Former El Salvadorian President Accused of Crimes Against Humanity in Spanish Court

By Sarah Benczik
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

MADRID, Spain - The Asociacion Pro Derechos Humanos de Espana and the Center for Justice and Accountability today filed suit in Spain’s National Court against former El Salvadorian president Alfredo Cristiani Burkard and 14 other former officials.  The human rights groups have accused the former leaders of crimes against humanity which took place during the civil war in 1989.

Specifically, the groups have accused Cristiani of covering up the murder of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper, and the housekeeper’s 16-year-old daughter and obstructing the subsequent investigation.  According to a report by the UN-sponsored Truth Commission in El Slavador from the mid-1990s, General René Emilio Ponce ordered the killing of Ignacio Ellacuría who was one of the six murdered priests and who had promoted peace talks and a negotiated resolution between the right-wing military government and Marxist guerrillas.  The report also stated that Ponce ordered soldiers to leave no witnesses to Ellacuría’s murder. 

The killings were covered widely by the international press at the time in gruesome detail: In the early hours of Nov. 16, 1989, members of the Salvadoran Army forced their way into the priests' residence on the campus of the Central American University in San Salvador. They ordered five of the priests to lie face-down in the garden and shot them, then searched the house, killing another priest, the housekeeper and her 16 year-old daughter.  The story fed criticism of US anti-Communism efforts after it was reported that some of the soldiers involved in the raid had been trained at the former School of the Americas at Fort Benning in Georgia.

In 1991, two of the nine army members were convicted for the murders, but they were released two years later when Cristiani instituted a blanket amnesty law.  Current Salvadoran President Antonio said that while he had not studied the case, he believed that "reopening wounds of the past is not the best formula for reconciliation." 

“We hope this case helps to reawaken the memory and the conscience of El Salvador's people," said Almudena Bernabeu, a lawyer for Center for Justice and Accountability.  David Morales, a lawyer with the Foundation for Studies on the Application of Rights, said the new lawsuit filed in Spain will “highlight[] the state of impunity that prevails in El Salvador, where thousands of atrocious and appalling crimes committed during the (1980-1992) armed conflict cannot be investigated" because "the state continues to protect the criminals."

The human rights groups filed the case in the National Court under its principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows prosecution of crimes against humanity committed anywhere in the world.  The court is famous for recent cases brought before it including one against Osama bin Laden for September 11, and Baltasar Garzon’s case against Pinochet.

For more information, please see:

AP - El Salvador massacre case filed in Spanish court - 13 November 2008

Inter Press Service, Italy - RIGHTS-EL SALVADOR: Ex-President Cristiani Faces Charges in Spain - 13 November 2008

International Herald Tribune - Rights lawyers file Spanish court case on El Salvador killings - 13 November 2008