Wednesday 14 January
2009, San José, Costa
Rica
EL SALVADOR:
Spanish Judge to
Investigate Murders of
Jesuit Priests
By
Raúl Gutiérrez
SAN SALVADOR (IPS)
- A Spanish judge’s
decision to investigate
14 Salvadoran military
officers for the 1989
killings of six Jesuit
priests in El Salvador
is a "sign of hope
against impunity,"
according to lawyers and
activists.
In his resolution, which
was seen by IPS, Madrid
Judge Eloy Velasco
stated that under the
principle of universal
jurisdiction he is
competent to investigate
14 members of the
Salvadoran army for
their alleged
participation in the
Nov. 16, 1989 murder of
the six priests, their
housekeeper and her
16-year-old daughter.
The judge’s decision was
in response to a lawsuit
filed in November by two
human rights groups, the
Spanish Association for
Human Rights (APDHE) and
the San Francisco-based
Centre for Justice and
Accountability (CJA).
Almudena Bernabeú, a
Spanish lawyer with the
CJA, said from San
Francisco that she was
very pleased that the
judge concurred that the
officers could be tried
for crimes against
humanity and terrorism.
David Morales, a lawyer
at the Foundation for
Studies on the
Application of Rights (FESPAD),
told IPS that "this is
encouraging news in the
effort to put an end to
impunity in this
country."
Morales has been a
plaintiff in several
human rights cases,
including one brought
before the
Inter-American
Commission on Human
Rights (IACHR) against
the Salvadoran state for
the March 1980
assassination of the
Catholic archbishop of
San Salvador Óscar
Romero, who was killed
while celebrating mass.
Romero was murdered by a
death squad on the
orders of Roberto
D'Aubuisson, the late
founder of the ruling
right-wing Nationalist
Republican Party
(ARENA), according to
the United
Nations-sponsored Truth
Commission created by
the peace agreement that
put an end to the
1980-1992 civil war.
Morales said the legal
investigation into the
Jesuits’ murders -- one
of the most notorious
cases of human rights
abuses committed during
the armed conflict --
will confirm that the 14
officers are guilty of
the crime, as has
"already been
demonstrated," and will
show that Salvadoran
courts have refused to
bring them to trial.
The IACHR has accepted
two complaints on the
same case filed by the
Jesuits (Society of
Jesus).
In the Nov. 13 lawsuit
they filed in Spain, the
APDHE and CJA also
accused former president
Alfredo Cristiani
(1989-1994) of covering
up the murders of the
priests and the two
women.
Morales said at the time
that the case is
"illustrative of what
happened in El Salvador,
and has an invaluable
historical dimension in
the context of the
search for justice and
reparations for the
victims."
Although Velasco did not
accept the charge
against Cristiani
because covering up a
crime against humanity
does not fall under the
principle of universal
jurisdiction -- which
permits prosecution of
the worst atrocities no
matter where they were
committed -- grounds for
investigating the former
president could emerge
during the judge’s
probe, experts say.
In the early hours of
Nov. 16, 1989, members
of the U.S.-trained
Atlacatl
counterinsurgency
battalion raided the San
Salvador campus of the
Jesuit University of
Central America (UCA),
killing six priests --
five of whom were
Spanish citizens --
their housekeeper Elba
Ramos and her daughter
Celia Marisela Ramos.
The killings were
committed during a
military offensive in
San Salvador by the
left-wing Farabundo
Marti National
Liberation Front (FMLN),
which is now a political
party and the country’s
leading opposition
force.
Immediately after the
murders, the Cristiani
administration and the
armed forces accused the
FMLN, but later
acknowledged army
involvement.
Two of the nine members
of the army accused of
the crime, Yushi René
Mendoza and Guillermo
Benavides, were
convicted in 1991.
However, they were
released only two years
later, following
approval of the amnesty
law decreed by Cristiani
in 1993, which is seen
by Salvadoran and
international human
rights groups as an
obstacle to justice.
Some 75,000 people --
most of them civilians
-- were killed and 7,000
forcibly disappeared
during El Salvador’s
civil war, mainly by
government troops and
far-right
paramilitaries.
President Antonio Saca
-- who like Cristiani is
a member of ARENA, which
has governed El Salvador
since 1989 -- said in
November that the
lawsuit would "reopen
wounds of the past," and
that he thought very
highly of Cristiani.
Armando Pérez, the head
of the Committee of
Relatives of Victims of
Human Rights Violations
(CODEFAM), told IPS that
the judge’s decision is
a sign of the
effectiveness of the
Spanish justice system,
and "represents an
advance in the fight for
justice," by contrast
with the severe
shortcomings of the
Salvadoran justice
system, which he said is
caught up in party
mentalities and
loyalties.
Human rights groups and
legal experts say the
amnesty law and the lack
of will on the part of
prosecutors and judges
have stood in the way of
bringing those
responsible for crimes
against humanity to
justice.
In the case of the
Jesuits’ murders, the
CJA chose to file the
action in a Madrid court
because Spain and El
Salvador have an
extradition agreement,
and because Spain’s
judges admit the
principle of universal
jurisdiction, already
applied by Spanish Judge
Baltasar Garzón to
secure the 1998 arrest
of former Chilean
dictator Augusto
Pinochet (1973-1990),
who died in 2006.
|
|
|
|
|
|
