El Salvador Perspectives

When I began writing this blog ten years ago, one of the first stories which I covered regularly was the November 2004 murder of Gilberto Soto .   Soto was a Salvadoran born Teamster from New Jersey. While in El Salvador in 2004, he was gunned down outside his mother's home. The police called it a domestic dispute, arresting gang members allegedly hired by Soto's mother-in-law.  She was ultimately exonerated.  Others were sure that it was related to his union organizing efforts among truckers in El Salvador's ports. Other theories tied the killing to connections to drug-trafficking and a criminal cartel known as the Perrones. Mauricio Funes ordered the Soto case be reopened in 2009,  but there has been no sign of forward movement on the case in the years since then.   This week the Teamsters issued a   press release  stating the union had sent a letter to El Salvador's Attorney General, inviting him to Washington to discuss the case: [T]...

According to EFE , a court in El Salvador has acquitted the mother-in-law of U.S. trade unionist Gilberto Soto, from charges she was the intellectual author of his 2004 murder. The court decided to acquit Rosa Zelaya de Ortiz, mother-in-law of Soto because there insufficient evidence and because of contradictions in the testimony of one witness who allegedly had knowledge of planning the crime. Soto was a Salvadoran born Teamster from New Jersey. While in El Salvador in 2004, he was gunned down outside his mother's home. The police called it a domestic dispute, arresting gang members allegedly hired by Soto's mother-in-law. Others were sure that it was related to his union organizing efforts among truckers in El Salvador's ports. But recently, the focus has been on connections to drug-trafficking and a criminal cartel known as the Perrones. Mauricio Funes ordered the Soto case be reopened earlier this year,

The legal case over the murder of Salvadoran-American Teamster organizer Gilberto Soto is being reopened . From Mike Hitchens' blog : Recently elected Salvadoran President Mauricio Funes ordered the reopening of the case following requests from labor and government officials to follow through on his promise to strengthen the judicial system and crack down on crime in El Salvador by bringing Soto's murderers to justice. "President Funes has taken an important first step in strengthening human rights in El Salvador," [Teamster President James] Hoffa said. "The violence against trade unionists in El Salvador and across Central and South America has been allowed to go unchecked for far too long. Gilberto Soto's murderers must not be allowed to remain free if the Salvadoran government seeks to make significant strides in strengthening democratic institutions."... In an interview with a Salvadoran newspaper, former Salvadoran Human Rights Ombudswoman Beatri...

This story is not new in El Salvador, but I can't find any record that any English language blog or news source has covered it. On June 8, 2009, Congressman James McGovern of Massachusetts wrote a letter to newly inaugurated Salvadoran president Mauricio Funes. After extending his congratulations to Funes on ascending to the presidency, McGovern turns to the question of weaknesses in the investigation of high profile criminal activity in the country. In particular, the Congressman asks Funes to turn his attention to three cases. Congressman McGovern requests that Funes "seriously consider": 1. A more vigorous investigation of the murder of Katya Miranda that includes an investigation of Mr. Godofredo Miranda's alleged cover-up of this heinous crime; 2. A re-examination of the alleged suppression by Mr. Godofredo Miranda of evidence against the Perrones Gang brought by the Costa Rican government in an effort to curtail drug trafficking through Central America; ...

I had the pleasure of meeting with Ernesto Rivas Gallont when I was in San Salvador last week. He was El Salvador's ambassador to the US during the 1980's, and now is a newspaper columnist, blogger, and wise observer of current events in the country. I'll be touching on some of the topics we discussed in upcoming posts. In Don Ernesto's regular Sunday column in La Prensa Grafica this Sunday, he brought up the still unresolved (except in the view of the PNC) case of Gilberto Soto . Soto was a Teamsters union organizer from the US who was killed while visiting his mother in El Salvador. The column includes the text of a letter to president Tony Saca from US Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont, pushing for a reopened investigation into the Soto murder: According to information I have received, a recent motion in the National Assembly which called for a new investigation of the Soto case was opposed, and defeated, by your government. This concerns me, and I urge you ...

Two years after the November 2004 murder of US labor activist Gilberto Soto in El Salvador, questions remain about the murder and the subsequent police investigation. This week the Teamsters union in the US issued a press release urging US Secretary of Condoleeza Rice to pressure the Salvadoran government to reopen the investigation. The Salvadoran government has always contended that the murder was a family squabble, and not related to Soto's union activities, even though its prime suspect, Soto's mother-in-law, was acquitted at a trial in February 2006. In response to a complaint by union organizations in El Salvador, on November 15 the International Labor Organization issued a report expressing concerns over the conduct of the investigation, and urging that the family and El Salvador's Human Rights Ombudswoman, Beatrice de Carillo, be given access to the investigation files. You can see my previous posts on the Gilberto Soto murder mystery here .

Following Saturday's verdict which convicted only one person of the Gilberto Soto murder, El Salvador's human rights ombudswoman, Beatrice de Carrillo was highly critical of the presiding judge. Diario CoLatino reported that the PDDH issued a public censure against the judge for blocking access to the investigative material in the case and not pursuing the theory that Soto was murdered for his union activities. The public censure is the highest form of sanction the office of the PDDH can issue and has only been issued twice before by Carrillo. In the US, officials of the Teamsters union were highly critical of the investigation and prosecution. As quoted on North Jersey.com : The Teamsters Union called for a new investigation Monday into the 2004 murder of a Cliffside Park labor leader in El Salvador after a jury there acquitted two of three people charged in his death. The verdict, reached Saturday, bolsters claims that Teamster Gilberto Soto was killed not in a domestic...

Only one defendant has been convicted for the murder of US Teamster Gilberto Soto. The verdict is reported in La Prensa Grafica . The court did not convict the other two defendants, including Soto's mother-in-law who had been accused of ordering the killing. Gilberto Soto was gunned down outside his mother's home in Usulutan, El Salvador. Soto was a US citizen and a Teamster. Soto had gone to his native El Salvador to investigate the working conditions of truck drivers at the ports. He was shot in the back as he talked on a cellphone outside his boyhood home. Salvadoran authorities eventually arrested some gang members and Soto's mother-in-law, the supposed "intellectual author" of the crime, and called the murder a family dispute. This theory has never satisfied Soto's family or the Teamsters, and many questions have remained. The La Prensa Grafica story does not have a description of the testimony in the trial or an explanation of what role the convict...

One year ago today, Gilberto Soto was gunned down outside his mother's home in Usulutan, El Salvador. Soto was a US citizen and a Teamster. Soto had gone to his native El Salvador to investigate the working conditions of truck drivers at the ports. He was shot in the back as he talked on a cellphone outside his boyhood home. Salvadoran authorities eventually arrested some gang members and Soto's mother-in-law, the supposed "intellectual author" of the crime, and called the murder a family dispute. Yet many doubts have been raised about this theory and about the refusal of Salvadoran authorities to consider a political motive for the crime. This story on North Jersey.com summarized what was known and what were open questions in May 2005. Nothing new has come to light in the past six months. With the one year anniversary of the murder approaching, the Teamsters issued a press release highlighting questions raised by the Human Rights Institute at the University of...

This is the fourth in a series of posts on Tim's El Salvador Blog regarding the work of Dr. Beatrice Alamanni de Carrillo, the Human Rights Ombudsman (PDDH) in El Salvador. In the past 7 months, two high profile slayings took place which worry labor and social activists in El Salvador. In November, Salvadoran-born Teamster Gilberto Soto was murdered, and in February, the watchman of the Salvadoran Lutheran University (ULS) was murdered and left hanging in a tree. In each of these cases, the police arrested suspects, proclaimed the incidents to be "common crime" and declared the cases closed. In each of these cases, colleagues and relatives of the victims do not believe the crimes have been solved and fear that political motives are behind the crimes. The office of the PDDH has reviewed the investigations of both cases and issued reports highly critical of the police investigation. In the Soto case, the PNC declared that the murder had been masterminded by Soto's mothe...

There was some new reporting on North Jersey.com regarding the Gilberto Soto murder case. The Teamster labor organizer lived in New Jersey before the trip to El Salvador where he was murdered. The story writes about the unanswered questions in the minds of Soto's family and gives some new information: The FBI is currently working with Salvadoran authorities on the case. Soto's marriage (his third) was on the rocks well before his trip to El Salvador. Soto's widow, whose mother is accused of master-minding the killing, abruptly moved to Georgia from New Jersey in January without any word of good-bye to Soto's family. Before his trip to El Salvador to organize container truck drivers, Soto had left a letter with his sister with a list of people to call "should something happen to him."

The murder of Gilberto Soto resurfaced in headlines this week. The Chicago Tribune ran a short story which did little more than repeat the fact that union leaders and Soto's family continue to doubt the government assertion that Soto's mother-in-law hired gang members to kill the Salvadoran-born Teamster. "I regret to say that we have more questions than answers," said Roberto Burgos, an attorney with the Institute of Human Rights at El Salvador's Jesuit-run Central American University. "You have to remember the persecution of union leaders in this country during the war." Burgos' institute was contracted by Soto's employer, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, to look into the case. Meanwhile, the presiding officer in the criminal proceedings against the suspects arrested by the police has delayed the proceedings. The judge wants to have a larger courtroom assigned for upcoming hearings which will review the testimony of witnesses.

There don't seem to be any developments on the Gilberto Soto murder case . Soto, a U.S. citizen born in El Salvador was a labor organizer for the Teamsters in New Jersey. Mr. Soto was killed outside his family'’s home in Usulutan, El Salvador on Friday, November 5, 2004. Law enforcement authorities in El Salvador continue to insist the murder was a "common" crime orchestrated by Soto's mother-in-law. Soto's family and Teamsters colleagues don't believe it. Telemundo broadcast a story in February about the case featuring interviews with several witnesses and Soto's mother-in-law. A transcript in English is available here . The web site of the US Embassy in El Salvador continues to list a hotline for information about the case and a $75,000 reward.

The rhetoric of the left-wing in El Salvador in recent months continues to echo a refrain that violence is being perpetrated against activists in popular social movements as part of an ultra-right-wing campaign. Unexplained murders raise the spectre of the return of "escuadrones de la muerte," the Death Squads of the 1970s and 1980s. Such rhetoric is useful for rallying the faithful, but does it reflect a reality in El Salvador? Here are some of the events to which persons on the Left point in support of their fears: Salvadoran-born American citizen and labor activist, Gilberto Soto, is murdered while visiting El Salvador to discuss unionizing container truck drivers in the country. More here . The Procurator for the Defense of Human Rights receives death threats after reporting irregularities in the investigation of the Gilberto Soto murder. More here . The security guard of the Salvadoran Lutheran University is murdered, after being tortured, bound, and hung from ...

The Gilberto Soto murder case continue to be a rallying point for labor and other activists in El Salvador. I have not seen any new comments from the Salvadoran authorities, but El Salvador's Procurator for Human Rights, reports that she is receiving death threats since she issued a report criticizing the police investigation of the murder. There is a fairly new article at American Prospect Online which does not shed any new light on the crime, but does provide some background about Soto's emigration from El Salvador and how he became an organizer for truck drivers in the container shipping industry. You can find many articles in my archives about how this story has developed since the murder last November.

The Bishop of the Lutheran Church in El Salvador, Medardo Gomez , stated yesterday that the murder of the night watchman of the Salvadoran Lutheran University on January 30 could have political motives. The Bishop's statements at his Monday morning press conference were reported in the left-leaning Diario Co Latino . According to the Bishop, the murder was in a style reminiscent of the death squads which had operated in El Salvador in the past. He stated that the murder could have been directed at the Lutheran church and its university because of its criticism of the structures of Salvadoran society and its engagement on behalf of the most unprotected members of the society. Bishop Gomez certainly has a basis from which to speak about signs of the death squads. In 1984, during the Salvadoran civil war, he was kidnapped by a right wing death squad and tortured before international pressure resulted in his release. His fellow Lutheran pastor, David Fernandez was kidnapped a...

When I began posting articles on this blog, I did not imagine that many articles would be devoted to a murder mystery. But the case of the murder of Gilberto Soto continues to raise questions. Since the arrest of Soto's mother-in-law and the alleged contract killers, I have been wondering what information might exist about the supposed family dispute behind the murder. This article by Traci Carl of the Associated Press provides some additional details. Apparently Soto and his wife did have a rocky relationship and were planning to separate. The family, however, does not believe that these problems would lead to a contract killing. There may also be a connection to the November break-in to the offices of El Salvador's Center for Labor Studies and Support, an organization which monitors workers' rights in El Salvador. Soto had contacts at the center. The web site for the US Embassy in El Salvador continues to offer a hotline for information about the killin...

Many questions were left unanswered by the arrest of gang members and Gilbert Soto's mother-in-law as "intellectual author" of the slaying of the union activist. The Human Rights Procurator of El Salvador questioned the arrests and the interrogation in the days immediately after the arrest. Family members of Soto have expressed doubt about the arrests and the theory of the crime. Today the Teamsters published a demand that an independent investigation of the crime be conducted. Stay tuned.

The mother-in-law of slain Teamster Gilberto Soto has been arrested and charged with his murder according to today's press reports . The arrest came along with the arrest of three other suspects allged to have committed the crime, including two gang members. Salvadoran authorities have stated that the killing was not related to Soto's union activities but instead arose out of a family dispute. Soto's mother-in-law is alleged to have contracted for the killing. Because of the hostile environment to unions in El Salvador, many (including myself) had suggested Soto had been killed for efforts to unionize container truck drivers in El Salvador.

Press reports in the Washington Post and elsewhere report on the government's announcement that it has arrested four suspects in the murder of Gilberto Soto. At least one suspect is purported to have ties to the Mara 18 gang. The motives around the murder are still unknown.