Bukele delivers information on the El Mozote massacre to justice

Credit: MARVIN RECINOS / AFP via Getty Images

(CNN Spanish) -

The San Francisco Gotera Investigation Court, in the department of Morazán, confirmed to CNN that the presidency of El Salvador delivered the information it collected from the military headquarters on the massacre in El Mozote and nearby places, which occurred in December 1981.

The documentation was delivered in five boxes accompanied by a document signed by Conan Castro, legal secretary of the presidency on behalf of Nayib Bukele, president of El Salvador and general commander of the Armed Forces, as recorded in the receipt issued by the court and the that CNN had access to.

The court had given Bukele five business days to deliver the documentation that he promised to declassify on September 24 during a national broadcast.

• MIRA: El Salvador judge gives President Bukele five days to deliver files on the El Mozote massacre

In the brief presented to the court, the presidency clarifies to Judge Jorge Guzmán that it did not remove information from the military archives, but rather that it was photocopies that the agencies sent to the presidency.

Guzmán had warned the government that a precautionary measure is in force that prohibits the removal of documentation related to the El Mozote massacre, since it is an ongoing investigation.

The court explained to CNN on Wednesday that it is conducting an analysis to learn the content of the information sent by the presidency.

"The information found in the boxes is irrelevant information," said Wilfredo Medrano, private prosecutor in the case and lawyer for the human rights association Tutela Legal María Julia Hernández.

Bukele himself had advanced it on October 15, when he detracted from the documents found.

"There is no paper worthwhile, there are documents from El Mozote, but they are not worth it," said the president on a national radio and television channel.

The court scheduled several inspections at military headquarters to search for possible evidence to aid the investigation, but the Ministry of Defense prevented this procedure on five occasions, the most recent, according to the court, this Tuesday in the Third Infantry Brigade, in the department of San Miguel.

• MORE: IACHR Condemns El Salvador's Defense Ministry's Refusal to Collaborate in the El Mozote Massacre Investigation

A soldier who attended the judge and his team explained that no proceedings were scheduled and therefore could not allow him to enter, an argument similar to that expressed in the other military headquarters.

“The president (Nayib Bukele) is fulfilling what he promised, because we have not denied information.

Every time information is required from us in this case, we order the corresponding authorities to search for all the information related to it and we deliver it to them under a certification_, explained René Merino Monroy, Minister of National Defense, on September 23 during a interview with radio 102.nueve.

Bukele has said that the judge has no jurisdiction over the armed force.

His government relies on article 168, seventh ordinal of the constitution, which lists the powers and obligations of the president, to prevent the inspection ordered by the court from taking place.

An estimated 1,000 people died in the El Mozote massacre, most of them children, according to the Truth Commission report, prepared with the support of the United Nations in 1993.

For this case there is a group of accused military men.

In January a retired general disassociated himself from the massacre.

Other soldiers have preferred not to give their statement, but their defense has said that they will prove that they were not responsible for the events.

Nayib bukele