CISPES Press Release - November 21, 2008

Spanish Human Rights Organization Files Suit Against Salvadoran ex-presidentCristiani and 14 others for involvement in Jesuit massacre of 1989

Case comes as thousands prepare to protest the military school in Georgia where perpetrators of crime were trained by US officials

As people in the United States prepare a to protest on the 19th anniversary of one of the most horrific massacres of the Salvadoran Civil War, two human rights organizations have filed a criminal complaint with the Spanish High Court against former president of El Salvador Alfredo Cristiani and 14 former members of El Salvador's armed forces for carrying out and covering up the atrocity. The massacre took place on November 16 of 1989 when the US-trained and equipped Atlacatl Battalion murdered six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper,and her daughter. Members of the battalion were trained at the notorious School of the Americas (SOA/ WHINSEC) in Ft. Benning, Georgia, where an annual protest will take place this weekend.

Rosa Lozano, a Salvadoran-American who is attending the protest, said, "It's about time that Cristiani be singled out for his role in the massacre of the Jesuits. The impunity of government officials and military leaders who ordered the assassinations is one of the great injustices following our civil war." An Amnesty Law passed in 1993 has allowed forimpunity in the case of the Jesuit massacre and countless other murders.