El Salvador - President Apologizes for 1981 Massacre - NYTimes.com President Mauricio Funes apologized Monday for the massacre of 936 civilians in an army counterinsurgency operation in the town of El Mazote in 1981, and acknowledged the government's responsibility for killings. He called the operation "the biggest massacre of civilians in the contemporary history of Latin America." Soldiers entered El Mazote on Dec. 11, 1981, looking for rebels and sympathizers, and over three days killed anyone they could catch, including women, children and babies. Mr. Funes spoke on the 20th anniversary of the 1992 peace accords that ended the country's 12-year civil war. He also asked for forgiveness from the relatives of the estimated 12,000 people who disappeared in the conflict, which left 75,000 dead.