Update: Twenty Salvadoran Soldiers Indicted for 1989 Massacre
Also included in this update:
- Leaked Cables Prove U.S. Intervention in Salvadoran Elections
- After Court-Ordered Dissolution, Right-Wing Parties Struggle for Survival
- Labor Unions Fight Decertification Order
- Top Latin America State Department Official Announces Resignation
OnMonday, May 30, Spanish judge Eloy Velasco indicted and issued international arrest orders for 20 members of the Salvadoran Armed Forces for the 1989 massacre of 6 Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter on the campus of the Central American University (UCA) by the U.S.-trained and equipped Atlacatl Batallion. The case was originally filed before the Spanish High Court in November of 2008 against 14 army officers and ex-President Alfredo Cristiani. Judge Velasco did not proceed with the charges against Cristiani, current president of the right-wing Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) party, as his charge of covering up a crime against humanity do not fallunder the principal of universal jurisdiction as the other officers' crimes do. For more history of this case, see past CISPES updates: 11/18/08, 2/6/09, 5/20/09.