El Salvador

El Salvador: Blood On All Our Hands tells the stories of those who fought in El Salvador’s civil war, the U.S. aid workers helping to rebuild the country, as well as everyday Salvadorans who suffered from the effects of a war that killed over 70,000 fellow citizens.

On April 29, 1981, journalist George Thurlow was shot by members of the El Salvador Treasury Police on a jungle road in San Salvador. His driver, Gilberto Moran, was killed and Associated Press photographer Joaquin Zuniga was seriously injured. In 2000, Thurlow began a more than two-decade search to find Gilberto Moran’s grave and some form of personal redemption. This book is the result of Thurlow’s long journey into the history of El Salvador’s brutal civil war.

ISBN: 9798888908983

Publication date: October 23, 2026

Contents
Preface
On a Bar Stool Acknowledgements
List of Figures

Introduction: Another Vietnam

1 The Jungle Ambush
 1 April 26, 1981
 2 April 27, 1981
 3 April 28, 1981
 4 April 29, 1981
 5 Aftermath

2 Meet the Chroniclers of Death
 1 The Firemen
 2 Small Steps toward Absolution
 3 My Search Begins
 4 She Has the Photo and the Pain
 5 Back at the Camino Real
 6 A Daily Diary of Death
 7 The Other Missing American
 8 The Ace of San Salvador
 9 At the Miami Herald
 10 Living Dangerously
 11 Manny Alvarez, the Wild Man
 12 In the Wake of a Hurricane
 13 Carrying the Casket

3 Beyond War, Where Memories Are Buried
 1 From U.S. Bombs to Ecological Paradise
 2 Don’t Get in That Ambulance
 3 La Chacra
 4 War Machines
 5 Guatemala
 6 Memorial
 7 Nuns Who Led the Way
 8 The Priest Who Just Disappeared
 9 Padre Paul
 10 The Museums
Epilogue
 1 Traces of Blood and Tears
 2 The Final Journey

Recommended Reading
 George Thurlow on Latin America

Index