The search for the El Mozote files

Despite a pandemic, the search for justice continues for the children, elderly, women and others massacred at El Mozote and surrounding communities.  

Responding to the petition of lawyers for the victims, Judge Jorge Alberto Guzmán, who is presiding over the El Mozote trial, swore in expert archivists last week.   The experts are tasked with making inspections of military records and archives in four different locations across the country.   The judge's order reflects his skepticism in the prior statement of the Salvadoran military that there simply are no historical records to be had.

Despite prior assurances from president Nayib Bukele that there would be a full accounting of any archives, to date no records have been produced from his government.

Also today came the news that another of the elderly defendants has died.  General Rafael Flores Lima was a member of the high Salvadoran military command at the time of the 1981 El Mozote massacre.  Only 13 of the 28 military leaders mentioned in the court proceedings are still alive more than 38 years after the event.