Iraq war comes home to El Salvador

[EFerrari]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/07/24/ING6RDRPJ81.DTL

Dead soldier's mother given only sympathy
Jacob Wheeler
Sunday, July 24, 2005

Ahuachapan Province, El Salvador -- To the naked eye, Guaymango resembles any other isolated, poor Central American mountain village defined by timelessness and obscurity. Mangy dogs lounge lazily near rutted roads, stirring only when a rare vehicle rumbles by, and only the roosters who crow at daybreak seem eager for another day of poverty and struggle to begin. The affairs of the outside world would appear to have little bearing here.

Yet this remote outpost near the Guatemalan border is another front in George W. Bush's war on terrorism. As part of El Salvadoran President Antonio Saca's decision to join the United States-led "coalition of the willing," he has sent a force of 380 soldiers to fight in Iraq. Nearly 10 percent of them hail from rural Ahuachapan Province -- three hours by travel in rickety "chicken buses" west of the capital, San Salvador, and almost impossible to locate on the map without a microscope.

Even though Saddam Hussein never posed a threat to Central America, and the national security of the United States is a concern only to those Salvadorians lucky enough to survive the harrowing migratory journey to "El Norte," 35 local boys have fought side-by-side with the American armed forces near Najaf, north of Baghdad. (More at link.)