Read it here: Disappearance / Re-appearance

Here's an excerpt:

‘Return to El Salvador’ asks why 700 Salvadorans leave their country every day; and aims to remind audiences why the fate of these people is intimately bound to the recent history of the United States and its people. We’ll be able to see the film in November. For now, the hope is that US politicians will be willing to support an investigation into Rivera’s death. If you believe that we should take responsibility for the misdeeds of our predecessors, then it’s clear that we owe the people of El Salvador something more than we’ve been prepared to grant before now. But I imagine that most of us don’t know much about this recent history; never mind what’s happening in El Salvador today. Disappearance doesn’t just apply to the physical removal and killing of human beings; for we’re very good at hiding from ourselves the truth about our own complicity in the suffering of others.

We’ve been very good at ‘disappearing’ the murky parts of our own history; but denying the fact of the role played by the Reagan administration and others in destabilising Central American nations will not get us any closer to preventing the disappearance of more people like Gustavo Marcelo Rivera Moreno; nor in honouring the people he was trying to help. Hopefully ‘Return to El Salvador’ will contribute to a renewed engagement with these questions; questions that should never go away until they are answered.

Disappearance / Re-appearance by Gareth Higgins