Atlácatl Battalion
The Atlácatl Battalion was one of 14 Batallones de Infantería de Reacción Inmediata of the Salvadoran Army created in the 1980s. Atlácatl was raised in 1981 and disbanded in 1992. It was implicated in some of the most infamous massacres of the Salvadoran Civil War.
History
The Salvadoran Civil War began on 15 October 1979 with the overthrow of President Carlos Humberto Romero. The military established the Revolutionary Government Junta to govern the country in the wake of the coup, and it established itself to be a "reformist" junta. The United States was covertly involved in the coup and actively supported the junta.In January 1981, the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, a left-wing guerrilla group opposed to the junta, began an offensive against the junta and marched on military targets, most notably the Ilopango Airport. In reaction, the United States increased military and economic assistance to the junta and helped establish the, a network of specialized counter-insurgent army units. The first unit formed was the Atlácatl Battalion in March 1981, followed by the Atonal Battalion in January 1982 and the Belloso Battalion in May 1982. The battalion was named after Atlácatl, a legendary indigenous figure from the Spanish conquest of El Salvador who fought against conquistador Pedro de Alvarado.
The United States sent fifteen counter-insurgent specialists to El Salvador in March 1981 to train the newly formed battalion. Weapons, ground vehicles, and helicopters were sent to the battalion, which numbered around 2,000 soldiers.
The battalion was disbanded in 1992 under the terms of the Chapultepec Peace Accords that ended the twelve-year civil war.