The Massacre of Los Leones: José Othmaro Cáceres and 13 Youth
José Othmaro Cáceres was raised in Canton Platanares. A pleasant and sincere young man, he had entered the seminary of the diocese of San Vicente when he was young.
In 1980 he was finishing his studies in a seminary in Guadalajara, Mexico. A note in the archdiocesan newspaper, Orientacion
, remarked that “In the seminary he was much appreciated above all for qualities such as there: a great sense of friendship, joy, tenacity, openness to everyone, simplicity, piety, spirit of service, a deep love of his people, especially the poorest.” He was also a great soccer player.
Othmaro’s brother Ariel remembers him as a very friendly and helpful older brother. When he came home from the seminary on vacation he would get up early and milk the cows and would go out and help in the fields with a cuma , a type of machete, in his hands.
On his visits home he would also meet with the young people in the area who looked up to him and loved to follow him around.
On July 16, 1980, Othmaro arrived in El Salvador from the seminary in Mexico. He was going to be ordained deacon shortly and then a few weeks later ordained to the priesthood for the diocese of San Vicente. After a visit home he was going to return to San Vicente, where he would be ordained. On July 24 he went to visit his family in th e canton of Platanares outside
Suchitoto, even though he had been advised against this.
On July 25, 1980, thirteen young men, with José Othmaro Cáceres were killed in Caserío Los
Leones, Platanares, by a death squad from Fabián Ventura’s private army. This was part of a joint military operation with the forces of ORDEN and the armed forces that began about 11:00 am.
Some of the young men may have had connections with the guerrilla forces. But this was a time before there were many organized guerrilla groups in the area. Some people were digging shelters for the people as well as preparing supplies if the people had to leave the area suddenly.
Many of the youth were actually involved in the work of building the small chapel. Three walls of the chapel are still standing but it still lacks a roof.
Othmaro was meeting with a group of young people in the unfinished chapel. According to one report, he was meeting with his young friends to plan his first Mass in the little chapel.
The young people had taken a break in their meeting and were in the church, sharing candy, but Othmaro was outside.
According to one report, ge had just left the chapel when Ventura’s troops arrived, coming from two sides – the road and the fields. He heard shots and hid in the grass. When he thought the

troops were gone, he entered a house nearby. But they had not yet gone and caught him there.
“You’re the one we’re looking for,” they said and accused him of being a guerrilla leader. He asked them to wait a bit and went down on his knees. He asked God for forgiveness and was then shot. They then attacked his body with machetes. He died of several shots in the chest; afterwards his head was destroyed by blows of a machete.
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José Belarmino Leon (30) and Santos Adrián Leon were working to build the church which is still unfinished. An account from their mother, Santana Josefina Leon de Reyes, includes the following details:
After they had killed the youth, they were seeking a girl names Esther. While seeking them they ran into Othmaro. “You’re the one we’re looking for,” they said. Othmaro lifted his hands and said, “Lord, pardon me.” They took him behind the house and killed him under a mango.
They machine-gunned him perhaps only because he was studying for the priesthood.
Those who were meeting in the church all were killed - some with candy in their mouths, others with candy in their hands.
The death squad cried out afterwards, “We’ve won.”
An edited version of another account from the testimony of Señora. María Angel Alas, widow de González, October 2, 1983, follows:
On July 24, 1980, the seminarian José Othmaro Cáceres came to Canton Platanares.
He had just arrived from Mexico and was about to be ordained. He was originally from
Platanares.... He stayed in the house of Don Manuel Cáceres and his other brothers. That very night he invited my sister Fidelina Alas whether she would serve as his god mother for his priestly consecration.
The next day at 8:00 am he went to the chapel we were constructing for the canton.
There he was waiting for his friends from the canton because they wanted to show him how the construction was going. I was present for the meeting and he was inviting us to attend his ordination when four trucks came by way of the road with National guard, solders and by the field [monte] the civil Defense came so that the people wouldn’t flee out the back.
At that time Fabián Ventura, the head of the Civil Defense, with members of the
Civil Defense, entered with National Guard and soldiers. When they first entered, the civil defense members said: “Thus we would like to meet them.”
Then the youth group which was with Othmaro said that they were just a group of friends meeting together. Then seminarian Othmaro joining his hands and lifting his face

[ alzando su vista clara ] , told them that they should let him to speak with them. It was at this time that the Civil Defense led by Fabián Ventura began to shoot; the National Guard and the soldiers followed. The dead were: the Seminarian Othmaro Cáceres, Belarmino
Reyes (24), his brother Adrián Reyes (21), Angelito Rivas (14), Alfonso León (26) and the others young people - a total of fourteen; one young man who managed to flee and get into a straw hut which they set fire to and he died burned.
I was able flee with Ester Deras, with Martha Alas, Julia Solórzano and a number of others and we ran away from that hamlet. When they left we returned and found the destruction which was horrible: the priest of Suchitoto [ Padre Jorge Benavides ] asked for the body of seminarian Othmaro which was buried there. We buried ours in the canton. After that day the men no longer slept in their homes and began to sleep in the fields [el monte].
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There was a woman in the house where Othmaro had been, named Nicolasa Leon, who was involved with Caritas. She had been called Guadalupe from infancy when she had been healed after prayers to our Lady of Guadalupe. When the death squad entered they asked for Guadalupe
Leon. She told them to look at her cedula and see that she was Nicolasa. They left her in peace.
After the killing, Ventura went to a house nearby and hacked a mark in the door with his machete. “Here I leave my mark,” he said. “Next Friday I will continue from here on up [the road to Suchitoto].”
There is a legend that the next Friday Fabián Ventura went to continue his killing at the turn off the Suchitoto-Aguilares road toward El Roble. At the entrance to the road he encountered a woman in white with her hand raised to prevent him from entering. He could not enter then.
Other times he tried to enter, he encountered the same woman. Who was it? The ciguanaba or the
Virgin?
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Afterwards, the young people were buried near the unfinished chapel. Fr. Jorge Benavídes came out to take the body of Othmaro Cáceres into town where a wake was held in the Palacios family home. The funeral Mass was said in Santa Lucía church on July 26 with Monseñor Freddy
Delgado, vicar general of the diocese of San Vicente, presiding.
Some have wondered whether Cáceres was the target of the attack or was his death merely circumstantial. However, he had been involved earlier in the mission teams that assisted Father
Higinio Alas in the countryside. Later, when he came home for vacations from the seminary he would help in the missions and spend time talking with Higinio about pastoral work.
His death and the death of the others was the work of Fabián Ventura, death squad leader with private army. Othmaro’s death is considered to be the straw that brought the guerilla faction,

Resistencia Nacional, to finally kill Ventura. Ventura was killed later that year by an attack by the
FMLN on his Asunción home. i Iglesia, 111 ii Informe mensual de la oficina de Tutela Legal del Arzobispado de San Salvador, # 18 (Octubre de 1983):
9. iii The ciguanaba is a Salvadoran mythic woman spirit who preys on men in the countryside.