Day of the disappeared in El Salvador (and U2 sings in Spanish)

Approximately, 8,000 Salvadorans were disappeared during the civil war, including roughly 1,000 children that Pro-Busqueda has documented. One of those disappeared children, Alfredo Funes, was reunited with his family earlier this week thirty-three years after he was taken during a military encounter in Usulután. Pro-Busqueda has now reunited over 200 stolen children with their biological families.

While the Salvadoran courts continue to grapple with the applicability of the 1993 amnesty, there are other ways in which the Salvadoran state can pursue matters of transnational justice. President Funes has apologized for the massacre at El Mozote and provided the families of the Jesuit martyrs with the country's highest civilian honor. The Wall of Historic Memory can be visited in San Salvador.

One more act the Salvadoran government can carry out to recognize the victims of the armed conflict is to recognize the disappeared. Salvadoran human rights activists have petitioned the government to establish a day to commemorate "Forced Disappearance" to coincide with the United Nations' "International Day of the Disappeared" on August 30. The petition goes to the Salvadoran Congress today.