Peter, Paul & Mary – EL SALVADOR

There’s a sunny little country south of Mexico

Where the winds are gentle and the waters flow

But breezes aren’t the only things that blow

in El Salvador

If you took the little lady for a moonlight drive

Odds are still good you’d come back alive

But everyone is innocent until they arrive

in El Salvador

If the rebels take a bus on the grand highway

The government destroys a village miles away

The man on the radio says ‘now we’ll play South of the Border’

And in the morning the natives say,

We’re happy you have lived another day

Last night a thousand more passed away

in El Salvador

There’s a television crew here from ABC

Filming Rio Lempe and the refugees

Calling murdered children the ‘tragedy’

of El Salvador

Before the government cameras 20 feet away

Another man is asking for continued aid

Food and medicine and hand grenades

for El Salvador

There’s a thump, a rumble, and the buildings sway

A soldier fires the acid spray

The public address system starts to play South of the Border

You run for cover and hide your eyes

You hear the screams from paradise

They’ve fallen further than you realize

in El Salvador

Just like Poland is ‘protected’ by her Russian friends

The junta is ‘assisted’ by Americans

And if 60 million dollars seems too much to spend

in El Salvador

They say for half a billion they could do it right

Bomb all day, burn all night

Until there’s not a living thing upright

in El Salvador

They’ll continue training troops in the USA

And watch the nuns that got away

And teach the military bands to play South of the Border

And kill the people to set them free

Who put this price on their liberty?

Don’t you think it’s time to leave

El Salvador?