El Salvador Supreme Court releases 3 jailed ex-military officers News
El Salvador Supreme Court releases 3 jailed ex-military officers

[JURIST] The Supreme Court of El Salvador [official website, in Spanish] on Saturday ordered the release of three ex-military officers who had been jailed for killing six Jesuit priests during the country’s civil war. In 1989 a team of about 20 military officers stormed [EFE report] the University of Central America (UCA) [official website, in Spanish] and executed the priests as well as a housekeeper and her daughter. Since five of the priests were Spanish, the Spanish National Court [official website, in Spanish] claimed universal jurisdiction over the case and issued arrest warrants against the officers in 2011. Salvadoran officers did not act on the arrest warrants until February of this year. Though Spain requested that the arrested officers be extradited, the Supreme Court denied the request. The court further determined that a fourth jailed military officer will remain in custody due to the recent repeal of the country’s amnesty law. Salvadoran authorities continue to search for 12 other accused officers who have yet to turn themselves in.

Last month the Supreme Court struck down the amnesty law of 1993 [backgrounder, PDF], opening the way for prosecution [JURIST report] of those associated with various war crimes and crimes against humanity during the El Salvadoran civil war. This decision will allow El Salvador to follow suit with the US, which has made significant strides over the past decade in prosecuting those involved in the war. In 2011 the Obama administration charged [JURIST report] General Eugenio Vides Casanova, former defense minister of El Salvador, for human rights crimes committed during the civil war while he served as the country’s top military officer. The US was also seeking to deport [La Página report, in Spanish] Vides, who retired in Florida after completing his six-year term as defense minister. Vides was successfully deported [JURIST report] in 2015. In 2006 the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit [official website] upheld a $55 million verdict [JURIST report] against Vides and his co-defendant Jose Guillermo Garcia for allowing torture and other human rights violations during the war. In 2005 a US federal court reached a verdict against Nicolas Carranza, top commander of El Salvador’s security forces during the civil war, for $2 million in compensatory damages [JURIST report]. The case was brought by five Salvadoran citizens who alleged torture or had family killed by Carranza’s soldier during the war. In 2000, however, the US lost the battle to seek justice for the murders of four American churchwomen [NYT report] during the civil war when both Vides and Garcia were acquitted. The ruling was grounded in the doctrine that the generals, although responsible for their soldiers, may not have had complete effective power to reign in the abuses of their troops.