Last week, @therevcoms published an Instagram post with an illustrated article from the American Crime series: Case #38: The U.S. Backs El Salvador’s Death Squad Government, 1980 to 1992. The post reached a wide audience and sparked a flood of powerful comments, with people sharing what they—and their parents and family members—experienced during those horrific years in El Salvador; why they were born, or forced to seek refuge, in the United States; and, in many cases, directly calling out the U.S. for its role in devastating El Salvador and countries around the world.

As one commenter put it: “And bigots have the audacity to yell, ‘we don’t want you here—go back to your country!’”

In his 2003 talk Revolution: Why It’s Necessary, Why It’s Possible, What It’s All About, revolutionary leader Bob Avakian responds sharply to this kind of reactionary thinking:

Now I can just hear these reactionary fools saying, “Well, Bob, answer me this. If this country is so terrible, why do people come here from all over the world? Why are so many people trying to get in, not get out?”... Why? I’ll tell you why. Because you have fucked up the rest of the world even worse than what you have done in this country. You have made it impossible for many people to live in their own countries as part of gaining your riches and power.

Now more than ever—under the Trump/MAGA fascist regime and its rabid followers—it is crucial to learn and confront the real history of this country and the role of U.S. imperialism in the world. Below, we share some of the many testimonies and heart-wrenching comments people posted in response.

As you read through these, think about all the lives upended, the dreams crushed, the mental and physical scars left to carry across many borders and through decades by people of El Salvador and millions of others all over our planet—all unnecessarily inflicted by this country and this system. And think about how different the world could be, if people took up these 3 things from Avakian, issued May 1, 2016: 

3 Things that have to happen in order for there to be real and lasting change for the better:

1) People have to fully confront the actual history of this country and its role in the world up to today, and the terrible consequences of this.
2) People have to dig seriously and scientifically into how this system of capitalism-imperialism actually works, and what this actually causes in the world.
3) People have to look deeply into the solution to all this.

About their own and their families’ experience witnessing, suffering (and for some—dying) from these horrors and fleeing El Salvador

“This is so painful to read, I was there, my father was murder(ed), an innocent, hard working man. I grew up unable to distinguish gunshots from fireworks, because it was an everyday thing. So many memories...so many sad memories. The U.S. needs to do and be better.”

“Was a nightmare being a young girl scare of the soldiers and bullets - I saw a young man 18 be executed by soldiers in front of his mom - these people were evil, pure evil.”

“I remember hiding under mattresses for protection. Helicopters flew just over our house. I was 6”

“I was 3 years old when we left. One of my earliest memories, is of my mother and I being in the middle of a shoot out. Sadly my father was murdered during the war. There's so many stories out there.”

“Thank you for sharing this. My mom was there.... She said she barely made it out of jail alive—she was protesting with a son of someone from the police force. She says that if he wasn’t there, she probably wouldn’t have made it out alive.”

“One day my mom made us get under the kitchen table (she made it a game) I remember hearing shots fired, got scared and asked my mom and my dad what was it; and mom said ‘son cohetes’¹ to calm us down; I remember in one instance I needed to use the restroom yet again and my mom wanted to convince me not to since there was acting shooting... since I didn't understand why I couldn't go bc of the ‘firework’ we ended up crawling, my dad took me, he was desperate and told me to hurry up, the restroom was flooded... we were days under the table. I don't remember the whole thing but that's around the time my family decided to come seeking asylum”

“My parents tell stories of kids being rounded up in small towns and being kidnapped to join the military. Parents would show up at government offices asking to have their children brought back to them. Some escaped and some became soldiers. Terrible outcomes for the children.”

“My dad fought in this war from 1980 to 1986 as a 12 year old and came to the U.S. in 1987 with crazy stories”

“My mom doesn't talk much about what she witnessed but she does tell me a story about how the bus she always took back home was bombed and everyone passed. She says the only reason she was saved was because she was pregnant with me and needed to use the restroom.”

“I survived this war and am constantly amazed at how little people know about what happened to my country. I was 8 years old when I left but the memories have stayed and will stay forever.”

“That's why I'm here in the states. I was raised with these stories”

“I was a little girl going through that horrible time! I try not to remember but knowing that other countries are going through the same and see so many innocent children dying brings back sad memories”

“I never met my uncle due to this. He was coming out of school and taken captive. Him and other were tortured and beaten before being lined up and shot. He was only 16.”

“My brother was out there in the early 90s, he said he saw them cut open a pregnant woman tie her arms to the back of a truck and dragged the woman and fetus behind so everyone would see what they were capable of. A lot of people who lived through this support trump ironically”

“This is painful to read. I was there as a young child. My father was kidnapped, tortured & left for dead in front of a church. We had to flee in 1981. He was never the same. R.I.P.”

“As a child this was my life, especially seeing dead bodies left behind.”

“Yup. My dad was part of the Red Cross and part of his job besides helping people stay alive was to move bodies around. Very tragic.”

“This is true. I met one of the survivors and the stories are horrific. So many innocent people including kids had to live that nightmare”

“I was 5 when my mom and I fled El Salvador, right before the war started”

“Another example of our history that should never have happened.”

“A lot of broken families still trying to reconnect. I'm grateful for being here but I also don't forget.”

“My father was a refugee of this war. That's why my siblings and I were born in the U.S.”

“I was not even a year old when my parents decided to flee. They both took part in the guerilla resistance before that. Reading this makes my heart beat like crazy”

“My mom had me in her belly when she left I heard a lot about it and how people helped her with an inner tube to help her cross the water. I give thanks to my parents for getting away and gave me a chance to live…”

Directly calling out the role of the U.S. in the atrocities in El Salvador and the emergence of the gangs

“Let's not forget that many of us salvi migrants are here in the U.S. because the U.S. intervened ferociously in our country & funded military forces against our people”

“I AM A CHILD FROM THIS WAR THAT FLED FROM THE DISASTER THAT US HELPED CREATE!! And they call us MONSTERS
 HISTORY WILL BE EXPOSED N REMEMBERED!!!”

“And U.S. blames our country for their mistakes!”

“I used to pick up my own cotton and coffee from my farm in El Salvador until USA backed militia bombed it, burned everything nothing ever grew back, now I pick up cans in USA”

“I remember this. I was a kid but seen a bit of the war until we were forced leave to our homeland due to all the killings of innocent people that was going on. The U.S. has always been a corrupt government.”

“My mother and father have finally told us the stories of hiding in between bodies for hours to avoid being killed. Their friends being gunned down, raped, impaled and displayed on street corners. and more. They lived thru such a traumatic experience that left the country of El Salvador depleted of everything. Many U.S. born Salvadorans know the stories of they have been told. It is why we landed here. Then to make matters worse bc the LAPD was harassing Black and Brown communities. Gangs arose to resist. That's how MS 13 came about but all those U.S. born citizens were then deported and further devolved into the syndicate people know it as. The white inferiority ideology and colonization is the root cause of all the pain around the globe. The USA and Pissrael must answer for their crimes. It's enough.”

“Thank you for bringing light to this. The U.S. involvement in that horrendous 11 year war. The book ‘The Massacre at El Mozote,’ describes the horrors people experience and the involvement of the U.S. in all of it.”

“And after the war in the 90s we had a lot of refugees come to the states with PTSD and US military training that formed MS. Instead of the U.S. helping rehabilitate our people. They deported them to El Salvador and said it was our problem. The war and MS was and is a US problem”

“They used us as a Drug point to move bricks with Pablo and guns as well our country was the perfect place because we are very welcoming people and our people ate up all the propaganda. Dique² communism what a Joke they create that narrative to run up into any country just like they are doing right now with Venezuela to steal those natural resources.”

“Reason why people turned into gangs, the horrors they saw, turned them into murderous gangsters that the US help to create. Then many were forced to run towards USA, and the country destabilized, let gangsters get into official ranks, creating a corrupt government. All thanks to america of course!”

“Yes! This all happened. My mother had to leave because of it. Most our friends, and family had to flee to other nations. Reagan did all that. Shame”

On the U.S.’s wreckage beyond El Salvador

“…The U.S. always does that, they enter a country do what they do and they make it seem like they are the good guys allow a certain amount of people from that country to migrate to the U.S.”

“What latin country haven't the U.S. raped the last 150 years. My mother and father escaped Chile in ’73 because the U.S. supported the dog Pinochet.”

“I lived in Guatemala during those days. Fuck you USA, and those who support it.”

“…the United States is the worst murderer in the world, it has killed so many people... and everything has been done under the nose of its own organizations that the world endorses them, these governments really give disgust and disappointment! They always want to have the world under a constant war, the youth has deteriorated only disappointment to think that they will not have a future in peace! Fucking Trump”

“Destabilized all of Latin America and most of the south”

“The USA HAS ALWAYS BACKED the destruction of progress in the southern hemisphere”

“This is what they did in Jakarta as well. Then they did the same in different countries across Asia and other continents. They backed up whatever they think would win just to make money and establish American corporations after the bloodshed and chaos they did. They orchestrated almost every government conflicts in ‘3rd world’ countries”

“The eternal parasite strikes again.”

About the impact of the current Trump fascist regime and its crimes now

“A lot of us will die in the U.S. under this regime.”

“ICE is America's DEATH SQUADS! ICE snatches people off street within a reason or probable cause... ICE moves the victims around the networks of secret prisons ice controls!”

“I used this example last night when trying to explain regime change in Venezuela to my 11 year old. No fan of Maduro, but our track record isn't great either.”

Criticizing modern-day El Salvador and its president Nayib Bukele

“I'm from there and I know people who work in hospitals or live in the country. He is only renovating tourist areas, not the rest of the people. CECOT has numerous allegations made against them that will weaken the legal reason, if any, to have them in prison. But people love malice, especially against those believed to deserve it. When the US is done with him, they'll overthrow him. Right now he's just complicit in operating a concentration camp for the US so he'll remain in power.”

“And Bukele went RIGHT back to the U.S. Yeah he helped with MS13 but he's committing crimes against humanity and when the first settles, our people will suffer once again.”

“And now El Salvador's President is trumps puppet how sad”

“How Far a Hope Goes”—And What This History Means in a Time of Fascism

The comments gathered here are not just memories of a terrible past. They are indictments of a system that has made whole regions of the world unlivable—and then dares to criminalize the people who flee the devastation it created. These testimonies need to be taken up consciously, scientifically, and collectively—to help grapple with the nature of this system, the fascism it has given rise to, and the responsibility this places on all of us now.

One commenter quoted lines from Marco Antonio Solís’ song Casas de Cartón (“The Cardboard Houses”):

Es un mundo sin mañana. (It’s a world without tomorrow.)
Que triste se oye la lluvia (How sad the rain sounds)
En los techos de cartón (On the cardboard roofs.)
Que triste vive mi gente (How sad my people live)
En las casas de cartón. (In the cardboard houses.)

But the song ends with another important line:

Qué lejos pasa una esperanza (How far a hope goes)

En las casas de cartón (In the cardboard houses.)

Today, as the Trump/MAGA fascist regime sharpens its claws—openly celebrating white supremacy and brute force, unleashing threats and repression, and preparing for a whole new level of “America-first” imperialist aggression under its National Security Strategy—it is more urgent than ever to bring this history to light—to be confronted, learned from, and acted on.

In the name of humanity, we refuse to accept a fascist America!
This whole system is rotten and illegitimate! We need, and we demand, a whole new way to live, a fundamentally different system!