Rights court investigates 1981 Salvador massacre
Source: El País
Rights court investigates 1981 Salvador massacre
The Inter-American Court began hearing testimony on the "Battalion Atlacatl" atrocities government denies ever took place
El País Madrid 27 ABR 2012 - 16:26 CET
The Inter-American Court began hearing testimony on Tuesday on a massacre of close to 1,000 El Salvador residents in the Morazán department in 1981.
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Witnesses say that the victims were murdered by members of the "Battalion Atlacatl" and other units of the Salvadoran army. The alleged incidents took place between December 10 and 13, 1981 in more than a half-a-dozen towns and villages in Morazán. For many decades, the Salvadoran government has denied that the massacre ever took place.
One of the witnesses, María del Rosario López Sánchez, a former resident of La Joya and who lost 22 relatives in the atrocities, said that many survivors were too afraid to come forward with information. López Sánchez was forced to flee to the nearby hills, where she lived in hiding for six years.
Salvador Méndez, deputy attorney general, told the court that the 1993 amnesty law, which covered all crimes during the 1980-1992 armed conflict, has helped many former military officials from being charged with crimes from the past. The victims were represented by the Washington-based Center of Justice and Internal Law and Catholic Archdiocese Human Rights office in El Salvador.
Read more: http://elpais.com/elpais/2012/04/27/inenglish/1335535364_845644.html
jenwilson
(47 posts)will end-up indicted for doing this.
burrowowl
(17,644 posts)Would that they be indicted!
Comrade Grumpy
(13,184 posts)I think we gave the Salvadoran military about $5 billion in the 1980s to fend off the communist threat. A lot of Salvadorans died to keep us safe from the red hordes.
CBHagman
(16,987 posts)Of course those who fled the region remember, and are a living reminder of the era, but I've caught too many politicians trying to rewrite history.
At least there's an investigation on now, and I hope it will be effective. There seems almost no way to get justice for the victims, but at least if the truth is acknowledged, that is a beginning.
burrowowl
(17,644 posts)and there is also the over 200,000 Indians killed in Guatemala, etc.
nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)newspeak
(4,847 posts)of course, I wouldn't ask good old boy ollie north, you know, the one that some of the repugs thinks is such a damn hero. What's so heroic about influencing death squads, shredding evidence and going against the will of the people (congress). Nothing but a damn "stepping on bodies to get ahead, sociopath, in my opinion.