Smack In The Middle Of A Low-Intensity Conflict
June, 1986
The taca air lines 727 jet is packed with passengers, and people grow quiet as we enter Salvadoran airspace. Outside the window, the tropical landscape rises slowly to meet us. I see a large lake, a dormant volcano, ridges of saw-toothed hills, the Pacific Ocean in the distance. The jungle valleys are blue in the afternoon shadows and the fields of sugar cane and pineapple form blocks like patterns in a quilt.It is September 1985.There is a time warp for me at this moment: I think briefly that i...
