout northern El Salvador, assisted by humanitarian groups in North America and Europe, to resist military attaxks on the FLMN complicate boming in the area. The idea was that when civilans returned to the area it would be more difficult for the military to hit FMLN positiins because of fear of civilian casualties. Some U.S. cities decided to become sister cities with Salvadoran towns to support the FMLN. Towns near Las Flores were also involvd, including Arcatao and Guarjila, both of which were repopulated (1987).

Created: 11:16 PM 7/13/2019
Last updated: 11:16 PM 7/13/2019