A dozen peasant women have gathered on a sultry morning in downtown San Salvador for the Mothers' weekly committee meeting. There is no coffee, no lighthearted conversation in the bare room. A palpable anxiety grips the assembly: It is becoming increasingly dangerous to oppose the government they believe is holding their missing children.

Since 1977 the Committee of Mothers of Political Prisoners and Missing Persons has fought for their children's freedom. The fact that they are known as “the Mothers” hampers the Salvadoran Government's normally brutal style of putting down opposition. The women wield a formidable weapon – their own motherhood–and the government doesn't want to risk national and international censure by attacking them.