Salvadoran Colonel Convicted and Sentenced for Murder of Priests
https://socialistaction.org/2020/12/07/salvadoran-colonel-convicted-and-sentenced-for-murder-of-priests/
December 7, 2020
By LAZARO MONTEVERDE
In Central America, justice comes slowly, if it comes at all. Colonel
Inocente Orlando Montano (retired) was sentenced to 133 years in prison
in a Madrid court on September 11 for his role in the 1989
assassinations of 8 people in San Salvador. The eight included 6 Jesuit
priests (five of whom were Spanish citizens), their housekeeper and her
15 year-old daughter.
Montano served as Minister of Public Security during the 1979-1992 civil
war in El Salvador. Now 77, Montano was extradited from the U.S. in
2017, where he had been living. The Salvadoran government refused to
extradite the other soldiers responsible for the crimes. At the end of
the Salvadoran Civil War, the Salvadoran government passed an amnesty
law making it difficult to investigate and prosecute human rights cases.
This law was declared unconstitutional by the Salvadoran Supreme Court
in 2016, thus opening the way for the prosecution of war crimes but
Salvadoran courts have been slow to take up war crime cases. Montano,
however, was tried and convicted in Spain under the principle of
universal jurisdiction for human rights crimes. The principle of
universal jurisdiction states that war crimes or crimes against humanity
may be tried by other countries, even when they happen outside of the
borders of that country. Under this principle, Montano was extradited
from the U.S. in 2017. Spain found him guilty of killing all 8 victims,
but he could only be sentenced, under Spanish law, for the killing of
the five who were Spanish citizens. Partial justice came 31 years after
the murders.
Crucial to the conviction was the testimony of Lieutenant Rene Yusshy
Mendoza (retired) who was part of the killing team commanded by Montano.
Mendoza was one of the soldiers who actually shot some of the priests.
Also crucial to the conviction was the use of declassified U.S.
government documents made available to the Spanish government by the
National Security Archives. These documents, written by firsthand
observers from the CIA, Pentagon, and U.S. Embassy, show that the
Salvadoran military was behind the massacre.
The killings of the priests in 1989 was part of a decades-long pattern
in El Salvador. The pattern started in 1979 when a violent civil war
erupted between guerilla groups united in the FMLN (Faribundo Martí
National Liberation Front) and the Salvadoran oligarchy supported by the
military. One of the first killed was Archbishop Oscar Romero, a vocal
critic of injustice. Romero, now a saint in the Catholic Church, was
killed while saying mass on March 24, 1980. That same year, three
Maryknoll nuns and a lay missionary were kidnapped, beaten, raped, and
murdered on December 2. Later investigations showed that Major Roberto
D’Aubuisson ordered and planned the Romero assassination. D’Aubuisson
trained at the School of the Americas, a notorious U.S.-run military
training camp for Latin American death squads and terrorists at Fort
Benning in Georgia now re-named WHINSEC, and founded and led one of El
Salvador’s most notorious death squads. He worked in military
intelligence and later founded the far-right political party ARENA. He
was never charged and never convicted of the crimes and is now dead.
The most horrific example of the pattern is the El Mozote Massacre in
which almost 1,000 innocent Salvador campesinos were killed in December
1981. The nightmarish story of the massacre, who did what to whom, and
the human aftermath, is chronicled brilliantly by Mark Danner in his
1993 exposé The Massacre at El Mozote. In spite of the widespread
knowledge of the case, no one was prosecuted until recently. In a case
that rivals the recent verdict in Madrid, seventeen high ranking
military officers are being tried in El Salvador for the massacre. The
case began after the amnesty law was declared unconstitutional in 2016.
Initiated by survivors and relatives of the victims. The defendants are
still at liberty but must report to the court once a month and cannot
leave El Salvador without permission.
In November 2019, the case took a significant step forward when two
soldiers who participated in the massacre testified from behind a screen
with their voices distorted. They are in a witness protection program in
exchange for their testimony. The two confirmed the victims’ accounts of
beatings, rape, and murder of innocent campesinos, including children,
accounts long known to be true but never before acknowledged by any of
the soldiers involved or by the courts.
In a second important development, General Juan Rafael Bustillo
(retired), former commander of the air force, acknowledged the
responsibility of the Salvadoran military for the massacre. Bustillo
testified that he himself was not responsible for the massacre, which
was carried out by the Atlacatl Battalion under its commander Colonel
Domingo Monterrosa.
The Atlacatl Battalion was trained by the U.S. Monterrosa, like
D’Aubuisson was trained in the U.S. at the School of the Americas. It
was considered the elite, and most brutal, of all the Salvadoran
military units, akin to the U.S. Rangers or special forces. Col.
Monterrosa was assassinated by the FMLN in October 1984. Monterrosa is a
convenient scapegoat for the Salvadoran military and Oligarchy. He is no
longer around to tell his side of the story, having been assassinated by
the FMLN in retaliation for the massacre. This strategy was used by
General Bustillo in his testimony. Not only did Bustillo claim that
Monterrosa acted alone, he stated “I almost feel like a moment, some
instance of madness on the part of Colonel Monterrosa to have committed
this offense” and “it was on his initiative that he gave the order to
kill the people of El Mozote” (quoted in Al Jazeera, 1/25/2020).
While the pattern of violence is plain and some of those responsible are
now being prosecuted, we must ask who stood behind the oligarchs,
military, and death squads. Who trained them, gave them money and arms,
supported them internationally and gave them political and public
relations cover? The answer is the U.S.
A small monument stands near the site of the massacre, a cross with the
four figures standing by it, a man, a woman, and two children. The
inscription reads “They did not die, they are with us, with you, and
with all of humanity.” Revolutionaries should never forget the innocent
victims, nor should we ever forget who was responsible, and why.
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--
Carl Sagan “Why do we put up with it? Do we like to be criticized? No,
no scientist enjoys it. Every scientist feels a proprietary affection
for his or her ideas and findings. Even so, you don’t reply to critics,
Wait a minute; this is a really good idea; I’m very fond of it; it’s
done you no harm; please leave it alone. Instead, the hard but just rule
is that if the ideas don’t work, you must throw them away.” ― Carl
Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark