Salvadorans remember civil war dead, missing during Day of the Dead celebrations

With prayer and floral offerings, hundreds of Salvadorans on Wednesday marked the Day of the Dead by honoring the memory of those who died or disappeared during the country's 12-year civil war.

Family members of the war's estimated 80,000 victims arrived at the Monument to Memory and Truth in the capital, where the names of more than 25,000 dead and missing are inscribed.

"We are here to remember our dead and to remind the government that it cannot commit these atrocious acts," said 95-year-old Alejandro Huezo, referring to the military government-backed death squads that are blamed for tens of thousands of deaths during the war. Huezo's son Julio Cesar was killed in 1976 at the age of 19.

Humanitarian nongovernmental organizations, including the Committee of Mothers of the Assassinated and Disappeared, also held a prayer service in front of the monument, AP reported. V.A.