Michael Hayes and David Tombs (eds), Truth and Memory: The Church and Human Rights in El Salvador and Guatemala (Brill, 2001).

For you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. (John 8.32)

In the 1990s struggles over human rights and the politics of truth and memory were at the heart of social transitions in El Salvador and Guatemala as both countries strove to come to terms with their legacies of violence and build new and more democratic societies. During El Salvador's peace process (1990-92) a UN sponsored Commission on the Truth was established to investigate and report on cases of serious violence from the years of conflict and turmoil (1980-91). ¹ To build on people's hopes for the new era the Commission's mandate was to seek, find and publicize the truth on the years of madness. Recognising and remembering the years of terror was a necessary step to rebuilding a society based on truth, freedom and justice.