“Find the Jackals”

The Revolutionary Party of Central American Workers (Partido Revolucionario de los Trabajadores Centroamericanos, PRTC) was one of the political-military organizations linked to the FMLN. In June 1985, members of the group's urban commando unit “Mardoqueo Cruz” housed at an auto repair shop in San Salvador launched an operation dubbed “Yankee aggressor in El Salvador, another Vietnam awaits you.”

On the evening of June 19, six off-duty U.S. Marines responsible for security at the American embassy sat down at an outside table at the Chili's restaurant in the tony nightlife neighborhood called Zona Rosa. The marines were regular customers and were known to the restaurant owners. After a while, two of the marines left the group to sit outside an adjacent restaurant. At around 9 p.m., a white pickup truck parked outside the La Hola restaurant in Zona Rosa. A group of seven individuals got out of the truck and proceeded over to the Chili's where they began firing rounds at the unarmed Americans, Thomas Handwork, Patrick R. Kwiatkoski, Bobbie J. Dickson, and Gregory H. Weber. While the commandos were firing at the United States marines, an unknown source returned their fire from inside Chili's. Several Salvadorans and foreign bystanders, including American and Chilean executives from a multinational technology firm, were also killed. A total of nine civilians and four marines died at the Zona Rosa shooting. One Mardoqueo Cruz commando was wounded with a bullet and subsequently died at a medical clinic.

Two days after the killings, President Duarte went to the Ilopango Airport in San Salvador to see the bodies of the U.S. Marines placed on a plane to be returned to the United States. On that occasion he offered this consolation: “To the American people, on behalf of the Salvadoran people, to the U.S. Government; to President Reagan; and to the relatives of these heroes, these marines, who are returning to their homeland today covered with the honor of the U.S. flag. . . .