TBT: What ever happened to the Indian burial ground under the Embassy?

"Embassy of the United States of America in San Salvador, El Salvador" by Jesse Michael Nix from Salt Lake City, United States - El Salvador 2008-03-13 @ 16-28-38. Licensed under CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

I first visited El Salvador in 1997. At the time, the US Embassy really stood out as a monstrosity given that there was very little else nearby. Things have changed quite a bit since then. However, I love telling my students that the US sought to build a new embassy in El Salvador (the previous one was not well protected and had been severely damaged in an earthquake) in order to fight the Cold War that was still raging in Central and, to a certain extent, South America. However, by the time that they were done with the building, the war was over.

The Ambassador was cut off from much of the country and really didn't seem to have a grasp of what the country was like. The Marines liked their quarters and the amenities on the compound but did not seem to be a big fan of the distance to everything (Zona Rosa in particular). They wanted off base when they were not on duty but that was difficult at the time (probably more so today).

Here's a news article from the Los Angeles Times from 1992 entitled U.S. Salvador Embassy a Monument to Yesterday's War : Central America: Designed during civil conflict, the lavish new complex in a distant suburb seems overdone, out of place.

When Ambassador William Walker moved into the giant new U.S. Embassy here shortly after a cease-fire ended El Salvador's 12-year civil war, one of his first guests was Joaquin Villalobos, a powerful leader of the anti-government guerrilla movement, the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front.

As they toured the fortress-like complex on the city's western outskirts, Walker turned to Villalobos, whose forces had attacked the old embassy more than once, and said: "Welcome to a monument to you."

Villalobos, a recently recanted Marxist and head of the largest and best of the FMLN armies, looked around at the forbidding complex, turned to Walker, smiled and said: "No, it is a reflection of your shortsightedness."

The embassy--eight massive structures, including 210,000 square feet of office and residential space covering 26 acres of what once was an Indian burial ground--is a bit of both. Its size and resemblance to a fort were dictated by the civil war in this country after 1980, when the FMLN began its campaign to turn El Salvador into a Marxist-Leninist state and to oust any presence of the United States.

I haven't been back to the Embassy since 1997 but I can totally understand Ambassador Walker getting lost and leading a group into a utility closet by accident.