Release: Suit Against Salvadoran ex-president Cristiani for Jesuit massacre, on eve of SOA protest
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 prepareto protest the military school in Georgia where perpetrators of crimewere trained by US officials
As people in the United States prepare a to protest on the19th anniversary of one of the most horrific massacres of the Salvadoran CivilWar, two human rights organizations have filed a criminal complaint with theSpanish High Court against former president of El Salvador Alfredo Cristianiand 14 former members of El Salvador�s armed forces for carrying out andcovering up the atrocity. The massacre took place on November 16 of 1989 whenthe US-trainedand equipped Atlacatl Battalion murdered six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper,and her daughter.� Members of thebattalion were trained at the notorious �School of the Americas� (SOA/ WHINSEC) in Ft. Benning, Georgia, where an annual protestwill take place this weekend.
Rosa Lozano, a Salvadoran-American who is attending theprotest, said, �It�s about time that Cristiani be singled out for his role inthe massacre of the Jesuits.� Theimpunity of government officials and military leaders who ordered theassassinations 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.