Morazán Department

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Morazán


Flag	Coat of Arms

Location

Statistics

Created
(given current status) 1875

Capital San Francisco Gotera

Area
•% 1,447 km²
Ranked 7th

Population
•(2006) 251,447
Ranked 12th

ISO 3166-2 SV-MO

Morazán is a department of El Salvador. Located in the northeast part of the country, its capital is San Francisco Gotera. It covers a total surface area of 1,447 km² and has a population of more than 200,000.

[edit] History

Gotera was made a department in 1875, with its capital at Osicala. On February 8, 1877, Gotera was made the capital. The department changed its name from Gotera to Morazán on March 14, 1877.

Morazán was a major stronghold of the guerrilla movement during the 1979-1992 civil war. The infamous El Mozote massacre took place in this department in the village of El Mozote on December 11, 1981, when Salvadoran armed forces killed an estimated 900 civilians in an anti-guerrilla campaign. Originally dismissed by the Salvadoran and United States governments as an invention of anti-government propaganda, the massacre was confirmed in the early 1990s through exhumation of bodies buried at the site. A museum commemorating the Salvadoran civil war, the Museum of the Revolution, was established in the municipality of Perquín.

[edit] Municipalities

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Departments of El Salvador
Ahuachapán \| Cabañas \| Chalatenango \| Cuscatlán \| La Libertad \| La Paz \| La Unión \| Morazán \| San Miguel \| San Salvador \| San Vicente \| Santa Ana \| Sonsonate \| Usulután