El Salvador Perspectives

Sunday, November 16, marked the 36th anniversary of the Jesuit massacre at the University of Central America José Simeón Cañas  in El Salvador (the "UCA").   On that date in 1989 during El Salvador's bloody civil war, soldiers from an elite Salvadoran army battalion assassinated six Jesuit priests and a female co-worker and her daughter on the campus of the UCA.  It was a murderous attack on voices which had consistently denounced human rights abuses and and sought peace and justice for the oppressed millions of El Salvador.  This year's anniversary comes in the midst of the 4th year of the State of Exception in El Salvador in which tens of thousands have been imprisoned for years in hellish prisons without trial and without guarantees of due process.  Allegations of torture, which echo back to the bloody decades of the 70s and 80s, are being made again by victims and their families. The military roams anew the streets of the country.   Although ...

November 16th is the 35th anniversary of the 1989 massacre by Salvadoran troops of six Jesuit priests and a female coworker and her daughter at the University of Central America. 35 years after the crime, a criminal prosecution is slowly moving forward in a Salvadoran courtroom. The case charges senior military leaders involved in the order to kill the Jesuits along with the former president Alfredo Cristiani, and Rodolfo Parker, a military lawyer who went on to be a prominent political figure. Both men fled the country in June 2021 when Nayib Bukele and his Nuevas Ideas party deposed the attorney general and magistrates of the constitutional chamber of the Supreme Judicial Court and inserted Bukele allies in those roles.  Although various arrest warrants have been issued, Cristiani and Parker have never appeared in the case and have not returned to the country. They are being tried in absentia along with the various members of the military high command. Despite the notoriety of t...

Here are a collection of bits and pieces from the news in El Salvador during the past month when we were on break.  1.  Cargo ferry service begins. Commercial cargo ferry service arrived between Costa Rica and El Salvador on Thursday, August 10.  The Blue Wave Harmony ferry is able to carry 100 tractor trailer trucks for the 430 mile voyage through the Pacific from one country to the other in less than 24 hours.  There will be two trips per week.   The first trip was not without problems, needing almost 28 hours to complete the journey and being unable to unload trucks on arrival in Costa Rica when it was low tide. The business case for the ferry rests in being able to ship good between the two countries while bypassing border crossings with Honduras and Nicaragua.  Commerce with Nicaragua under the dictatorial Ortega government has become increasingly subject to uncertainty. 2.   A crypto safe haven. El Salvador is becoming a haven for cry...

UCA 33rd anniversary poster November 16, 2022 is the 33rd anniversary of the 1989 massacre of 6 Jesuit priests and one of their co-workers and her daughter at the University of Central America (UCA) in San Salvador.   I have been writing about this case and the search for justice for the past 18 years and you can review those articles on El Salvador Perspectives using the Jesuit murders tag .   The anniversary has been commemorated at the UCA with a traditional candlelight vigil, symposia, and cultural events. This week a judge granted early release to ex-colonel Guillermo Alfredo Benavides, one of only two military figures convicted in the flawed 1992 trial in the Jesuit murders case.   Benavides was released in 1993 when an amnesty law was passed, and then re-arrested in 2016 when that amnesty was ruled unconstitutional.   Having now served a third of his 30 year sentence, and being 77 years old, he qualified for early release.  ...

Today began the initial hearing in criminal proceedings against more than a dozen defendants in the case of the 1989 massacre of six Jesuit priests, their co-worker and her daughter.  It represents the furthest step forward in the prosecution of this "crime against humanity" in a criminal court in El Salvador. The basic outlines of the case are well known to readers of this blog.   In November 1989, during the "final offensive" of the FMLN which brought fierce fighting into San Salvador, the military high command gave the order that Jesuit priest and rector of the University of Central America Ignacio Ellacuria and his fellow Jesuits should be assassinated and no witnesses left to the event. The operation would be carried out by the Atlacatl Battalion of the Salvadoran army on November 16, 1989.    An assistant prosecutor told the media today that: Defendants are accused "for the murder of the Jesuit priests," procedural fraud, cover-up, acts of terroris...

What does justice  look like?   The 1989 massacre of six Jesuit priests at the University of Central America (UCA) in El Salvador along with a female co-worker and her teenage daughter still raises questions in El Salvador about how justice for such a horrific crime is achieved. From the time of that crime until today, the UCA has insisted that justice for this massacre by troops of the Salvadoran military must be achieved within the Salvadoran judicial system following legal norms of due process and judicial independence.  And in the 32 years since, that has yet to be achieved. It was not achieved in the 1991 proceeding which only convicted two soldiers.  It was not achieved when the Legislative Assembly passed a broad Amnesty Law in 1993 which remained in effect until 2016.  It was not achieved when El Salvador's Supreme Judicial Court blocked extradition of defendants to a court in Spain which was willing to render justice in the case.  It was not a...

Today, November 16, 2021, is the 32nd anniversary of the 1989 murder by Salvadoran troops of six Jesuit priests, a female co-worker and her daughter at the José Simeón Cañas University of Central America (UCA) during El Salvador's civil war.  This past year has passed without any developments for the ever more remote possibility that the intellectual authors of the massacre will face justice in a court in El Salvador.  As noted for last year's anniversary , the criminal chamber of El Salvador's Supreme Judicial Court issued a ruling dismissing all charges against the senior military command alleged to have participated in the orders and cover-up of this crime. Nothing has happened to change that result, although the Jesuits at the UCA have charged two of the magistrates involved with malfeasance .   Update:  This morning, November 16, El Salvador's current Attorney General filed a legal pleading with the Constitutional Chamber to set aside the ruling of the c...

  Today, November 16, 2020, marks the 31st anniversary of the massacre by Salvadoran troops of six Jesuit priests, a female co-worker and her daughter during El Salvador's civil war.   With the global pandemic still being felt in El Salvador, the annual commemoration was necessarily different.   The University of Central America ("UCA") has been required to conduct all classes online since March, along with all other education institutions in the country, and its campus is closed.   Instead, the anniversary was marked with an online vigil on Facebook and YouTube which you can watch here . The past year has been full of developments, positive and negative, for the search for justice for the atrocity.  That search is now in its fourth decade. The positive development was the judgment of guilt and the sentence to 133 years in prison for former Salvadoran colonel Inocente Orlando Montano rendered by a court in Spain.  The court took jurisdiction...

The court in Spain which heard the case of the 1989 Jesuit massacre, issued its ruling today, more than 30 years after Salvadoran troops killed six Jesuit priests, their co-worker and her daughter.  The court has been trying ex-Salvadoran vice minister of security Inocente Orlando Montano for his involvement as part of the military high command in giving the orders and subsequently covering up the massacre.   The judges of the court unanimously found Montano guilty of being one of the persons who directed the massacre.   He was sentenced to 26 years in prison for each of the 5 Jesuit priests who were Spaniards. As Almudena Bernabéu, the Spanish human rights lawyer who  helped build the case against Montano and get him extradited from the US , was  quoted in The Guardian  saying: “It’s not just a crime that happened 30 years ago, it’s about what impunity really means.”     Montano during trial Montano was the only defendant in Spain...

The Jesuit massacre trial proceeded this week in Spain with three more days of testimony.  The witnesses included former Lieutenant Yusshy Mendoza, who was one of the Salvadoran soldiers at the University of Central America on the night of the assassinations, and Lucia Barrera and her husband Jorge who, unbeknownst to the assassins, heard the gunshots, shouts of the priests, and saw the Salvadoran soldiers as they departed.  El Faro put together a video with the highlights of some of the testimony:     Video of all the witness testimony is accessible here . Very good English language summaries of the testimony are being put together by the Guernica Center.  From the summary of Mendoza's testimony:  Lieutenant Mendoza continued his account of the events of the evening of 15 November 1989. Following the orders he had received from the High Command, Colonel Benavides ordered his second in command, Major Camilo Hernández Barahona, to organize the operation....

Ex-colonel Inocente Montano on Day 1 of trial This week an historic human rights trial began in Spain.  A court in Madrid has begun trying the ex-Salvadoran vice minister of security Inocente Orlando Montano for the 1989 massacre of six Jesuit priests, their co-worker and her daughter in El Salvador.   Montano is the only defendant in Spain because the Supreme Judicial Court of El Salvador has continuously protected the remaining military officers involved from being extradited to Spain.  Although there is only a single defendant, this trial offers another chance for El Salvador and the world to hear and reflect on the events of November 1989 and to consider what justice requires more than thirty years later. The best place to follow this trial is the website of the Guernica Center which is posting daily trial reports in English and Spanish.  Montano testified on his own behalf during the second day of the trial.  An excerpt from the Guernica trial note d...

News has come from Spain that a trial will finally commence for the 1989 massacre in El Salvador of six Jesuit priests, their co-worker and her daughter at the University of Central America.  The  Guernica Center  issued this statement: The murder of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper, and the housekeeper’s daughter on 16 November 1989 by the Atlacatl Battalion of the Salvadoran Military ultimately led to the end of the civil war in El Salvador and catalyzed the victims’ quest for truth, justice, and accountability. After 30 years of seeking justice and 10 years of active litigation, the Spanish National Court will try former Colonel and Vice-Minister of Public Security, Inocente Orlando Montano, starting on 8 June 2020. Montano is charged with murder and terrorism for his alleged involvement as one of the key decision-makers behind the Jesuit killing. The Guernica Centre for International Justice—part of The Guernica Group—and Spanish co-counsel Ollé & Sesé Abog...

The US State Department today barred from entry into the United States several former Salvadoran military officers for their involvement in the 1989 massacre of six Jesuit priests, their co-worker and her daughter.    The State Department press release reads in part: Today, the Department of State is publicly announcing the designation of 13 individuals under Section 7031(c) of the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act 2019.  This designation is due to their involvement in gross violations of human rights in El Salvador related to the planning and execution of the extrajudicial killings of six Jesuit priests and two others on November 16, 1989 on the campus of Central American University in El Salvador.  The United States condemns all human rights abuses that took place on both sides of the brutal civil war in El Salvador, including those committed by governmental and non-governmental parties....  The Department...

The 1989 massacre of six Jesuits priests and their coworker and her daughter was commemorated this weekend in El Salvador.  Two weeks of events led up to anniversary date of November 16, including lectures on the legacy of the martyrs of the UCA from Father Jose Maria Tojeira,S.J. Father Jon Sobrino,S.J. and Cardinal and Jesuit Micheal Czerny .  There was a forum on the ongoing search for persons who were forcibly "disappeared" during the civil war, and US Congressman James McGovern spoke of the need for ongoing commitments to justice in both El Salvador and the United States.      Jon Sobrino Rep. James McGovern The university unveiled a new mural dedicated to the martyrs, and the traditional candlelight procession wound its way through the streets of the campus where colorful salt carpets ( alfombras ) had been created hours earlier.  New mural with UCA martyrs and St. Oscar Romero Alfombras Candlelight procession ...

Too often when we write about the murders which happened 30 years ago on November 16, 1989, we just refer to the "6 Jesuits, their co-worker and her daughter." As people around the world commemorate them this weekend, let us remember these martyrs of El Salvador's civil war by name: Father Ignacio Ellacuría , 59, was since 1979 rector of the UCA, and an internationally-respected intellectual and advocate for human rights and a negotiated solution to the Salvadoran civil conflict; Father Ignacio Martín-Baro´ , 44, was the vice rector of the UCA, a leading analyst of national and regional affairs, the founder and director of the respected polling organization, the Public Opinion Institute, former Dean of Students, Dean of the Psychology Department, an internationally renowned pioneer in the field of social psychology and pastor of the rural community of Jayaque; Father Segundo Montes , 56, was Dean of the Department of Social Sciences and a sociology professor at t...

Lucia Barrera de Cerna When soldiers from El Salvador's military massacred six Jesuit priests and their co-worker and her daughter, there was an immediate attempt to cover it up and to suggest that the killings could have been done by FMLN guerrillas. But there was a witness, Lucia Barrera de Cerna, whose testimony made it impossible to avoid the truth, despite the best efforts of the Salvadoran government and the FBI. From her testimony described in " The Jesuit Murders: A report on the testimony of a witness ," by the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, 15 December 1989, Lucia and her husband Jorge Cerna lived in Soyapango, a suburb on the opposite side of San Salvador from the location of the UCA.  She had a cleaning job at the university.  Because of the intense fighting in greater San Salvador during the November 1989 FMLN "final offensive", Lucia asked one of the Jesuit priests, Father Ignacio Martín-Baro´, if they could stay with their 4 year old ...

As the 30th anniversary of the 1989 Jesuit massacre approaches, there are two judicial cases pending which seek to impose criminal liability on the military hierarchy which sent troops to kill the priests and teachers at the UCA.  One case has moved steadily forward in a human rights court in Spain, homeland of 5 of the 6 Jesuits. The other case is barely alive in a court in El Salvador. In Spain, the human rights court is proceeding in the prosecution of the one defendant before it, former Colonel Inocente Montano. Montano is the defendant, found in the US, and later extradited to Spain after he finished a sentence for immigration fraud.  Meanwhile the other defendants remain safely in El Salvador, which refuses to extradite them to the proceedings before the Spanish court. The human rights prosecutors announced this year that they are seeking a prison term of 150 years for Montano.  Montano has been in pre-trial detention for the past two years in Spain awaiting...

This Saturday, November 16, is the 30th anniversary of the massacre of six Jesuit priests and one of their female co-workers and her daughter at the University of Central America (UCA) in San Salvador.   For the rest of the week, El Salvador Perspectives will share several posts about the massacre and its commemoration this week. To begin, we have collected some videos on YouTube in English which provide an overview. In this video , ABC News offers early reporting on the massacre. In this video prepared for the 2018 commemoration of the massacre, José María Tojeira, S.J., the current director of the Human Rights Institute at the UCA and a fellow Jesuit working with his martyred brothers in 1989, shares his memories and reflections. In this video , the Center for Justice and Accountability describes the massacre and the efforts of the CJA to pursue justice. In this video , US Congressman Jim McGovern is interviewed about the Jesuit massacre.   As ...

Each November 16, we pause to remember a crime against humanity which remains, like so many others, in impunity and unjudged.  Today is the 29th anniversary of the massacre by Salvadoran troops in cold blood of six Jesuit priests, a female employee and her daughter.  A few steps were taken along the path towards justice since the last anniversary. The Spanish human rights trial is proceeding after ex-Colonel Inocente Montano was extradited from the United States to Spain at the end of 2017.   (Salvadoran courts have refused to extradite any of the other military defendants to Spain).   Montano has been defending his innocence  by asserting that he was outside of the chain of command over the assassinations in 1989. A criminal case in El Salvador has been re-opened to try the intellectual authors of the Jesuit massacre.   Progress in that case has been very slow . On this 29th anniversary, watch this video reflection  on the 1...

Some headlines from El Salvador this week: Judge orders reopening of Jesuit massacre case .    A judge has ruled that a criminal case in an El Salvador court should proceed to determine criminal responsibility for those who ordered the 1989 killing of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter.   The country's attorney general must now file new charges in a case which will involve former president Alfredo Cristiani and the military high command from 1989. "Dollarization" won't be reversed .    The Constitutional Chamber of El Salvador's Supreme Court rejected a petition to overthrow the country's 2001 conversion of its national currency from the colón to the US dollar.  The abandonment of El Salvador's own currency seventeen years ago continues to be unpopular among much of the population. Martinez v. Martinez in FMLN internal elections .  Hugo Martinez, El Salvador's foreign minister, has announced that he will compete agains...