Editing Elliott Abrams (section)

==== El Salvador ====
Abrams frequently defended the [[human rights in El Salvador|human rights record of the El Salvador government]] and attacked human rights groups as communist sympathizers when they criticized the El Salvador government.<ref name=":4" /> In early 1982, when reports of the [[El Mozote massacre]] of hundreds of civilians by the military in El Salvador began appearing in U.S. media, Abrams told a Senate committee that the reported number of deaths at El Mozote "was not credible," reasoning that the reported number of deaths was greater than the likely population, and that there were survivors. He said that "it appears to be an incident that is at least being significantly misused, at the very best, by the guerrillas."<ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.markdanner.com/articles/show/the_truth_of_el_mozote |title=The Truth of El Mozote |last=Danner |first=Mark |date=December 3, 1993 |magazine=The New Yorker |pages=4, 50–50 |access-date=November 16, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121115135836/http://www.markdanner.com/articles/show/the_truth_of_el_mozote |archive-date=November 15, 2012 }}</ref> The massacre had come at a time when the Reagan administration was attempting to bolster the [[human rights]] image of the Salvadoran military. Abrams implied that reports of a massacre were simply [[Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front|FMLN]] propaganda and denounced U.S. investigative reports of the massacre as misleading. In March 1993, the [[Salvadoran Truth Commission]] reported that over 500 civilians were "deliberately and systematically" executed in El Mozote in December 1981 by forces affiliated with the Salvadoran government.<ref>{{cite book|last=Whitfield|first=Teresa|title=Paying the Price: Ignacio Ellacuría and the Murdered Jesuits of El Salvador|publisher=Temple University Press|location=Philadelphia|year=1994|page=389|isbn=978-1-56639-253-2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qv9o4qoOnFEC&pg=PA389}}</ref> A 1992 Human Rights Watch report criticized Abrams for downplaying the massacre.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Forrest |first1=Jack |title=Biden nominates controversial former Trump-appointee to Public Diplomacy Commission |url=https://edition.cnn.com/2023/07/03/politics/elliott-abrams-public-diplomacy-nomination/index.html |website=CNN |access-date=4 July 2023 |language=en |date=3 July 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=The massacre at El Mozote: the need to remember |url=https://www.hrw.org/legacy/reports/pdfs/e/elsalvdr/elsalv923.pdf |website=Human Rights Watch |access-date=4 July 2023 |date=4 March 1992}}</ref>

Also in 1993, documentation emerged suggesting that some Reagan administration officials could have known about El Mozote and other human rights violations from the beginning.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/03/21/world/how-us-actions-helped-hide-salvador-human-rights-abuses.html|title=How U.S. Actions Helped Hide Salvador Human Rights Abuses|last=Krauss|first=Clifford|date=March 21, 1993|work=New York Times<!-- |access-date=2009-11-16 -->}}</ref> However, in July 1993, an investigation commissioned by Clinton Secretary of State [[Warren Christopher]] into the State Department's "activities and conduct" with regard to human rights in El Salvador during the Reagan years found that, despite U.S. funding of the Salvadoran government that committed the massacre at El Mozote, individual U.S. personnel "performed creditably and occasionally with personal bravery in advancing human rights in El Salvador."<ref>{{cite book|last=Whitfield|first=Teresa|title=Paying the Price|pages=389–390|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qv9o4qoOnFEC&pg=PA389|publisher=Temple University Press|isbn=978-1-56639-253-2|date=1994-11-09}}</ref> Abrams said in 2001 that Washington's policy in El Salvador was a "fabulous achievement."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thenation.com/doc/20010702/corn|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120915081355/http://www.thenation.com/doc/20010702/corn|url-status=dead|archive-date=September 15, 2012|title=Elliott Abrams: It's Back!|last=Corn|first=David|date=June 1, 2001|work=The Nation|access-date=November 16, 2009}}</ref> In 2019 he said that the "fabulous achievement" was that El Salvador "has been a [[democracy]]".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.vox.com/2019/2/15/18225109/elliott-abrams-ilhan-omar-venezuela|title=The fight between Ilhan Omar and Elliott Abrams, Trump's Venezuela envoy, explained|author=Zack Beauchamp|newspaper=Vox|date=Feb 15, 2019}}</ref> In a 1998 interview, Abrams remarked, "While it was important to us to promote the cause of human rights in Central America it was more important to prevent a communist takeover in El Salvador."<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Hartmann|first=Hauke|date=2001|title=US Human Rights Policy under Carter and Reagan, 1977-1981|journal=Human Rights Quarterly|language=en|volume=23|issue=2|pages=402–430|doi=10.1353/hrq.2001.0017|s2cid=143934287|issn=1085-794X}}</ref>