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El Salvador judges the military of one of the greatest killings of its civil war
Nayib Bukele faces the historical memory of El Salvador
In a hurry and behind closed doors, the right-wing parties with representation in the Legislative Assembly of El Salvador approved on Wednesday night in an extraordinary session a reconciliation law that is seen by the victims of the civil war that bled this country as a Door open to impunity. The legislation reduces penalties for those who confess crimes during the conflict and ask for forgiveness by up to 75%, while allowing judges to commute sentences when health or age problems are alleged. International organizations have rejected the new law, which, they say, is an important setback in the path of this Central American country to achieve justice for the victims of a bleeding that left more than 70,000 dead according to human rights organizations.
The civil war extended from 1980 to 1992 and left some of the most terrible chapters of abuse in the Americas. Among them, the El Mozote massacre of 1981 stands out, when soldiers from the Atlácatl Battalion of the Salvadoran Army killed at least 986 people in an operation that aimed to destroy the leftist guerrillas that were fighting the military dictatorship. Since the peace agreements signed in the early 1990s, the victims of the conflict have demanded a response from the Salvadoran government. “What has happened is very serious for the whole society and causes us a lot of pain,” says Amanda Castro, whose parents were disappeared during the conflict.
Castro is part of the Vidas Collective, made up of survivors and relatives of war victims, and does not hide his anger at the decision of the Salvadoran deputies. His parents were young university students who became involved in organizations of the then guerrilla of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN). The father, Jorge Enrique Jiménez was disappeared in August 1981 along with nine other companions, in Honduras, by members of the Army of that country. The mother, Lisbeth Castro, was captured at a bus station while on her way to the National University. Later men of civilians and heavily armed took her, with signs of torture, to the family home, where they conducted a search. Then Lisbeth was disappeared. Amanda was 14 months old. "Since then we are looking for justice and it has not been possible to find it," he says.
On Wednesday night the FMLN, now a political opposition party, refrained from voting for legislation, which was passed without consultation. "But neither did he show a clear position in favor of the victims," says Castro. “His position is puerile. The deputies of the FMLN are also accomplices. ”
Among the parties that voted the law is the Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA), founded in 1981 by Roberto d'Aubuisson, a military officer in charge of the so-called Death Squads that sowed terror during the war. The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) had warned on February 25 that the legislation could mean a “restriction of the right to justice” and a “de facto prescription for crimes that, by their nature and definition, they are imprescriptible ”. For the agency, the commutation of sentences "promotes impunity."
President Nayib Bukele, who faced Parliament two weeks ago for his refusal to vote for an international loan to finance his strategy against violence, announced that he will veto the law. The victims, however, do not trust the controversial president. “If the president vetoes the law is important, but a president who has a whole authoritarian and militaristic practice. Nor is it a guarantee of anything. We will continue to fight for true justice, ”says Castro. His hope, he affirms, is that the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme "pronounces strongly on this law which is a pact of impunity."