Abrams frequently defended the human rights record of the El Salvador government and attacked human rights groups as communist sympathizers when they criticized the El Salvador government . In early 1982 , when reports of the El Mozote massacre of hundreds of civilians by the military in El Salvador began appearing in U.S. media , Abrams told a Senate committee that the reported number of deaths at El Mozote " was not credible , " reasoning that the reported number of deaths was greater than the likely population , and that there were survivors . He said that " it appears to be an incident that is at least being significantly misused , at the very best , by the guerrillas . " The massacre had come at a time when the Reagan administration was attempting to bolster the human rights image of the Salvadoran military . Abrams implied that reports of a massacre were simply FMLN propaganda and denounced U.S. investigative reports of the massacre as misleading . In March 1993 , the Salvadoran Truth Commission reported that over 500 civilians were " deliberately and systematically " executed in El Mozote in December 1981 by forces affiliated with the Salvadoran government
El Mozote massacre
El Mozote massacre
Elliott Abrams