Verdict vs. Salvadoran Generals Reinstated
By Associated Press
January 8, 2006, 7:32 AM EST
MIAMI -- A federal appeals court reinstated a $54.6 million verdict against two retired Salvadoran generals accused of torture during the civil war in their home country two decades ago.
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta reversed its earlier decision to toss out the 2002 judgment against Gens. Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova, 67, and Jose Guillermo Garcia, 72.
The appeals court ruled in February that a statute of limitations had expired before the generals were sued. The court said the three torture victims who filed the lawsuit failed to prove unfair circumstances prevented them from bringing their case forward before the 10-year statute expired.
But Wednesday, the court said "extraordinary circumstances" did exist and the verdict should be reinstated. The original West Palm Beach jury found both men ignored massacres and other acts of brutality against civilians during the war.
The victims -- a church worker, doctor and professor who fled to the United States after being brutalized by Salvadoran soldiers -- sued under the 1991 Torture Victim Protection Act. The law allows U.S. courts to assess damages against perpetrators of human rights abuses committed abroad.
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http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-salvadoran-torture-trial,0,7741899.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Here's a look at ONE of the massacres:
The El Mozote Massacre took place in the village of El Mozote, in Morazán department, El Salvador, on December 11, 1981, when Salvadoran armed forces killed an estimated 900 civilians in an anti-guerrilla campaign. It is thought to be the worst such atrocity in modern Latin American history.
The massacre was both a low point and a turning point in the bitter civil war that ravaged this Central American country between the late 1970s and early 1990s. As news of the massacre slowly emerged, the Reagan administration in the United States dismissed it as FMLN propaganda because it seriously undermined efforts by the U.S. government to bolster the human rights image of the Salvadoran government, which the US was supporting with large amounts of military aid. Subsequently, the details of the massacre were verified, raising new doubts about American Cold War-driven policy towards both the country and the region.
(snip)
Early the next morning, the soldiers reassembled the entire village in the square. They separated the men from the women and children and locked them in separate groups in the church, the convent, and various houses.
During the morning, they proceeded to interrogate, torture, and execute the men in several locations. Around noon, they began taking the women in groups, separating them from their children and machine-gunning them. Finally, they killed the children. A group of children who had been locked in the church and its convent were shot through the windows. After killing the entire population, the soldiers set fire to the buildings.
The soldiers remained in El Mozote that night. The next day, they went to the village of Los Toriles, 2 km away. Several of the inhabitants managed to escape. The others — men, women and children — were taken from their homes, lined up, and shot.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Mozote_massacre~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Was this accidental? Intentional?
There is a tremendous irony that President George W Bush has chosen to visit El Salvador on the anniversary of the murder of the country's Archbishop, Oscar Arnulfo Romero, 22 years ago.
A campaigner against the Salvadorean army's death squad war, Monsignor Romero was shot through the heart while saying Mass, shortly after appealing to the US not to send military aid to El Salvador.
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/americas/1891145.stm
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