A retired general in El Salvador admitted that the US-trained Atlacatl Battalion killed 800 civilians in 1981. The US, under Reagan, helped cover this up, through attacking the US reporter who had written about it.

The "School of the Americas" became notorious for such "training". In response to demands to shut it down, the US changed its name.

A few years later, Reagan started funding a right-wing militia to destabilize Nicaragua through terrorism, and paying for it by selling arms to Iran.