Historical resolution in El Salvador, after the Chamber of the Constitution of the Supreme Court of Justice decided this Wednesday to reopen the case of the massacre occurred on November 16, 1989 in that country of six Jesuits, five of them Spanish, among them
, Ignacio Ellacuría, ideologist of the theology of liberation.
In this way, the Central American country will be able to do justice, after declaring with place the Amparo Resource presented on November 16 by the Attorney General of El Salvador, Rodolfo Delgado, when 32 years of the massacre were fulfilled.
As the prosecutor asked, the Supreme Court of Justice has “invalidated” the resolution of September 8, 2020, through which the criminal room of this Court gave the “Ellacuría case ‘when confirming the definitive dismissals in favor of
Those involved in crime after considering that crimes had prescribed.
Therefore, according to the new resolution of the judges of the Supreme Court of Justice appointed on May 1, 2021, “things come back to the state in which they were before the emission of said Providence,” so that the
EXCEMENTS In estimating that the previous criminal room “violated the rights of the relatives of victims and society to jurisdictional protection and to know the truth.”
In this sense, the letter indicates that the previous criminal room “violated fundamental rights of victims and society when closing the trial,” which meant an “obstruction to the relatives of victims and society in general of access
The court so that it will be pronounced on its pretension and, therefore, justice or subsequent integral repair have not been possible. ”
From now on, there may be justice in El Salvador, after the resolution of September 8, 2020 of the criminal room was canceled in which the definitive dismissal of the exmilitaries Juan Orlando Zepeda, Francisco Elena Fuentes was confirmed
and Rafael Humberto Larios, accused of being the intellectual authors of the crime.
As a result, the absolute nullity of the criminal proceeding was declared against them, as well as against René Castillo Ponce, Juan Rafael Bustillo, Innocent Orlando Montano and the former Salvadoran President Alfredo Felix Cristiani.
Thus, the Room of the Constitution estimates that the Criminal Chamber dictated by the dismissal “omitted taking into consideration that the facts denounced and that are intended to be investigated in the criminal proceedings could be considered, at least provisionally, as crimes against humanity or crimes of
War constituting serious violations of international humanitarian law. ”
In other words, he adds, these are facts of “extreme gravity, since the patterns, behaviors or practices of violence in which they occurred are absolutely repudible, in attention to the impact they have produced on victims, of offended, society and the
international community”.
For this reason, he points out that the casing resources interposed in his day by the defendants who supposed their dismissal were admitted “unduly and were unconstitutionally resolved, so things come back to the State in which they were before the emission of said Providence”
.
The last person who was convicted of these facts was former Colonel and former Deputy Prime Minister of Public Safety of El Salvador Innocent Orlando Montano.
The National Hearing of Spain condemned him on September 11, 2020 to 133 years as one of the intellectual authors of the massacre ordered by the Salvadoran Army in 1989. That day, Ignacio Ellacuría and the also nationalized Spanish Jesuits Salvadoraños Ignacio Martín died
Second Montes, Armando Lopez and Juan Ramón Moreno, as well as Joaquín López, born in the Central American country, the ELBA Julia Ramos employee and his 16-year-old daughter Celina Ramos.
Montano could be judged in Spain after a US judge, Kimberly Swank, approved his extradition, while, on the contrary, the contentious room of the Supreme Court of Justice of El Salvador dismissed the order of capture issued by Spain
Against 17 soldiers accused of the crime of the six priests and the two women.
All of them had been arrested after February 5, 2016, the National Civil Police of El Salvador and Agents of the Interpol initiate an operation to stop them one month after the judge of the National Hearing Eloy Velasco reiterated on January 5,
That year the validity of a red alert at INTERPOL for the capture of these soldiers accused of terrorist murder and humanity.
The murder of the six Jesuits and the two women took place when a group of Salvadoran army soldiers entered the Central American University José Simón Cañas (UCA).
In January 1992, a jury condemned in El Salvador to Colonel and former director of the Guillermo Military School Alfredo Benavides and Lieutenant Yussi Mendoza 30 years in prison.
However, in April 1993 they were released, after the law of Amnesty General, to protect those involved in crimes during the civil war that ravaged the Central American country between 1980 and 1992. However, in July 2016 the
Supreme Court of Justice declared the Amnesty Law unconstitutional, which led Benavides again, who still remains held.
The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, referred last night to the new resolution of the criminal court of the Supreme Court of Justice and stressed that “from now on, no crime” will not be tolerated as
Be the charge of the person who comet it.
Likewise, he remarked that the resolution of the Constitutional Room sends a message that “not only is going to look for the criminal below, which is also going to pursue and we are not saying that it is worth stealing chickens, but to greater crime already
Major the charge, greater the penalty and the repercussion that you must pay for having committed it. ”
For Bukele, a “great message, both national, is being sent, internationally that El Salvador will fight to achieve justice in this and other cases, but it is important to highlight this because it is a case that was 30 years in impunity with the
Protection of the former room of the constitutional and ex -Gistrates of the same and other rooms. ”
Therefore, he hopes that the judges “are up to the height to get justice, because it is important since the message is sent that is no longer only going to pursue the delinquent below, but also to the top, if really
We want to fight against impunity, we must show it from top to bottom, as well as the stairs be swept, “he concluded.
Among the people who stated the Attorney General is the former president of El Salvador Alfredo Cristiani (1989-1994) against whom the Human Rights Association of Spain (APDHE) and the Center for Justice and Accountability (CJA) presented the 13th
November 2008 A complaint at the national audience for crimes of crimes against humanity, terrorism of state, murder and torture.
In this complaint, the former Minister of Defense Humberto Larios and several soldiers was also included.
For this reason, the prosecutor said in his day that in the event of the door to start the case again, all those involved in this case will be processed, including former Christiani president. “After knowing the resolution in which it is declared with
Place his amparo, Rodolfo Delgado stressed that the case will be reopened, so “we are going to persecute those responsible to achieve justice before these vile murders.”
