EQUIPO NIZKOR |
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Distr. GENERAL S/25500 |
I have the honour to transmit herewith the report presented on 15 March 1993 by the Commission on the Truth established under the peace
agreements between the Government of El Salvador and the Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional (FMLN) (see annex).
As you are aware, the report contains a set of recommendations that are binding on the Parties. As part of the mandate entrusted to the United Nations to verify implementation of all agreements reached between the Government of El Salvador and FMLN, I have today addressed to the President of El Salvador and the General Coordinator of FMLN requests that each of them inform ONUSAL of the measures he intends to take to implement the recommendations of the Commission, together with the timetable for the execution of such measures.
Also today, the Acting Chief of the United Nations Observer Mission in El Salvador, General Victor Suanzes, has been instructed to address a letter to the Comisión Nacional para la Consolidación de la Paz (COPAZ), which, under the peace agreements, is mandated to supervise the implementation of political agreements reached between the Parties. In that letter, General Suanzes will inform COPAZ of the request for information which I have addressed to the Government of El Salvador and FMLN and will ask the Commission to inform ONUSAL of the steps it intends to take to discharge the responsibilities entrusted to it under the peace agreements.
I should be grateful if you would bring this information to the attention of the members of the Security Council.
(Signed) Boutros BOUTROS-GRALI
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Annex
UNITED NATIONS. COMISION DE LA VERDAD PARA EL SALVADOR
(Original: Spanish)
FROM MADNESS TO HOPE
The 12-year war in El Salvador
REPORT OF THE COMMISSION ON THE TRUTH
FOR EL SALVADORS/25500
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THE COMMISSION ON THE TRUTH
FOR EL SALVADOR
Belisaric Betancur
Chairman
Reinaldo Figueredo Planchart
Thomas Buergenthal
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CONTENTS Page
I. INTRODUCTION 10
II. THE MANDATE 18
A. The mandate 18
B. Applicable law 20
C. Methodology 22
III. CHRONOLOGY OF THE VIOLENCE 26
IV. CASES AND PATTERNS OF VIOLENCE 43
A. General overview of cases and patterns of violence 43
B. Violence against opponents by agents of the State 45
1. Illustrative case: the murders of the Jesuit Priests
(1989) 45
2. Extrajudicial executions 54
(a) San Francisco Guajoyo (1980) 54
(b) The leaders of the Frente Democratico Revolucionario
(1980) 58
(c) The American churchwomen (1980) 62
(d) El Junquillo (1981) 67
(e) The Dutch journalists (1982) 69
(f) Las Hojas (1983) 76
(g) San Sebastían (1988) 80
(h) Attack on an FMLN hospital and execution of a nurse
(1989) 87
(i) Garcia Arandigoyen (1990) 89
(j) FENASTRAS and COMADRES (1989) 92
(k) Oquelí and Flores (1990) 96
3. Enforced disappearances 101
(a) Ventura and Mejía (1980) 101
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CONTENTS (continued)
Page
(b) Rivas Hernández (1986) 103
(c) Chan Chan and Massi (1989) 107
C. Massacres of peasants by the armed forces 114
1. Illustrative case: El Mozote (1981) 114
2. Sumpul River (1980) 121
3. El Calabozo (1982) 125
4. Pattern of conduct 126
D. Death squad assassinations 127
1. Illustrative case: Archbishop Romero (1980) 127
2. The death squad pattern 131
3. Zamora (1980) 139
4. Tehuicho (1980) 142
5. Viera, Hammer and Pearlman (1981) 144
E. Violence against opponents by the Frente Farabundo Martí para
la Liberación Nacional 148
1. Illustrative case: summary execution of Mayors
(1985-1988) 148
2. Extrajudicial executions 153
(a) Zona Rosa (1985) 153
(b) Anaya Sanabria (1987) 157
(c) Romero García "Miguel Castellanos" (1989) 162
(d) Peccorini Lettona (1989) 163
(e) Garcia Alvarado (1989) 163
(f) Guerrero (1989) 163
(g) United States soldiers who survived the shooting
down of a helicopter (1991) 167
3. Abductions: Duarte and Villeda (1985) 169
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CONTENTS (continued) Page
F. Murders of Judges (1988) 170
V. RECOMMENDATIONS 172
VI. Epilogue: the seekers after peace 187
VII. Instruments establishing the Commissions mandate 189
VIII. Persons working on the Commission on the Truth 193
Annexes*
Volume I
1. EL MOZOTE: REPORTS OF THE FORENSIC INVESTIGATION
2. EL MOZOTE: PHOTOGRAPHIC REPORT
3. PRESS ANALYSIS
4. TEXTS OF THE PEACE AGREEMENTS
Volume II
5. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF THE TESTIMONY RECEIVED BY THE COMMISSION ON THE TRUTH
6. LISTS OF VICTIMS SUBMITTED TO THE COMMISSION ON THE TRUTH
A. DIRECT SOURCE: VICTIMS WHOSE IDENTITY IS NOT CONFIDENTIAL
B. DIRECT SOURCE: VICTIMS WHOSE IDENTITY IS CONFIDENTIAL
C. INDIRECT SOURCE
7. LISTS OF DISAPPEARED PERSONS COMPILED BY THE UNITED NATIONS WORKING GROUP
8. LIST OF MEMBERS OF THE ARMED FORCES KILLED IN THE ARMED CONFLICT
9. LIST OF MEMBERS OF FMLN KILLED IN THE ARMED CONFLICT
* The annexes are available for consultation in the language of submission (Spanish) in the Dag Hammarsjköld Library.
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Page 9all these things happened among us ..."
MAYAN POEM
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Page 10I. INTRODUCTION Between 1980 and 1991, the Republic of El Salvador in Central America was engulfed in a war which plunged Salvadorian society into violence, left it with thousands and thousands of people dead and exposed it to appalling crimes, until the day - 16 January 1992 - when the parties, reconciled, signed the Peace Agreement in the Castle of Chapultepec, Mexico, and brought back the light and the chance to re-emerge from madness to hope.
A. INSTITUTIONS AND NAMES
Violence was a fire which swept over the fields of El Salvador; it burst into villages, cut off roads and destroyed highways and bridges, energy sources and transmission lines; it reached the cities and entered families, sacred areas and educational centres; it struck at justice and filled the public administration with victims; and it singled out as an enemy anyone who was not on the list of friends. Violence turned everything to death and destruction, for such is the senselessness of that breach of the calm plenitude which accompanies the rule of law, the essential nature of violence being suddenly or gradually to alter the certainty which the law nurtures in human beings when this change does not take place through the normal mechanisms of the rule of law. The victims were Salvadorians and foreigners of all backgrounds and all social and economic classes, for in its blind cruelty violence leaves everyone equally defenceless.
When there came pause for thought, Salvadorians put their hands to their hearts and felt them pound with joy. No one was winning the war, everyone was losing it. Governments of friendly countries and organizations the world over that had looked on in anguish at the tragic events in that Central American country which, although small, was made great by the creativity of its people -all contributed their ideas to the process of reflection. A visionary, Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, then Secretary-General of the United Nations, heeded the unanimous outcry and answered it. The Presidents of Colombia, Mexico, Spain and Venezuela supported him. The Chapultepec Agreement expressed the support of the new Secretary-General, Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, for the search for reconciliation.
B. THE CREATIVE CONSEQUENCES
On the long road of the peace negotiations, the need to reach agreement on a Commission on the Truth arose from the Parties recognition that the communism which had encouraged one side had collapsed, and perhaps also from the disillusionment of the Power which had encouraged the other. It emerged as a link in the chain of reflection and agreement and was motivated, ultimately, by the impact of events on Salvadorian society, which now faced the urgent task of confronting the issue of the widespread, institutionalized impunity which had struck at its very heart: under the protection of State bodies but outside the law, repeated human rights violations had been committed by members of the armed forces; these same rights had also been violated by members of the guerrilla forces.
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Page 11In response to this situation, the negotiators agreed that such repugnant acts should be referred to a Commission on the Truth, which was the name they agreed to give it from the outset. Unlike the Ad Hoc Commission, so named because there was no agreement on what to call the body created to purify the armed forces, the Commission on the Truth was so named because its very purpose and function were to seek, find and publicize the truth about the acts of violence committed by both sides during the war.
The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, as the oath goes. The overall truth and the specific truth, the radiant but quiet truth. The whole and its parts, in other words, the bright light shone onto a surface to illuminate it and the parts of this same surface lit up case by case, regardless of the identity of the perpetrators, always in the search for lessons that would contribute to reconciliation and to abolishing such patterns of behaviour in the new society.
Learning the truth and strengthening and tempering the determination to find it out; putting an end to impunity and cover-up; settling political and social differences by means of agreement instead of violent action: these are the creative consequences of an analytical search for the truth.
C. THE MANDATE
Furthermore, by virtue of the scope which the negotiators gave to the agreements, it was understood that the Commission on the Truth would have to examine systematic atrocities both individually and collectively, since the flagrant human rights violations which had shocked Salvadorian society and the international community had been carried out not only by members of the armed forces but also by members of the insurgent forces.
The peace agreements were unambiguous when, in article 2, they defined the mandate and scope of the Commission as follows: "The Commission shall have the task of investigating serious acts of violence that have occurred since 1980 and whose impact on society urgently demands that the public should know the truth". Article 5 of the Chapultepec Peace Agreement gives the Commission the task of clarifying and putting an end to any indication of impunity on the part of officers of the armed forces and gives this explanation: "acts of this nature, regardless of the sector to which their perpetrators belong, must be the object of exemplary action by the law courts so that the punishment prescribed by law is meted out to those found responsible".
It is clear that the peace negotiators wanted this new peace to be founded, raised and built on the transparency of a knowledge which speaks its name. It is also clear that this truth must be made public as a matter of urgency if it is to be not the servant of impunity but an instrument of the justice that is essential for the synchronized implementation of the agreements which the Commission is meant to facilitate.
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Page 12D. "OPEN-DOOR" POLICY
From the outset of their work, which began on 13 July 1992 when they were entrusted with their task by the Secretary-General of the United Nations, the Commissioners could perceive the skill of those who had negotiated the agreements in the breadth of the mandate and authority given to the Commission. They realized that the Secretary-General, upon learning from competent Salvadorian judges of the numerous acts of violence and atrocities of 12 years of war, had not been wrong in seeking to preserve the Commissions credibility by looking beyond considerations of sovereignty and entrusting this task to three scholars from other countries, in contrast to what had been done in Argentina and Chile after the military dictatorships there had ended. The Commissioners also saw a glimmer of hope dawn in the hearts of the Salvadorian people when it became clear that the truth would soon be revealed, not through bias or pressure but in its entirety and with complete impartiality, a fact which helped to restore the faith of people at all levels that justice would be effective and fitting. Accordingly, in their first meeting with the media upon arriving in El Salvador, the Commissioners stated that they would not let themselves be pressured or impressed: they were after the objective truth and the hard facts.
The Commissioners and the group of professionals who collaborated with them in the investigations succeeded in overcoming obstacles and limitations that made it difficult to establish what had really happened, starting with the brief period of time - six months - afforded them under the Chapultepec Agreement. Given the magnitude of their task, this time-frame, which seemed to stretch into Kafkaesque infinity when they embarked upon their task, ultimately seemed meagre and barely sufficient to allow them to complete their work satisfactorily.
Throughout its mandate and while drafting its report, the Commission consistently sought to distance itself from events that had not been verified before it reached any conclusions. The whole of Salvadorian society, institutions and individuals familiar with acts of violence were invited to make them known to the Commission, under the guarantee of confidentiality and discretion provided for in the agreements. Paid announcements were placed in the press and on the radio and television to this end, and written and oral invitations were extended to the Parties to testify without restriction. Offices of the Commission were opened in various departmental capitals, including Chalatenango, Santa Ana and San Miguel. Written statements were taken, witnesses were heard, information from the sites of various incidents (e.g. El Calabozo, El Mozote, Sumpul river and Guancorita) was obtained. The Commission itself went to various departments with members of the professional team, occasionally travelling overland but more often in helicopters provided promptly and efficiently by ONUSAL. As the investigation moved forward, it continued to yield new pieces of evidence: anyone who might have been involved was summonsed to testify without restriction as to time or place, usually in the Commissions offices or in secret locations, often outside El Salvador in order to afford witnesses greater protection.
The Commission maintained an "open-door" policy for hearing testimony and a "closed-door" policy for preserving confidentiality. Its findings illustrate the horrors of a war in which madness prevailed, and confirm beyond the shadow of a doubt that the incidents denounced, recorded and substantiated in this
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Page 13report actually took place. Whenever the Commission decided that its investigation of a specific case had yielded sufficient evidence, the matter was recorded in detail, with mention of the guilty parties. When it was determined that no further progress could be made for the time being, the corresponding documentation that was not subject to secrecy was delivered to the courts or else kept confidential until new information enabled it to be reactivated.
One fact must be squarely denounced: owing to the destruction or concealment of documents, or the failure to divulge the locations where numerous persons were imprisoned or bodies were buried, the burden of proof occasionally reverted to the Commission, the judiciary and citizens, who found themselves forced to reconstruct events. It will be up to those who administer the new system of justice to pursue these investigations and take whatever final decisions they consider appropriate at this moment in history.
Inevitably, the list of victims is incomplete: it was compiled on the basis of the complaints and testimony received and confirmed by the Commission.
E. A CONVULSION OF VIOLENCE
The warped psychology engendered by the conflict led to a convulsion of violence. The civilian population in disputed or guerrilla-controlled areas was automatically assumed to be the enemy, as at El Mozote and the Sumpul river. The opposing side behaved likewise, as when mayors were executed, the killings justified as acts of war because the victims had obstructed the delivery of supplies to combatants, or when defenceless pleasure-seekers became military targets, as in the case of the United States marines in the Zona Rosa of San Salvador. Meanwhile, the doctrine of national salvation and the principle of "he who is not for me is against me" were cited to ignore the neutrality, passivity and defencelessness of journalists and church workers, who served the community in various ways.
Such behaviour also led to the clandestine refinement of the death squads:
the bullet which struck Monsignor Romero in the chest while he was celebrating mass on 24 March 1980 in a San Salvador church is a brutal symbol of the nightmare the country experienced during the war. And the murder of the six Jesuit priests 10 years later was the final outburst of the delirium that had infected the armed forces and the innermost recesses of certain government circles. The bullet in the portrait of Monsignor Romero, mute witness to this latest crime, repeats the nightmare image of those days.
F. PHENOMENOLOGY OF VIOLENCE
It is a universally accepted premise that the individual is the subject of any criminal situation, since humans alone possess will and can therefore take decisions based on will: it is individuals that commit crimes, not the institutions they have created. As a result, it is to individuals and not their institutions that the corresponding penalties established by law must be applied.
However, there could be some situations in which the repetition of acts in time and space would seem to contradict the above premise. A situation of repeated criminal acts may arise in which different individuals act within the
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Page 14same institution in unmistakably similar ways, independently of the political ideology of Governments and decision makers. This gives reason to believe that institutions may indeed commit crimes, if the same behaviour becomes a constant of the institution and, especially, if clear-cut accusations are met with a cover-up by the institution to which the accused belong and the institution is slow to act when investigations reveal who is responsible. In such circumstances, it is easy to succumb to the argument that repeated crimes mean that the institution is to blame.
The Commission on the Truth did not fall into that temptation: at the beginning of its mandate, it received hints from the highest level to the effect that institutions do not commit crimes and therefore that responsibilities must be established by naming names. At the end of its mandate, it again received hints from the highest level, this time to the opposite effect, namely, that it should not name names, perhaps in order to protect certain individuals in recognition of their genuine and commendable eagerness to help create situations which facilitated the peace agreements and national reconciliation.
However, the Commission believes that responsibility for anything that happened during the period of the conflict could not and should not be laid at the door of the institution, but rather of those who ordered the procedures for operating in the way that members of the institution did and also of those who, having been in a position to prevent such procedures, were compromised by the degree of tolerance and permissiveness with which they acted from their positions of authority or leadership or by the fact that they covered up incidents which came to their knowledge or themselves gave the order which led to the action in question. This approach protects institutions and punishes criminals.
G. THE RECOVERY OF FAITH
As this Commission submits its report, El Salvador is embarked on a positive and irreversible process of consolidation of internal peace and modification of conduct for the maintenance of a genuine, lasting climate of national coexistence. The process of reconciliation is restoring the nations faith in itself and in its leaders and institutions. This does not mean that all the obstacles and difficulties in implementing the commitments made in the negotiations have been overcome: the particular sensitivity of some of these commitments, such as the commitment to purify the armed forces, is creating resistance to the administrative action which must be taken by President Alf redo Cristiani, who on many counts deserves widespread recognition as the driving force behind the peace agreements.
One fundamental element of the agreements, and one which is critical for El Salvadors democratic future, is the unreserved, unconditional subordination of the military authorities to civilian authority, not only on paper but in reality: in a democratic system based on respect for the constitutional order and governed by the rule of law, there is room neither for conditions, personal compromises or the possibility of subverting order for personal reasons, nor for acts of intimidation against the President of the Republic who, by virtue of his office, is the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces.
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Page 15H. THE RISK OF DELAYS
The purification which is to follow the reports of the Ad Hoc Commission and the Commission on the Truth may seem inadvisable in cases where a person guilty of a serious crime in the past rectified his behaviour and contributed to the negotiated peace. This, however, is the small price that those who engage in punishable acts must pay, regardless of their position: they must accept it for the good of the country and the democratic future of the new Salvadorian society. Moreover, it is not up to the Commission to act on complaints, requests for pardon or pleas of attenuating circumstances from persons dismissed from the armed forces, because it has no binding judicial powers. It is not by resignation but by its creative attitude towards its new commitments and the new order of democratic coexistence that Salvadorian society as a whole will ultimately strike a balance in dealing with those who must take the blame for what they did during the conflict but deserve praise for what they did in the peace process.
El Salvador needs new souls. By its response to the murder of the Jesuits, 10 years after the assassination of Monsignor Romero by that nightmarish creation the "death squads", the military leadership showed just how far its position had hardened in daring to eliminate those it viewed as opponents, either because they were opponents or because they voiced concern, including church workers and journalists. In the uproar that followed, the most perverse sentiments came to the fore and the most absurd obfuscation was used in an attempt to cover up the truth as to who had given the orders.
What is more, it would tarnish the image of the armed forces if they were to retain sufficient power to block the process of purification or impose conditions on it: if the guilty were not singled out and punished, the institution itself would be incriminated; no other interpretation is possible. Those who would have the armed forces choose this course must weigh the price of such an attitude in the eyes of history.
I. FOUNDATION FOR THE TRUTH
The mass of reports, testimony, newspaper and magazine articles and books published in Spanish and other languages that was accumulated prompted the establishment within the Commission on the Truth itself of a centre for documentation on the different forms of violence in El Salvador. The public information relating to the war (books, pamphlets, research carried out by Salvadorian and international bodies); testimony from 2,000 primary sources referring to more than 7,000 victims; information from secondary sources relating to more than 20,000 victims; information from official bodies in the United States and other countries; information provided by government bodies and FMLN; an abundant photographic and videotape record of the conflict and even of the Commissions own activities; all of this material constitutes an invaluable resource - a part of El Salvadors heritage because (despite the painful reality it records) a part of the countrys contemporary history - for historians and analysts of this most distressing period and for those who wish to study this painful reality in order to reinforce the effort to spread the message "never again".
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Page 16What is to be done with this wealth of material in order to make it available to those around the world who are seeking peace, to bring these personal experiences to the attention of those who defend human rights? What is to be done when one is bound by the requirement of confidentiality for documents and testimony? What use is to be made of this example of the creativity of the United Nations at a time in contemporary history which is fraught with conflict and turmoil and for which the parallels and the answers found in the Salvadorian conflict may be of some relevance?
To guarantee the confidentiality of testimony and of the many documents supplied by institutions and even by Governments and, at the same time, to provide for the possibility of consultation by academic researchers while preserving such confidentiality, the Commission obtained the agreement of the Parties and the consent and support of the International Rule of Law Center of George Washington University in Washington, D.C., which, since 1992, has been administering and maintaining the collection of documents relating to the transition to peace in countries under the rule of oppression and countries emerging from armed conflicts. In addition, the Commission has already sought the cooperation of Governments, academic institutions and international foundations, always on the clear understanding that it holds itself personally responsible for guaranteeing confidentiality before finally handing the archives over to their lawful owners.
The Foundation for the Truth would be a not-for-profit academic body governed by statutes conforming to United States law. It would be managed by an international Board of Directors, with Salvadorian participation; a representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations and the members of the Commission would also be members of the Board. The Foundation would be operated under the direction of Professor Thomas Buergenthal and would maintain close contacts with leaders and researchers in El Salvador, with the group of European, United States and Latin American professionals who worked with the Commission, and with scientists from around the world. For those documents which were not subject to secrecy, duplicate copies and computer terminals for accessing the collection would be available in Salvadorian institutions requesting them.
The Foundation would be inaugurated in June 1993, in Washington, with a multidisciplinary encounter to discuss the report of the Commission on the Truth.
J. EXPRESSIONS OF GRATITUDE
The Commission places on record its admiration for and gratitude to the Salvadorian people, without exception, for the courage they have shown throughout the terrible ordeal of the conflict and for the outstanding spirit which they have generously demonstrated in the peace process. It also expresses its gratitude to President Cristiani and the members of his Government, and to the Commanders and members of the Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional (FMLN), for cooperating with it in the performance of its tasks.
The Commission further expresses its gratitude to the Secretaries-General of the United Nations, Mr. Javier Pérez de Cuéllar and Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, and to Assistant Secretary-General Mr. Alvaro de Soto and his
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Page 17staff for their efficient cooperation. It also thanks ONUSAL, in particular, its Director, Mr. Iqbal Riza, for their diligence and expeditiousness in providing logistical and security support, and legal expert Mr. Pedro Nikken, whose knowledge of Central America is extensive.
We owe a debt of gratitude to the President of Colombia, Mr. César Gaviria Trujillo; the President of Mexico, Mr. Carlos Salinas de Gortari; the Prime Minister of Spain, Mr. Felipe González; and the President of Venezuela, Mr. Carlos Andrés Pérez known as "the four friends of the Secretary-General", and their ambassadors to the United Nations and El Salvador, for their constant and full support.
We also express our gratitude to Salvadorian political parties and their leaders; Salvadorian and international non-governmental organizations; the Catholic Church and its hierarchy and all religious faiths; the Directors and staff of the information media; and important public figures in El Salvador and outstanding international figures who have followed the conflict closely: without the cooperation of all these people it would have been impossible to penetrate the maze in which the truth often lay hidden.
This report would not have been possible without the collaboration of the interdisciplinary group of professionals from around the world who, under the direction of Ms. Patricia Valdez, for eight months devoted themselves with professionalism, objectivity and dedication to the task of seeking, unravelling and, on more than a few occasions, unearthing the truth.
K. THE DOMINANT IDEA
The members of the Commission are convinced from what they observed during six months of close association with Salvadorian society, that there is no place among the sorely tried Salvadorian people for bitterness or vengeance. There is likewise no intention to cause humiliation; nor does anyone today seek to harm the dignity of any human being by any action. Peace is always made by those who have fought the war, and all the former combatants have established forums for reconciliation in the new society. All are called upon to make a contribution, each according to the pain he has suffered and the love he has for his country. It falls to President Cristiani - the peace President - and his Government and the former insurgents, especially the former Commanders of FMLN, once again to play the leading role by setting a new course for El Salvador.
Salvadorian society - a society of sacrifice and hope - is watching them from the vantage point of history. The future of the nation summons them, a nation which is moving forward under the influence of one dominant idea: to lift itself out of the ruins in order to hold high like a banner the vision of its future. The nations of the international community are watching them in gladness. A new people is rising from the ashes of a war in which all were unjust. Those who perished are watching them from the great beyond. Those who hope are watching them from the heights of hope.
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Page 18II. THE MANDATE A. THE MANDATE
The Commission on the Truth owes its existence and authority to the El Salvador peace agreements, a set of agreements negotiated over a period of more than three years (1989-1992) between the Government of El Salvador and FMLN. The negotiating process, which took place under United Nations auspices with the special cooperation of Colombia, Mexico, Spain and Venezuela (the so-called "friends of the Secretary-General"), culminated in the Peace Agreement signed at Chapultepec, Mexico, on 16 January 1992. 1/
The decision to set up the Commission on the Truth was taken by the Parties in the Mexico Agreements, signed at Mexico City on 27 April 1991. 2/ These Agreements define the functions and powers of the Commission, while its authority is expanded by article 5 of the Chapultepec Peace Agreement, entitled "End to Impunity". 3/ Together, these provisions constitute the Commissions "mandate".
The mandate defines the Commissions functions as follows:
"The Commission shall have the task of investigating serious acts of violence that have occurred since 1980 and whose impact on society urgently demands that the public should know the truth."
It then states that the Commission shall take the following into account:
"(a) The exceptional importance that may be attached to the acts to be investigated, their characteristics and impact, and the social unrest to which they gave rise; and
(b) The need to create confidence in the positive changes which the peace process is promoting and to assist the transition to national reconciliation."
The specific functions assigned to the Commission as regards impunity are defined, in part, in the Chapultepec Agreement, which provides as follows:
"The Parties recognize the need to clarify and put an end to any indication of impunity on the part of officers of the armed forces, particularly in cases where respect for human rights is jeopardized. To that end, the Parties refer this issue to the Commission on the Truth for consideration and resolution."
In addition to granting the Commission powers with respect to impunity and the investigation of serious acts of violence, the peace agreements entrust the Commission with making "legal, political or administrative" recommendations. Such recommendations may relate to specific cases or may be more general. In the latter case, they "may include measures to prevent the repetition of such acts, and initiatives to promote national reconciliation".
The Commission was thus given two specific powers: the power to make investigations and the power to make recommendations. The latter power is
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Page 19particularly important since, under the mandate, "the Parties undertake to carry out the Commissions recommendations". The Parties thus agree to be bound by the Commissions recommendations.
As regards the Commissions other task, the mandate entrusted it with investigating "serious acts of violence ... whose impact on society urgently demands that the public should know the truth". In other words, in deciding which acts to focus on, the Commission would have to take into account the particular importance of each act, its repercussions and the social unrest to which it gave rise. However, the mandate did not list or identify any specific cases for investigation; nor did it distinguish between large-scale acts of violence and acts involving only a handful of people. Instead, the mandate emphasized serious acts of violence and their impact or repercussions. On the basis of these criteria, the Commission investigated two types of cases:
(a) Individual cases or acts which, by their nature, outraged Salvadorian society and/or international opinion;
(b) A series of individual cases with similar characteristics revealing a systematic pattern of violence or ill-treatment which, taken together, equally outraged Salvadorian society, especially since their aim was to intimidate certain sectors of that society.
The Commission attaches equal importance to uncovering the truth in both kinds of cases. Moreover, these two types of cases are not mutually exclusive. Many of the so-called individual acts of violence which had the greatest impact on public opinion also had characteristics revealing systematic patterns of violence.
In investigating these acts, the Commission took into account three additional factors which have a bearing on the fulfilment of its mandate. The first was that it must investigate serious or flagrant acts committed by both sides in the Salvadorian conflict and not just by one of the Parties. Secondly, in referring the issue of the impunity "of officers of the armed forces, particularly in cases where respect for human rights is jeopardized" to the Commission, the Chapultepec Agreement urged the Commission to pay particular attention to this area and to acts of violence committed by officers of the armed forces which were never investigated or punished. Thirdly, the Commission was given six months in which to perform its task.
If we consider that the Salvadorian conflict lasted 12 years and resulted in a huge number of deaths and other serious acts of violence, it was clearly impossible for the Commission to deal with every act that could have been included within its sphere of competence. In deciding to investigate one case rather than another, it had to weigh such considerations as the representative nature of the case, the availability of sufficient evidence, the investigatory resources available to the Commission, the time needed to conduct an exhaustive investigation and the issue of impunity as defined in the mandate.
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Page 20B. APPLICABLE LAW
The Commissions mandate entrusts it with investigating serious acts of violence, but does not specify the principles of law that must be applied in order to define such acts and to determine responsibility for them. Nevertheless, the concept of serious acts of violence used in the peace agreements obviously does not exist in a normative vacuum and must therefore be analysed on the basis of certain relevant principles of law.
In defining the legal norms applicable to this task, it should be pointed out that, during the Salvadorian conflict, both Parties were under an obligation to observe a number of rules of international law, including those stipulated in international human rights law or in international humanitarian law, or in both. Furthermore, throughout the period in question, the State of El Salvador was under an obligation to adjust its domestic law to its obligations under international law.
These rules of international law must be considered as providing the basis for the criteria applicable to the functions which the peace agreements entrust to the Commission. 4/ Throughout the Salvadorian conflict, these two sets of rules were only rarely mutually exclusive.
It is true that, in theory, international human rights law is applicable only to Governments, while in some armed conflicts international humanitarian law is binding on both sides: in other words, binding on both insurgents and Government forces. However, it must be recognized that when insurgents assume government powers in territories under their control, they too can be required to observe certain human rights obligations that are binding on the State under international law. This would make them responsible for breaches of those obligations
The official position of FMLN was that certain parts of the national territory were under its control, and it did in fact exercise that control. 5/
i. International human rights law
The international human rights law applicable to the present situation comprises a number of international instruments adopted within the framework of the United Nations and the Organization of American States (OAS). These instruments, which are binding on the State of El Salvador, include, in addition to the Charters of the United Nations and OAS, the following human rights treaties: the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the American Convention on Human Rights. El Salvador ratified the Covenant on 30 November 1979 and the American Convention on 23 June 1978. Both instruments entered into force for El Salvador before 1980 and were thus in force throughout the conflict to which the Commissions mandate refers.
Clearly, not every violation of a right guaranteed in those instruments can be characterized as a "serious act of violence". Those instruments themselves recognize that some violations are more serious than others. This position is reflected in a provision which appears in both instruments and which distinguishes between rights from which no derogation is possible, even in time of war or other state of national emergency, and those from which derogations
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Page 21can be made in such circumstances. It is appropriate, therefore, that the Commission should classify the seriousness of each "act of violence" on the basis of the rights which the two instruments list as not being subject to derogation, in particular, rights related directly to the right to life and to physical integrity.
Accordingly, the following rights listed in article 4 of the Covenant as not being subject to derogation would come within the Commissions sphere of competence: the right to life ("No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his life"); the right not to be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; and the right not to be held in slavery or any form of servitude. Article 27 of the American Convention on Human Rights provides that these same rights cannot be suspended even "in time of war, public danger, or other emergency that threatens the independence or security of a State Party".
Under international law, it is illegal for a State, or for persons acting on its behalf, to violate any of the above rights for whatever reason. Violation of these rights may even constitute an international crime in situations where acts are of a consistent type or reflect a systematic practice whose purpose is the large-scale violation of these fundamental rights of the human person.
2. International humanitarian law
The principles of international humanitarian law applicable to the Salvadorian conflict are contained in article 3 common to the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and in Additional Protocol II thereto. El Salvador ratified these instruments before 1980.
Although the armed conflict in El Salvador was not an international conflict as defined by the Conventions, it did meet the requirements for the application of article 3 common to the four Conventions. That article defines some fundamental humanitarian rules applicable to non-international armed conflicts. The same is true of Protocol II Additional to the Geneva Conventions, relating to the protection of victims of non-international armed conflicts. The provisions of common article 3 and of Additional Protocol II are legally binding on both the Government and the insurgent forces.
Without going into those provisions in detail, it is clear that violations - by either of the two parties to the conflict - of common article 3 6/ and of the fundamental guarantees contained in Additional Protocol II, 7/ especially if committed systematically, could be characterized as serious acts of violence for the purposes of the interpretation and application of the Commissions mandate. Such violations would include arbitrary deprivation of life; torture; cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment; taking of hostages; and denial of certain indispensable guarantees of due process before serious criminal penalties are imposed and carried out.
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Page 223. Conclusions
With few exceptions, serious acts of violence prohibited by the rules of humanitarian law applicable to the Salvadorian conflict are also violations of the non-repealable provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the American Convention on Human Rights, the two human rights treaties ratified by the State of El Salvador. The two instruments also prohibit derogation from any rights guaranteed in any humanitarian law treaty to which the State is a party.
As a result, neither the Salvadorian State nor persons acting on its behalf or in its place can claim that the existence of an armed conflict justified the commission of serious acts of violence in contravention of one or other of the human rights treaties mentioned above or of the applicable instruments of humanitarian law binding on the State.
C. METHODOLOGY
In determining the methodology that would govern the conduct of the investigations essential to the preparation of this report, the Commission took a number of factors into account.
The text of its mandate was a binding condition and a starting-point for the Commission, in that it stated the Parties intentions in this connection. The preamble to the mandate indicates that the Commission was established because the Parties recognized "the need to clear up without delay those exceptionally important acts of violence whose characteristics and impact ... urgently require that the complete truth be made known ...".
In establishing the procedure that the Commission was to follow in performing its functions, paragraph 7 of the mandate provided that the Commission would conduct its activities "on a confidential basis". Paragraph 5 established that "The Commission shall not function in the manner of a judicial body". Paragraph 8 (a) stipulated that "The Commission shall be completely free to use whatever sources of information it deems useful and reliable", while paragraph 8 (b) gave the Commission the power to "Interview, freely and in private, any individuals, groups or members of organizations or institutions". Lastly, in the fourth preambular paragraph of the mandate, the Parties agreed that the task entrusted to the Commission should be fulfilled "through a procedure which is both reliable and expeditious and may yield results in the short term, without prejudice to the obligations incumbent on the Salvadorian courts to solve such cases and impose the appropriate penalties on the culprits".
In analysing these provisions of the mandate, the Commission thought it important that the Parties had emphasized that "the Commission shall not function in the manner of a judicial body". In other words, not only did the Parties not establish a court or tribunal, but they made it very clear that the Commission should not function as if it were a judicial body. They wanted to make sure that the Commission was able to act on a confidential basis and receive information from any sources, public or private, that it deemed useful and reliable. It was given these powers so that it could conduct an investigation procedure that was both expeditious and, in its view, reliable in
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Page 23order to "clear up without delay those exceptionally important acts of violence whose characteristics and impact ... urgently require that the complete truth be made known . .
So it is clear that the Parties opted for an investigation procedure that, within the short period of time allotted, would be best fitted to establishing the truth about acts of violence falling within the Commissions sphere of competence, without requiring the Commission to observe the procedures and rules that normally govern the activities of any judicial or quasi-judicial body. Any judicial function that had to be performed would be reserved expressly for the courts of El Salvador. For the Parties, the paramount concern was to find out the truth without delay.
Another important overall consideration which influenced the Commissions methodology was the reality of the situation in El Salvador today. Not only was this reflected in the Commissions mandate, but it also had a profound impact on the Commissions investigation process and modus operandi. It forced the Commission to gather its most valuable information in exchange for assurances of confidentiality.
It was not just that the Parties authorized the Commission, in the peace agreements, to act on a confidential basis and to receive information in private; the reality of the situation in El Salvador forced it to do so for two reasons: first, to protect the lives of witnesses and, secondly, to obtain information from witnesses who, because of the climate of terror in which they continue to live, would not have provided such information if the Commission had not guaranteed them absolute confidentiality.
The situation in El Salvador is such that the population at large continues to believe that many military and police officers in active service or in retirement, Government officials, judges, members of FMLN and people who at one time or another were connected with the death squads are in a position to cause serious physical and material injury to any person or institution that shows a readiness to testify about acts of violence committed between 1980 and 1991. The Commission believes that this suspicion is not unreasonable, given El Salvadors recent history and the power still wielded or, in many cases, wielded until recently by people whose direct involvement in serious acts of violence or in covering up such acts is well known but who have not been required to account for their actions or omissions.
Even though the fears expressed by some potential witnesses may have been exaggerated, the fact is that in their minds the danger is real. As a result, they were not prepared to testify unless they were guaranteed absolute secrecy. It should be pointed out that many witnesses refused to give information to other investigatory bodies in the past precisely because they were afraid that their identity would be divulged.
The Commission can itself testify to the extreme fear of reprisals frequently expressed, both verbally and through their behaviour, by many of the witnesses it interviewed. It is also important to emphasize that the Commission was not in a position to offer any significant protection to witnesses apart from this guarantee of confidentiality. Unlike the national courts, for instance, the Commission did not have the authority to order precautionary
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Page 24measures; neither, of course, did it have police powers. Besides, it is the perception of the public at large that the Salvadorian judicial system is unable to offer the necessary guarantees.
The Commission also received reports from some Governments and international bodies, on condition that the source was not revealed. This information was subjected to the same test of reliability as the other information received and was used principally to confirm or verify personal testimony and to guide the Commission in its search for other areas of investigation.
From the outset, the Commission was aware that accusations made and evidence received in secret run a far greater risk of being considered less trustworthy than those which are subjected to the normal judicial tests for determining the truth and to other related requirements of due process of law, including the right of the accused to confront and examine witnesses brought against him. Accordingly, the Commission felt that it had a special obligation to take all possible steps to ensure the reliability of the evidence used to arrive at a finding. In cases where it had to identify specific individuals as having committed, ordered or tolerated specific acts of violence, it applied a stricter test of reliability.
The Commission decided that, in each of the cases described in this report, it would specify the degree of certainty on which its ultimate finding was based. The different degrees of certainty were as follows:
1. Overwhelming evidence - conclusive or highly convincing evidence to support the Commissions finding;
2. Substantial evidence - very solid evidence to support the Commissions finding;
3. Sufficient evidence - more evidence to support the Commissions finding than to contradict it.
The Commission decided not to arrive at any specific finding on cases or situations, or any aspect thereof, in which there was less than "sufficient" evidence to support such a finding.
In order to guarantee the reliability of the evidence it gathered, the Commission insisted on verifying, substantiating and reviewing all statements as to facts, checking them against a large number of sources whose veracity had already been established. It was decided that no single source or witness would be considered sufficiently reliable to establish the truth on any issue of fact needed for the Commission to arrive at a finding. It was also decided that secondary sources, for instance, reports from national or international governmental or private bodies and assertions by people without first-hand knowledge of the facts they reported, did not on their own constitute a sufficient basis for arriving at findings. However, these secondary sources were used, along with circumstantial evidence, to verify findings based on primary sources.
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Page 25It could be argued that, since the Commissions investigation methodology does not meet the normal requirements of due process, the report should not name the people whom the Commission considers to be implicated in specific acts of violence. The Commission believes that it had no alternative but to do so.
In the peace agreements, the Parties made it quite clear that it was necessary that the "complete truth be made known", and that was why the Commission was established. Now, the whole truth cannot be told without naming names. After all, the Commission was not asked to write an academic report on El Salvador, it was asked to investigate and describe exceptionally important acts of violence and to recommend measures to prevent the repetition of such acts. This task cannot be performed in the abstract, suppressing information (for instance, the names of persons responsible for such acts) where there is reliable testimony available, especially when the persons identified occupy senior positions and perform official functions directly related to violations or the cover-up of violations. Not to name names would be to reinforce the very impunity to which the Parties instructed the Commission to put an end.
In weighing aspects related to the need to protect the lives of witnesses against the interests of people who might be adversely affected in some way by the publication of their names in the report, the Commission also took into consideration the fact that the report is not a judicial or quasijudicial determination as to the rights or obligations of certain individuals under the law. As a result, the Commission is not, in theory, subject to the requirements of due process which normally apply, in proceedings which produce these consequences.
Furthermore, the Commissions application of strict criteria to determine the degree of reliability of the evidence in situations where people have been identified by name, and the fact that it named names only when it was absolutely convinced by the evidence, were additional factors which influenced the Commission when it came to take a decision on this analysis. As a result, the Commission is satisfied that the criteria of impartiality and reliability which it applied throughout the process were fully compatible with the functions entrusted to it and with the interests it had to balance.
The considerations which prompted the Commission to receive confidential information without revealing the source also forced it to omit references from both the body and the footnotes of the reports on individual cases, with the exception of references to certain public, official sources. As a result, reference is made to official trial proceedings and other similar sources, but not to testimony or other information gathered by the Commission. The Commission took this approach in order to reduce the likelihood that those responsible for the acts of violence described herein, or their defenders, would be able to identify the confidential sources of information used by the Commission. In some of the reports on individual cases, the Commission also omitted details that might reveal the identity of certain witnesses.
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Page 26III. CHRONOLOGY OF THE VIOLENCE
INTRODUCTION
The Commission on the Truth had the task of investigating and analysing serious acts of violence that had occurred in El Salvador between January 1980 and July 1991.
In taking into account "the exceptional importance that may be attached to the acts to be investigated, their characteristics and impact, and the social unrest to which they gave rise", 8/ the Commission, for methodological reasons, divided the years 1980-1991 into four periods, namely: 1980-1983, 1983-1987, 1987-1989 and 1989-1991. Each of these periods corresponds to political changes in the country, developments in the war and the systematic nature or frequency of certain practices that violated human rights and international humanitarian law.
Frequency of reports in the Salvadorian press
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Page 27I. 1980-1983: THE INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF VIOLENCE
The main characteristics of this period were that violence became systematic and terror and distrust reigned among the civilian population. The fragmentation of any opposition or dissident movement by means of arbitrary arrests, murders and selective and indiscriminate disappearances of leaders became common practice. Repression in the cities targeted political organizations, trade unions and organized sectors of Salvadorian society, as exemplified by the persecution of organizations such as the Asociación Nacional de Educadores Salvadoreños (ANDES), 9/ murders of political leaders 10/ and attacks on human rights bodies. 11/
The Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional (FMLN) was formed in late 1980 and in January 1981, the first large-scale military offensive left hundreds of people dead. Starting in 1980, there was a succession of indiscriminate attacks on the non-combatant civilian population and also collective summary executions, particularly against the rural population. 12/ There were appalling massacres, such as those at the Sumpul river (14-15 May 1980), the Lempa river (20-29 October 1981) and El Mozote (December 1981). Organized terrorism, in the form of the so-called "death squads", became the most aberrant manifestation of the escalation of violence. Civilian and military groups engaged in a systematic murder campaign with total impunity, while State institutions turned a blind eye. 13/ The murder of Monsignor Romero exemplified the limitless, devastating power of these groups. This period saw the greatest number of deaths and human rights violations.
1980 The Government of General Carlos Humberto Romero (July 1977-October 1979) was overthrown on 15 October 1979. The Revolutionary Government Junta (JRG) composed of Colonel Jaime Abdul Gutiérrez and Colonel Adolfo Majano announced its main goals: an end to violence and corruption, guarantees for the exercise of human rights, adoption of measures to ensure the fair distribution of national wealth and a positive approach to external relations. 14/
On 18 October 1979, elections were announced for February 1982. Measures were enacted restricting landholdings to a maximum of 100 hectares (Decree No. 43 of 6 December 1979). The organization ORDEN 15/ was dissolved on 6 November 1979 and the Salvadorian national security agency (ANSESAL) was
The political struggle between civilians and conservative military sectors intensified, against a backdrop of social upheaval and mobilization. Left-wing organizations such as the Bloque Popular Revolucionario (BPR), the Ligas Populares 28 de Febrero (LP-28) and the Frente de Acción Popular Unificada (FAPU), among others, held public demonstrations, occupied ministries and organized strikes demanding the release of political prisoners. Economic measures and land tenure reforms were adopted. The organizations BPR, FAPU, LP-28 and the Unión Democratica Nacionalista (UDN) came together to form the Coordinadora Revolucionaria de Masas (CR14). 17/ On 22 January, the National Guard attacked a massive CR14 demonstration, described by Monsignor Romero as peaceful, killing somewhere between 22 and 50 people and wounding hundreds more.
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Page 28Anti-Government violence erupted in the form of occupations of radio stations, bombings of newspapers (La Prensa Gráfica and El Diario de Hoy), abductions, executions and attacks on military targets, particularly by the Fuerzas Populares de Liberación (FPL) and the Ejército Revolucionario del Pueblo (ERP).
On 3 January 1980, the three civilian members of the Junta resigned, along with 10 of the 11 cabinet ministers. 18/ The Junta was again in crisis. The Agrarian Reform Act 19/ and the nationalization of banks were announced. On 9 March, José Napoleón Duarte became a member of the Junta when the Christian Democratic Party expelled Dada Hizeri, Rubén Zamora and other leaders from its ranks. The process of political polarization triggered an unprecedented increase in death squad activities.
On 6 February, United States Ambassador Frank Devine informed the State Department that mutilated bodies were appearing on roadsides as they had done in the worst days of the Romero regime and that the extreme right was arming itself and preparing for a confrontation in which it clearly expected to ally itself with the military. 20/
On 22 February, PDC leader and Chief State Counsel Mario Zamora was murdered at his home, only days after the Frente Amplio Nacional (FAN), headed by former National Guard Major Roberto DAubuisson, had accused him publicly of being a member of subversive groups (see the case in chap. IV).
On 24 March, Monsignor Oscar Arnulfo Romero was shot dead by a sniper as he celebrated mass in the Chapel of the Hospital de la Divina Providencia 21/ (see the case in chap. IV). This crime further polarized Salvadorian society and became a milestone, symbolizing the point at which human rights violations reached their peak and presaging the all-out war between the Government and the guerrillas that was to come. During the funeral, a bomb went off outside San Salvador Cathedral. The panic-stricken crowd, estimated at 50,000 people, was machine-gunned, leaving an estimated 27 to 40 people dead and more than 200 wounded. 22/
On 7 May 1980, Major Roberto DAubuisson 23/ was arrested on a farm, along with a group of civilians and soldiers. In the raid, a significant quantity of weapons and documents were found implicating the group in the organization and financing of death squads allegedly involved in Archbishop Romeros murder. The arrests triggered a wave of terrorist threats and institutional pressures which culminated in DAubuissons release. This strengthened the most conservative sector in the Government 24/ and was a clear example of the passivity and inertia of the judiciary during this period. 25/
Government measures 26/ and illegal repressive measures were taken to dismantle the countrys legal structure and neutralize the opposition. 27/
Between 12 and 15 August, a general strike called by FDR, a coalition of centre-left parties, was violently suppressed, leaving 129 people dead. 28/ On 27 November, Alvarez Córdoba and six FDR leaders were abducted. Their bodies were found later, bearing signs of torture (see the case in chap. IV). A few days later, the Brigada Anticomunista General Maximiliano Hernández Martínez issued a communiqué claiming responsibility for the killings.
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Page 29Between October and November 1980, the five armed opposition groups -Fuerzas Populares de Liberación (FPL), Ejército Revolucionario del Pueblo (ERP), Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación (FAL), Fuerzas Armadas de Resistencia Nacional (FARN) and Partido RevolucionariO de los Trabajadores de Centroamérica (PRTC) -formed the Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional (FMLN).
In late 1980, as a change of Administration was taking place in the United States, the violence in El Salvador reached United States citizens. On 2 December, four churchwomen were arrested, raped and murdered by members of the National Guard (see the case in chap. IV). At the end of the year, Colonel Majano was removed from the Junta and Napoleón Duarte became President. 29/
The Commission on the Truth received direct complaints concerning 2,597 victims of serious acts of violence occurring in 1980. 30/
1981 Individual extrajudicial executions continued and mass executions in rural areas increased. On 3 January, the President of the Salvadorian Institute for Agrarian Reform and two United States advisers were murdered in the Sheraton Hotel 31/ (see the case in chap. IV). This incident was part of a campaign of murders of cooperative leaders and beneficiaries of the agrarian reform.
On 10 January, FMLN launched the "final offensive" announced in late 1980. 32/ Attacks were launched on military targets throughout the country, leaving hundreds of people dead. Government sources reported that "at least 500 extremists" had died in the final offensive. Because of FMLN actions, the state of siege decreed by the Junta was maintained until October 1981.
The violence in El Salvador began to attract international attention and to have international repercussions. External political forces began to claim that the Salvadorian conflict was part of the East-West confrontation. Other forces worked for a negotiated settlement of the conflict. 33/ Many sectors began to envisage the possibility of a negotiated settlement, provided that the necessary resources were available. On 14 January, the United States Administration restored military aid, which had been suspended after the murder of the United States churchwomen. 34/ The United States Government also significantly increased its military and economic assistance. The increasing flow of resources was intended to train, modernize and expand the structure of a number of elements of the armed forces. The Rapid Deployment Infantry Battalions (BIRI), specialized in anti-guerrilla warfare, also began to be created (Atlacatl: March 1981, Atonal: January 1982, Belloso: May 1982, etc.).
Counter-insurgency military operations affected the non-combatant civilian population, causing a high death toll and the emergence of a new phenomenon -displaced persons.
On 17 March, as they tried to cross the Lempa river to Honduras, a group of thousands of peasants was attacked from the air and from land. Between 20 and 30 people were reported killed and a further 189 reported missing as a result of the attack. Something similar happened in October on the banks of the same
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Page 30river, on which occasion 147 peasants were killed, including 44 minors. In November, in Cabañas Department, a counter-insurgency operation surrounded and kept under attack for 13 days a group of 1,000 people who were trying to escape to Honduras. This time, between 50 and 100 people were reported killed. fl/ In late December, the Atlacatl Battalion carried out one of the worst massacres of the war, in various hamlets in and around El Mozote (see the case in chap. IV).
According to the Fundación Salvadoreña para el Desarrollo (FUSADES), by 1981 there were 164,000 displaced persons. The number of displaced persons leaving the country in search of refuge also increased, according to the report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Furthermore, Christian Legal Aid reported 12,501 deaths in 1981. 37/
The Commission on the Truth received direct testimony concerning 1,633 victims of serious acts of violence occurring in 1981.
1982 The 60-member Constituent Assembly 38/ adopted a new Constitution and elected an interim Government. Although PDC won the most votes (40.3 per cent), ARENA (29.3 per cent), in alliance with the Partido de Conciliación Nacional (PCN) (19 per cent) and other minority parties, won control of the Assembly. Roberto DAubuisson was elected President of the Constituent Assembly and two PCN members were elected Vice-Presidents. The Assembly ratified the 1962 Political Constitution. 39/ It also elected Alvaro Magaña Provisional President of the Republic and Raúl Molina Martínez (PDC), Gabriel Mauricio Gutiérrez Castro (ARENA) and Pablo Mauricio Alvergue (PCN), Vice-Presidents.
Decree No. 6 of the National Assembly suspended phase III 40/ of the implementation of the agrarian reform, and was itself later amended. The Apaneca Pact was signed on 3 August 1982, establishing a Government of National Unity, whose objectives were peace, democratization, human rights, economic recovery, security and a strengthened international position. An attempt was made to form a transitional Government which would establish a democratic system. Lack of agreement among the forces that made up the Government and the pressures of the armed conflict prevented any substantive changes from being made during Magaña's Presidency.
FMLN attacked the Ilopango Air Force Base, destroying six of the Air Forces 14 UH-lH helicopters, five Ouragan aircraft and three C-47s. 41/ The guerrillas stepped up their activities against economic targets. Between February and April, a total of 439 acts of sabotage were reported 42/ and the number of acts of sabotage involving explosives or arson rose to 782 between January and September. 43/ The United States Embassy estimated the damage to the economic infrastructure at US$ 98 million. 44/ FMLN also carried out large-scale operations in the capital city and temporarily occupied urban centres in the countrys interior. According to some reports, the number of rebels ranged between 4,000 and 5,000; other sources put the number at between 6,000 and 9,000. 45/
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Page 31Combined land-air military operations by the armed forces sought to regain control of populated areas controlled by the rebels. In one of these operations (31 January), 150 civilians were reported killed by military forces in Nueva Trinidad and Chalatenango. On 10 March, some 5,000 peasants were fired at from helicopters and shelled as they fled the combat zone in San Esteban Catarina. In August, a military campaign of "pacification" in San Vicente reported 300 to 400 peasants killed. 46/ In late November, 5,000 soldiers took part in a 10-day counter-offensive in northern San Salvador. The Ministry of Defence reported at the end of the operation that four districts had been recovered, with 20 soldiers and 232 guerrilla fighters killed. 47/
On 31 August, the Comisión Nacional de Asistencia a la Población Desplazada (CONADES) reported that there were 226,744 internally displaced persons. By June of that year, the number of Salvadorian refugees in Latin American countries totalled between 175,000 and 295,000. 48/
The United States Embassy reported a total of 5,639 people killed, of whom 2,330 were civilians, 762 were members of the armed forces and 2,547 were members of the guerrilla forces. Christian Legal Aid reported that during the first eight months of 1982, there were a total of 3,059 political murders, "nearly all of them the result of action by Government agents against civilians not involved in military combat". 49/ The same source reported that the total number of civilian deaths in 1982 was 5,962. 50/
The death squads 51/ continued to operate with impunity in 1982. On 10 March, the Alianza Anticomunista de El Salvador published a list of 34 people who had been condemned to death for "discrediting the armed forces". Most of them were journalists. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, referring to the discovery of clandestine graves of death squad victims, reported that on 24 May the bodies of more than 150 people had been dumped at Puerta del Diablo, Panchimalco. 52/ On 27 May, the bodies of six members of the Christian Democratic Party were found at El Playón, another clandestine mass grave used by the death squads. 53/ President Duarte publicly denounced the extreme right wing, holding it responsible for the murder of hundreds of PDC members and mayors. Four Dutch journalists were killed on 17 March 1982 (see the case in chap. IV).
The Commission on the Truth received direct testimony concerning 1,145 victims of serious acts of violence occurring in 1982.
II. 1983-1987: VIOLATIONS WITHIN THE CONTEXT OF THE ARMED CONFLICT
Violations of life, physical integrity and security continued to occur in urban centres. The number of violations fell but was accompanied by greater selectivity. In 1982, 5,962 people died at the hands of government forces; by 1985 the number had fallen to 1,655. 54/
There began to be a marked decrease in the activities of the death squads. During a visit to El Salvador, in December 1983, Vice-President Bush publicly condemned the death squads. He demanded the removal of certain armed forces and security officers who were associated with human rights violations. The visit demonstrated that United States diplomatic pressure could bring about a reduction in the number of violations.
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Page 32FMLN strengthened its structure and demonstrated strength in the military sphere. It carried out large-scale operations and exercised territorial control, albeit temporarily, in various parts of the country. In 1985, it began to use mines indiscriminately, causing many deaths among the civilian population. An intensive campaign for the destruction of economic targets unfolded, resulting in major property damage. Hostage-taking and murder, particularly of town mayors and government officials in areas of, or close to, the conflict became commonplace. The guerrillas sought thus to demonstrate, both within and outside the country, the existence of a "duality of power" in El Salvador.
During this phase, the military development of the war caused the armed forces to view the civilian population in the areas of conflict as "legitimate targets for attack". Indiscriminate aerial bombings, massive artillery attacks and infantry advances were carried out, all of which resulted in massacres and the destruction of communities in an effort to deprive the guerrillas of all means of survival. Because of the systematic use of this tactic by the armed forces, in violation of human rights, this phase was characterized by vast numbers of displaced persons and refugees. By 1984, there were reported to be 500,000 displaced persons within the country 55/ and 245,500 Salvadorian refugees abroad, bringing the total number of displaced persons to approximately one and a half million. Following much international criticism, the armed forces cut back on the use of air attacks against the civilian population.
On 4 May, the Constituent Assembly passed an Amnesty Law for civilians involved in political of fences. 56/ In November, it was agreed that the presidential elections, originally scheduled for December 1983, would be held on 25 March 1984. On 15 December, following 20 months of debate, the new Constitution was approved. 57/
Talks began between the Government and FDR-FMLN, although no positive results were achieved. Delegations from both sides met on 29 and 30 August in San José, Costa Rica, and on 29 September in Bogotá, under the auspices of the Presidents of the Contadora Group. 58/ On 7 October, President Magaña announced that the next round of talks had been cancelled, citing the refusal by FMLN to participate in elections. That same day, Victor Manuel Quintanilla, the senior FDR representative residing in El Salvador, was found dead, together with three other persons. The Brigada Anticomunista Maximiliano Hernández Martínez claimed responsibility.
FMLN continued its campaign of economic sabotage and its escalation of large-scale military actions. Between 15 and 18 January, the guerrillas launched an offensive and temporarily occupied towns in Morazán. On 29 January, in a similar action, FMLN occupied Berlin, a city of 35,000 inhabitants, for a period of three days, destroying the Police and the National Guard headquarters. For its part, the Government responded with a large-scale counter-offensive. Some days later, Monsignor Rivera y Damas accused the armed forces of being responsible for the high number of civilians killed - estimated at between 50 and 170 - and the property damage caused. On 22 February, uniformed soldiers kidnapped and summarily executed a group of peasants from a cooperative at
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Page 33Las Hojas, Sonsonate; the number of dead was estimated at 70 (see this case in chap. IV). On 16 March, Marianela García Villas, President of the Human Rights Commission of El Salvador (non-governmental) was executed by security forces. 60/
Between January and June, there were 37 large-scale military operations by government forces. On 25-26 September, FMLN attacked army positions in Tenancingo, and A-37 aircraft responded with aerial bombings; some 100 civilians were killed in this operation. 61/ In November, troops from Atlacatl Battalion invaded an area close to Lake Suchitlán under rebel control, and 118 people were reported killed as a result of the action. 62/ Towards the end of the year, FMLN embarked on its biggest military action against El Paraíso military base in Chalatenango; it is estimated that more than 100 soldiers were killed in the attack. On 25 May, the Clara Elizabeth Ramirez urban unit of FPL executed Marine Colonel Albert Schaufelberger, the second-ranking officer among the 55 United States military advisers in El Salvador. 63/
On 6 April, Mélida Amaya Montes (Commander Ana Maria), the second in command of FPL, was murdered in Managua. A few days later, on learning that a close collaborator of his had committed the crime, Salvador Cayetano Carpio, founder and leader of the majority faction of FMLN, committed suicide.
In 1983, the death squads continued operating; a high proportion of those murdered were leaders of the political opposition, trade union leaders, educators and church officials. According to a State Department briefing, death squad activities picked up again in May, and they became very active in October and November, primarily as a result of the continuing, though limited, dialogue between the Peace Commission and the left. 64/
On 1 November, the Brigada Anticomunista Maximiliano Hernández Martínez issued a death threat to Bishops Rivera y Damas and Rosas Chávez, warning them "to desist immediately from their disruptive sermons". In his farewell message, Ambassador Hinton referred to this event saying that he had never been able to understand the private sectors silence with regard to the activities of the death squads. 65/
On 4 November, the new Ambassador, Thomas Pickering, referred to the pressure being put on the Government of El Salvador to take action against the leaders of the death squads, mentioning, inter alia, Héctor Regalado, Chief of Security of the Constituent Assembly; Major José Ricardo Pozo, Chief of Intelligence of the Treasury Police; Lieutenant Colonel
Aristides Alfonso Márquez, Chief of Intelligence of the National Police and Colonels Denis Morán, Elmer Araujo González and Miguel Aifredo Vasconcelos. 66/
The most important event in this respect was the visit by the Vice-President of the United States, George Bush, to San Salvador on 9 December. Bush took the opportunity to state publicly that the death squads must disappear because they constituted a threat to the political stability of the Government. Later on he handed the Government a list of civilian and military personnel suspected of belonging to those clandestine organizations. 67/ From that time on there was a significant decrease in the activities of the squads and several government bodies announced that they planned to conduct investigations into the matter. 68/
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Page 34On 25 December, Monsignor Gregorio Rosas Chávez reported that 6,096 Salvadorians had died in 1983 as a result of political violence. The number of people killed by the army and the death squads was 4,700; the number of army and security forces personnel killed was 1,300. 69/
In the interior of the country, the number of displaced persons climbed to 400,000; this, added to the approximately 500,000 Salvadorians which UNHCR estimated to be in the United States and the 200,000 in Mexico and Central America, represented 20 per cent of the countrys total population. 70/
In his annual report, the Special Representative of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, José Antonio Pastor Ridruejo, said:
"... the number of civilians murdered for political reasons in El Salvador continues to be very high. This is, unfortunately, the feature of the human rights situation ... which causes the greatest concern." 71/
The Commission on the Truth received direct testimony concerning 513 victims of serious acts of violence occurring in 1983.
1984
PDC placed first in the March 1984 elections, with 43.41 per cent of the vote, followed by ARENA, with 29.76 per cent, and PCN, with 20 per cent. Since no party had obtained an absolute majority, a second round of balloting was held on 6 May between the two parties that placed highest. José Napoleón Duarte won
53.6 per cent and the ARENA candidate, Roberto DAubuisson, won 46.4 per cent. Duarte took office on 1 June and became the first civilian to be elected President in 50 years.
The trial of the members of the National Guard accused of murdering the American churchwomen in December 1980 was held during the interval between the elections and the time Duarte took office. The Government and institutions of the United States brought strong pressure to bear on the proceedings, for the United States Congress was considering emergency assistance to El Salvador. On 23 May, after finding them guilty, Judge Bernardo Rauda Murcia sentenced the five members of the National Guard to 30 years in prison. 72/
In October, President Duarte invited FMLN to talks. The meeting took place in La Palma, Chalatenango, on 15 October and was followed by a further meeting on 30 November in Ayagualo, La Libertad. Neither meeting was a success because of the positions taken regarding the conditions of a possible incorporation of FMLN into political life. 73/
As the war proceeded there was a decrease in the number of political murders but, at the same time, acts of war increased, as manifested by countless confrontations, acts of economic sabotage 74/ and massive counter-insurgency operations by the military in conflict zones.
On 23 October, the Ejército Revolucionario del Pueblo (ERP) tricked Colonel Domingo Monterosa, Commander of the Third Infantry Brigade, into locating and seizing what was thought to be the Radio Venceremos transmission
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Page 35centre. An explosive device which had been planted in the transmitter exploded while the unit was being transported by helicopter. The Colonel and those accompanying him were killed.
Despite indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks on the civilian population, the number of air attacks on the population dropped. At the same time, there was a marked decrease in the activities of death squads during the first months of the year. 76/ In April, however, Legal Protection reported that murders by death squads were on the increase again, following a two-month lull. 77/
In a document issued in September, Legal Aid reported that, during the first eight months of 1984, the number of civilian deaths attributed to the army, security forces and death squads came to 1,965. In his annual report, the Special Representative of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights stated that "... the persistence of civilian deaths in or as a result of combat weakens the favourable impression created by a decline in the number of political murders in non-combat situations." 78/
The Commission on the Truth received direct testimony concerning 290 victims of serious acts of violence occurring in 1984.
1985
Elections for the Legislative Assembly and the municipalities were held on 31 March and the Christian Democrats won. The loss of relative political control by ARENA led to a process of internal realignments which culminated, on 29 September, in the election of Alf redo Cristiani as President of the National Executive Committee of that party.
In the course of the year, the dialogue process remained at a standstill, because of the non-acceptance of the proposal that talks should continue without publicity so that the peacemaking effort might progress.
There was a marked stepping up of violence in military confrontations and operations in the areas where guerrillas were active. At the same time, FMLN had been carrying out a series of abductions and summary executions. 79/ The action having the greatest consequences was the attack carried out on 19 June, on a restaurant in the Zona Rosa in San Salvador, by the Partido Revolucionario de Trabaj adores Centroamericanos (PRTC). Four United States Marines from the United States Embassy were killed in the attack, together with nine civilians (see this case in chap. IV).
During 1985, FMLN carried out a series of abductions of mayors and municipal officials and, by September, 20 mayors had been abducted. The army captured Nidia Diaz, Commander of PRTC, in combat and Commander Miguel Castellanos deserted (see the case in chap. IV).
FMLN abducted President Duartes daughter. 80/ Following several weeks of negotiation with the mediation of the church and foreign Governments, FMLN exchanged Inés Guadalupe Duarte and 22 mayors for Nidia Diaz and a group of 21 leaders; 101 war-wounded FMLN combatants left the country.
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Page 36FMLN began to make widespread tactical use of mines in areas under its influence. As a result of this practice, a great many civilians were killed or maimed. Legal Protection put the number of persons killed by mines in 1985 at 31 and the Human Rights Commission of El Salvador (governmental) reported 46 people killed and 100 injured as a result of contact mines. 81/
No large-scale collective executions were carried out during the numerous military counter-insurgency operations. However, there were intensive aerial bombings and mass displacement of the peasant population in rural areas. 82/ Christian Legal Aid put the number of civilian non-combatant deaths attributable to government forces at 1,655. 83/ Legal Protection put the number of dead at 371. 84/
Death squad activity continued in 1985. Legal Protection cited 136 murders by death squads, as against 39 during the latter half of 1984. At the same time the Ejército Secreto Anticomunista (ESA) issued death threats to 11 members of the University of El Salvador and 9 of those threatened went into exile. Major DAubuisson, commenting on the squads, pointed out that they "had been operating in El Salvador since 1969, when the terrorist groups of the Communist Party were formed".
Different sources cited different figures for the number of persons injured and killed as a result of the fighting. The actual number was probably around 2,000. 86/
The Commission on the Truth received testimony concerning 141 victims of acts of serious violence occurring in 1985.
1986
The process of political dialogue on resolving the conflict remained deadlocked because of the radicalization of the parties. The war had a negative impact on production, and the process of recovery was slow. President Duarte adopted a programme of stabilization and reactivation of the economy; at the same time protests increased and the crisis deepened.
The Unión Nacional de los Trabajadores Salvadoreños (UNTS) and the Unión Nacional Obrero-Campesina (UNOC) began to act, organizing protests and popular demonstrations. They put forward economic demands and called for a dialogue between the Government and FMLN-FDR. UNTS and the Federación de Estudiantes Universitarios (FEUS), as well as other organizations, held three major protest demonstrations. In January, so-called "Operation Phoenix" began with the objective of regaining the Guazapa area from FMLN control. This operation continued throughout the year.
Vast numbers of people were displaced from their places of origin when they fled the counter-insurgency operations. Those affected established the Coordinadora Nacional de la Repoblación (CNR), which sought to regain the right of the civilian population to live in the areas from which they had come. These resettlement movements had the backing of the Church.
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Page 37President Napoleón Duarte proposed a new peace plan which FMLN rejected because the Salvadorian guerrilla movement refused to be compared to the Nicaraguan rebels. 87/ Throughout the year, President Duarte pressed for the convening of talks and the international community did likewise, in an effort to bring peace to the region. In June, after a second attempt to sign the Central American peace agreement failed, 13 Latin American nations made one final attempt to save the Contadora peace process. 88/ In September, President Duarte again proposed talks with FMLN-FDR in Sesori, San Miguel, but the guerrillas did not attend.
The violence continued. The counter-insurgency operations and repressive measures of the State security forces produced casualties as did abductions, summary executions, attacks on mayors offices and the laying of mines by FMLN. The activity of the death squads continued and the Ejército Salvadoreño de Salvación was born. In October, an earthquake in San Salvador caused hundreds of casualties and considerable property damage. A state of emergency was declared.
The Commission on the Truth received testimony concerning a total of 155 victims of serious acts of violence occurring in 1986.
III. 1987-1989: THE MILITARY CONFLICT AS AN OBSTACLE TO PEACE
The Esquipulas II Agreement 89/ signed by President Duarte provided a political opportunity for leaders of FDR to come back at the end of 1987. They participated as a coalition in the 1989 presidential elections.
Although progress was made in what the international community termed "the humanization of the conflict", 90/ there was a resurgence of violence, with a definite increase in attacks on the labour movement, human rights groups and social organizations. FMLN carried out a campaign of abductions, summary executions and murders against civilians affiliated with or sympathetic to the Government and the armed forces. The dialogue among the parties came to a standstill and it became clear that human rights violations were being fostered by institutional shortcomings, complicity or negligence and that they were the main obstacles to the peace process.
1987
Protests against tax measures and electoral reforms became more widespread, as did workers demonstrations and violence against leaders of the cooperative movement. 91/ In August 1987, the five Central American Presidents meeting in Guatemala signed the Esquipulas II Agreement, which called for the establishment of national reconciliation commissions in each country, an International Verification Commission and amnesty legislation. The Papal Nuncio, for his part, offered to host meetings between the Government and FMLN-FDR, with Archbishop Rivera y Damas acting as moderator. The parties publicly endorsed the Esquipulas II Agreement and announced the establishment of commissions to deal with the cease-fire and other areas covered by the Agreement.
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Page 38The Legislative Assembly adopted Legislative Decree No. 805, entitled "Amnesty Act aimed at achieving National Reconciliation". 92/ The Special Representative for El Salvador of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights 93/ and such human rights organizations as Americas Watch criticized the scope of the amnesty. 94/ In fact, Christian Legal Aid went so far as to bring an action challenging the constitutionality of the article which extended the benefit of amnesty to all kinds of of fences. 95/
Moreover, the coordinator of the Salvadorian Human Rights Commission (non-governmental), Herbert Anaya Sanabria, was murdered. The incident caused great outrage in the country. 96/ The United Nations Special Representative, José Antonio Pastor Ridruejo, reported more humanitarian patterns of conduct in the armed forces compared with the previous year. He also noted that he had not received any reports of mass murders attributed to the armed forces or of the use of torture. 97/ The Special Representative concluded by assigning responsibility to the guerrillas for most of the civilian deaths or injuries caused by the explosion of contact mines. He also referred to the forcible recruitment of minors by the guerrilla forces. 98/ Overall, however, there was a decline in the number of victims compared with 1986.
General Adolfo Blandón, Chief of the Armed Forces Joint Staff, presented his annual balance sheet, which stated that 75 per cent of the armed forces, estimated at over 50,000 men, had taken part in a total of 132 military operations. Government forces had suffered 3,285 casualties: 470 dead and 2,815 wounded, 90 per cent of whom had returned to active duty. Rebel casualties totalled 2,586: 1,004 dead, 670 wounded, 847 taken prisoner and 65 deserters. 99/
The Commission on the Truth received testimony concerning a total of 136 victims of serious acts of violence occurring in 1987.
1988
The elections for the National Assembly and municipal councils resulted in a majority for ARENA. FMLN attempted to boycott the elections with transport stoppages, kidnappings and murders, and by car-bombings. The Supreme Court, in application of the Amnesty Act, exonerated the officers and alleged perpetrators of the Las Hojas massacre, as well as those implicated in the murder of the American agrarian reform advisers and the Director of ISTA. 100/
The army reverted to the practice of mass executions, the most serious having occurred in the district of San Sebastián, San Vicente, where 10 peasants were killed (see reference to the case in chap. IV). Furthermore, the number of those killed by the death squads was three times higher than in 1987, averaging eight victims a month. 101/
FMLN began to target as military objectives municipal officials and suspected army informers. Thus, the guerrillas killed eight mayors (see reference to the case in chap. IV) and threatened to execute a similar number of informers. 102/ More than 150 people are estimated to have been killed by mines in 1988.
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Page 39The Commission on the Truth received testimony concerning 138 victims of serious acts of violence occurring in 1988.
IV. 1989-1991: FROM THE "FINAL OFFENSIVE" TO THE SIGNING OF THE PEACE AGREEMENTS
At 8 p.m. on Saturday, 11 November 1989, FMLN launched the biggest offensive of the war just a few days after the bombing of FENASTRAS headquarters. The impact of the offensive on the capital and other cities led the Government to decree a state of emergency. Beginning on 13 November, a 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew went into effect. 103/ The fighting that raged up to
12 December cost the lives of over 2,000 from both sides and caused material damage amounting to approximately 6 billion colones. 104/
The 1989 offensive was one of the most violent episodes of the war. The guerrilla forces took cover in densely populated areas during the skirmishes and urban areas were the targets of indiscriminate aerial bombardment. The critical situation in the country bred such violations as the arrest, torture, murder and disappearance of hundreds of non-combatant civilians. It was against this backdrop that the Jesuit priests and two women were murdered.
The parties realized that a decisive military victory was not within their grasp and resumed in greater earnest the negotiating process which led to the signing of the peace agreements.
Security Council resolution 637 (27 July 1989) endorsed the use of the good offices of the United Nations Secretary-General. The United Nations became a direct participant, mediating between the parties, until the ultimate signing of the agreements. The United Nations Secretary-General and his representatives intervened at crucial moments to keep one or the other of the parties from leaving the negotiating table.
The Geneva Agreement (April 1990), witnessed by the Secretary-General, marked the beginning of an irreversible embracing process drawing up an agenda and timetable (Caracas Agenda, 21 May 1990); human rights (San José Agreement, 26 July 1990); reforms in the army and the judicial and electoral systems and the establishment of the Commission on the Truth (Mexico Agreements, 27 April 1991), and finally the Chapultepec Agreement, the starting-point for the cessation of hostilities, disarmament and the implementation of the agreed institutional reforms.
1989
Two contradictory trends characterized Salvadorian society in 1989. On the one hand, acts of violence became more common, as did complaints of human rights violations, while on the other, talks between representatives of the Government of El Salvador and members of the FMLN leadership went forward with a view to achieving a negotiated and political settlement of the conflict. 105/
In the presidential elections, Alf redo Cristiani, 106/ the ARENA candidate, was elected while FMLN called for a boycott of the elections and a transport stoppage during election week. A number of incidents occurred in university
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Page 40centres. 107/ Systematic intimidation and threats against pastoral workers of various churches and social workers of different church institutions continued. 108/
FMLN continued its policy of "ajusticiamientos" (summary executions) and threats against mayors, forcing them to leave office; one third of the territory of El Salvador was affected. 109/ In addition, the number of politically motivated murders increased, most of them attributed to the rebels. The cases which caused the most outrage were the murder of former guerrilla commander Miguel Castellanos (17 February) (see chap. IV); the execution of Mr. Francisco Peccorini Letona; the murder of the Attorney General of the Republic, Roberto Garcia Alvarado; the murder of José Antonio Rodriguez Porth, who only days before had assumed the post of the Presidents Chief of Staff, together with his chauffeur and another person with him. Mr. Rodriguez Porth, who was 74 years of age, was wounded by several gun shots in front of his house and died a few days later in the hospital. In addition there was the murder of conservative ideologue Edgard Chacón; the execution of Gabriel Eugenio Payes Interiano 110/ and the death of prominent politician Francisco José Guerrero, former President of the Supreme Court, on 24 November in an operation which the Government claimed was carried out by the urban commandos of FMLN (see chap. IV).
Progress was made in the dialogue between FMLN and the Salvadorian Government. 111/ The talks continued in Mexico City from 13 to 15 September, in San José, Costa Rica, beginning on 16 October and in Caracas a month later. Observers from the Catholic Church of El Salvador, the United Nations and the Organization of American States were present.
Following the bombing of the offices of the Federación Nacional Sindical de Trabajadores Salvadoeñes (FENASTRAS) 112/ (see chap. IV), FMLN suspended talks with the Government.
On 16 November 1989 army units murdered the Jesuit priests of the Central American University (UCA): Ignacio Ellacuria, Rector of the University, Segundo Montes, Ignacio Martín-Baró, Armando López, Juan Ramón Moreno and Joaquin López, together with housekeeper Elba Ramos and her 15-year-old daughter, Celina Ramos (see chap. IV).
Colonel René Emilio Ponce, Chief of the Armed Forces Joint Staff, reported that the body count was 446 soldiers dead and 1,228 wounded, and 1,902 guerrillas killed and 1,109 wounded. 113/
The Commission on the Truth received direct testimony concerning 292 victims of serious acts of violence occurring in 1989.
1990
In 1990, negotiations proceeded and made real progress, while at the same time the war continued. Héctor Oqueli Colindres (see chap. IV.), leader of the Movimiento Nacional Revolucionario (MNR) 114/ was abducted and killed in Guatemala. Former President José Napoleón Duarte died and FMLN marked the occasion by proclaiming a unilateral cease-fire on the 24th and 25th.
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Page 41According to the Annual Report of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights 1990-1991, 119 people, 53 of whom were executed by death squads and 42 by the army, died as a result of political murders attributable to military or paramilitary groups. FMLN executed 21 persons, 14 of those executions being considered political murders. 115/
There were fewer civilian deaths than in 1989. The numbers dropped sharply after the signing of the San José Agreement on Human Rights on 26 July 1990. The armys military operations accounted for 852 victims, but it is not known how many were FMLN combatants and how many were civilians.
In his report on the human rights situation for 1990, the Special Representative of the United Nations shared the concern of the Commission on Human Rights about the alarming frequency with which members of civil defence units had been involved in serious acts of murder, robbery, assault, rape and abuse of authority, keeping the population in a permanent state of fear and insecurity. 117/
The delegations of the Government and the Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional met in Geneva and agreed to resume talks. On 20 May 1990, the parties signed an agreement in Caracas which contained the agenda for the negotiations aimed at ending the conflict and established a definite timetable. 118/ The parties continued to meet on 19 June in Oaxtepec, Mexico, to discuss demilitarization and military impunity. The round of talks concluded without producing any agreement. As part of the process, what was regarded as the first substantive agreement, dealing with respect for human rights, was signed on 26 July, which has come to be known as the San José Agreement. Both parties undertook to respect the most fundamental rights of the human person and to institute a procedure for international verification by a United Nations mission.
In August, there was another round of talks to discuss the armed forces that ended once again without agreement. The deadlock in the talks led the United Nations Secretary-General to announce on 31 October that henceforth the negotiations would be held in secret.
Towards the middle of November, FMLN stepped up its military operations in various areas as a means of exerting military pressure to get the stalled negotiating process moving again. The international community responded with appeals to FMLN to desist from those operations. 119/
The Commission on the Truth received direct testimony concerning 107 victims of serious acts of violence occurring in 1990.
1991
The negotiating process between the Government of El Salvador and FMLN went forward during 1991. At the same time, the parties were faulted for serious acts of violence. On 2 January, in San Miguel, FMLN forces shot down a helicopter manned by three American advisers and executed the two survivors (see chap. IV). On 21 January, persons in uniform in El Zapote executed 15 members of a family. 120/ On 28 February, Mr. Guillermo Manuel Ungo died after a long
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Page 42illness. The same day, FMLN announced that it would not, as it had in the past, boycott the March elections. On 10 March, 53 per cent of registered voters took part in the general legislative and municipal elections held in El Salvador. 121/
The process of dialogue advanced with two rounds of negotiations: one in Mexico from 3 to 6 January and the other in San José from 19 to 21 February, yielding no concrete results. Meanwhile, the level of violence of the war intensified throughout the country. 122/
On 4 April, Mexico City played host to the representatives of the Government and FMLN for the eighth round of negotiations, which went on until 27 April. Significant agreements were reached involving constitutional reforms affecting such aspects as the armed forces and the judicial and electoral systems, which were adopted by the Legislative Assembly on 29 April. It was in these Agreements that the parties decided to establish the Commission on the Truth. 123/
On 26 July, with the prior and full support of the United Nations Security Council resolution 693 (1991) and of the Legislative Assembly of El Salvador, the United Nations Observer Mission in El Salvador (ONUSAL) was launched and its Human Rights Division immediately became operational. The United Nations Secretary-General invited the parties to meet with him in New York. On 25 September they concluded the agreement known as the New York Act, which established the National Commission for the Consolidation of Peace (COPAZ). A process of purification and reduction of the armed forces was set in motion, the parties undertook to redefine the doctrine for the armed forces and confirmed the applicability of the Mexico Agreements of 27 April 1991. Furthermore, several economic and social agreements were concluded and an agenda was drawn up for negotiations on all outstanding issues.
The signing of the El Salvador Peace Agreement at Chapultepec, Mexico, on 16 January 1992, marked the culmination of the negotiating process and the beginning of the implementation phase of the agreements. It was also specifically agreed at Chapultepec to link the work of the Commission on the Truth with the clarification and ending of impunity. 124/
For the first six months of 1991, the Commission on the Truth received testimony concerning 28 victims of serious acts of violence.
The signing of the Peace Agreement in Chapultepec put an end to 12 years of armed conflict in El Salvador and the events mentioned in this brief chronology are only part of the tragic events of El Salvadors recent history. The Chapultepec Peace Agreement should also be the beginning of a new period that augurs a promising future for this Central American nation through national reconciliation.
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Page 43A. GENERAL OVERVIEW OF CASES AND PATTERNS OF VIOLENCE IV. CASES AND PATTERNS OF VIOLENCE 125/
The Commission on the Truth registered more than 22,000 complaints of serious acts of violence that occurred in El Salvador between January 1980 and July 1991. 126/ Over 7,000 were received directly at the Commissions offices in various locations. The remainder were received through governmental and non-governmental institutions. 127/
Over 60 per cent of all complaints concerned extrajudicial executions, over 25 per cent concerned enforced disappearances, and over 20 per cent included complaints of torture.
Those giving testimony attributed almost 85 per cent of cases to agents of the State, paramilitary groups allied to them, and the death squads.
Armed forces personnel were accused in almost 60 per cent of complaints, members of the security forces in approximately 25 per cent, members of military escorts and civil defence units in approximately 20 per cent, and members of the death squads in more than 10 per cent of cases. The complaints registered accused FMLN in approximately 5 per cent of cases.
Despite their large number, these complaints do not cover every act of violence. The Commission was able to receive only a significant sample in its three months of gathering testimony.
This also does not mean that each act occurred as described in the testimony. The Commission investigated certain specific cases in particular circumstances, as well as overall patterns of violence. Some 30 of the cases dealt with in the report are illustrative of patterns of violence, in other words, involve systematic practices attested to by thousands of complainants.
Both the specific cases and the patterns of violence show that, during the 1980s, the country experienced an unusually high level of political violence. All Salvadorians without exception, albeit to differing degrees, suffered from this violence.
The introduction to the report and the section on methodology contain an explanation of this phenomenon.
Patterns of violence by agents of the State and their collaborators
All the complaints indicate that this violence originated in a political mind-set that viewed political opponents as subversives and enemies. Anyone who expressed views that differed from the Government line ran the risk of being eliminated as if they were armed enemies on the field of battle. This situation is epitomized by the extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances and murders of political opponents described in this chapter.
Any organization in a position to promote opposing ideas that questioned official policy was automatically labelled as working for the guerrillas. To belong to such an organization meant being branded a subversive.
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Page 44Counter-insurgency policy found its most extreme expression in a general practice of "cutting the guerrillas lifeline". The inhabitants of areas where the guerrillas were active were automatically suspected of belonging to the guerrilla movement or collaborating with it and thus ran the risk of being eliminated. El Mozote is a deplorable example of this practice, which persisted for some years.
In the early years of the decade, the violence in rural areas was indiscriminate in the extreme.
Roughly 50 per cent of all the complaints analysed concern incidents which took place during the first two years, 1980 and 1981; more than 20 per cent took place in the following two years, 1982 and 1983. In other words, over 75 per cent of the serious acts of violence reported to the Commission on the Truth took place during first four years of the decade.
The violence was less indiscriminate in urban areas, and also in rural areas after 1983 (95 per cent of complaints concerned incidents in rural areas and S per cent concerned incidents in more urban areas).
Patterns of FMLN violence
The Commission registered more than 800 complaints of serious acts of violence attributed to FMLN. This violence occurred mainly in conflict zones, over which FMLN at times maintained firm military control.
Nearly half the complaints against FMLN concern deaths, mostly extrajudicial executions. The rest concern enforced disappearances and forcible recruitment.
The patterns show that this violence began with the armed conflict. It was considered legitimate to physically eliminate people who were labelled military targets, traitors or "orejas" (informers), and even political opponents. The murders of mayors, right-wing intellectuals, public officials and judges are examples of this mentality.
Members of a given guerrilla organization would investigate the activities of the person who might be designated a military target, a spy or a traitor; they would then make an evaluation and take a collective decision to execute that person; special groups or commandoes would plan the action and the execution would then be carried out. After the extrajudicial execution, the corresponding organization would publicly claim responsibility for propaganda purposes. FMLN called such executions "ajusticiamientos".
These executions were carried out without due process. The case of Romero Garcia, alias Miguel Castellanos, in 1989 is typical of extrajudicial executions ordered by FMLN because the victims were considered traitors. He was not given a trial. After a time, FMLN claimed responsibility for having ordered the killing. It never revealed which organization had carried out the execution.
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Page 45The killings of mayors and the murder of United States military personnel in the Zona Rosa were carried out in response to orders or general directives issued by the FMLN Command to its organizations.
In the Zona Rosa case in 1985, the execution of Mr. Peccorini in 1989, and the execution of Mr. Garcia Alvarado that same year, different member organizations of FMLN interpreted general policy directives restrictively and applied them sporadically, thereby triggering an upsurge in the violence.
In the case of executions of mayors, on the other hand, instructions from the FMLN General Command were interpreted broadly and applied extensively. During the period 1985-1989, the Ejército Revolucionario del Pueblo repeatedly carried out extrajudicial executions of non-combatant civilians. There is no concept under international humanitarian law whereby such people could have been considered military targets.
The Commission was not able to verify the existence of general directives from the FMLN leadership to its constituent organizations authorizing enforced disappearances. It did receive complaints of some 300 cases of disappearance, which occurred mainly in areas where FMLN exercised greater military control. It was not possible to establish the existence of any pattern from an analysis of these complaints. Nevertheless, links were observed between disappearances, forcible recruitment by FMLN and cases of extrajudicial execution by FMLN members of individuals labelled spies or traitors.
The extrajudicial execution of the United States military personnel who survived the attack on their helicopter in San Miguel in 1991 cannot be viewed as the norm. FMLN admitted that some of its members had been responsible, and stated publicly that it had been a mistake. However, there is no record that those who carried out the execution were actually punished.
Lastly, although the number of complaints of the alleged use of land-mines by guerrilla forces was small, the Commission considered accusations made by various organizations against FMLN to that effect. Members of FMLN admitted to the Commission that they had laid mines with little or no supervision, so much so that civilians and their own members who were not sufficiently familiar with the location of minefields had been affected. The Commission did not find any other evidence on this subject.
B. VIOLENCE AGAINST OPPONENTS BY AGENTS OF THE STATE
1. ILLUSTRATIVE CASE: THE MURDERS OF THE JESUIT PRIESTS
SUMMARY OF THE CASE
In the early hours on 16 November 1989, six Jesuit priests, a cook and her 16-year-old daughter were shot and killed at the Pastoral Centre of José Simeón Cañas Central American University (UCA) in San Salvador. The victims were Fathers Ignacio Ellacuría, Rector of the University; Ignacio Martín-Baró, Vice-Rector; Segundo Montes, Director of the Human Rights Institute; Amando López, Joaquín López y López and Juan Ramón Moreno, all teachers at UCA; and Julia Elba Ramos and her daughter, Celina Mariceth Ramos.
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Page 46Criminal proceedings were subsequently brought against members of the armed forces for the murders; they included Colonel Guillermo Alf redo Benavides Moreno, Director of the Military College, accused of having given the order to murder the priests; Lieutenant Yusshy René Mendoza Vallecillos, an officer of the Military College, and Lieutenants José Ricardo Espinoza Guerra and Gonzalo Guevara Cerritos, officers of the Atlacatl Battalion, all of them accused of commanding the operation; and five soldiers of the Atlacatl Battalion, accused of committing the murders.
In 1991, a jury found Colonel Benavides guilty of all the murders and Lieutenant Mendoza Vallecillos guilty of the murder of the young girl, Celina Mariceth Ramos. The judge imposed the maximum sentence, 30 years in prison, which they are currently serving. The judge also found Colonel Benavides and Lieutenant Mendoza guilty of instigation and conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism. Lieutenants Espinoza and Guevara Cerritos were sentenced to three years for instigation and conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism. Lieutenant Colonel Hernández was convicted by the judge of being an accessory, as was Mendoza Vallecillos. All, except for Colonel Benavides and Lieutenant Mendoza, were released on bail and remained in the armed forces.
The Commission on the Truth makes the following findings and recommendations:
1. On the night of 15 November 1989, then Colonel René Emilio Ponce, in the presence of an in collusion with General Juan Rafael Bustillo, then Colonel Juan Orlando Zepeda, Colonel Inocente Orlando Montano and Colonel Francisco Elena Fuentes, gave Colonel Guillermo Alf redo Benavides the order to kill Father Ignacio Ellacuria and to leave no witnesses. For that purpose, Colonel Benavides was given the use of a unit from the Atlacatl Battalion, which had been sent to search the priests residence two days previously.
2. Subsequently, all these officers and others, including General Gilberto Rubio Rubio, knowing what had happened, took steps to conceal the truth.
3. That same night, Colonel Guillermo Alf redo Benavides informed the officers at the Military College of the order for the murder. When he asked whether anyone had any objection, they all remained silent.
4. The operation was organized by then Major Carlos Camilo Hernández Barahona and carried out by a group of soldiers from the Atlacatl Battalion under the command of Lieutenant José Ricardo Espinoza Guerra and Second Lieutenant Gonzalo Guevara Cerritos, accompanied by Lieutenant Yusshy René Mendoza Vallecillos.
5. Colonel Oscar Alberto León Linares, Commander of the Atlacatl Battalion, knew of the murder and concealed incriminating evidence.
6. Colonel Manuel Antonio Rivas Mejia, Head of the Commission for the Investigation of Criminal Acts (CIHD), learnt the facts and concealed the truth;
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Page 47he also recommended to Colonel Benavides measures for the destruction of incriminating evidence.
7. Colonel Nelson Iván López y López, who was assigned to assist in the CIHD investigation, learnt what had happened and concealed the truth.
8. Rodolfo Antonio Parker Soto, a lawyer and member of the Special Honour Commission, altered statements in order to conceal the responsibility of senior officers for the murder.
9. The Commission believes that it is unfair that Colonel Guillermo Alf redo Benavides Moreno and Lieutenant Yusshy René Mendoza Vallecillos should still be in prison when the people responsible for planning the murders and the person who gave the order remain at liberty. In the Commissions view, the request by the Society of Jesus that Colonel Guillermo Alf redo Benavides Moreno and Lieutenant Yusshy René Mendoza Vallecillos be pardoned should be granted by the relevant authorities.
DESCRIPTION OF THE FACTS
In the early hours of 16 November 1989, a group of soldiers from the Atlacatl Battalion entered the campus of José Simeón Cañas Central American University (UCA) in San Salvador. They made their way to the Pastoral Centre, which was the residence of Jesuit priests Ignacio Ellacuría, Rector of the University; Ignacio Martín-Baró, Vice-Rector; Segundo Montes, Director of the Human Rights Institute; and Amando López, Joaquín López y López and Juan Ramón Moreno, all teachers at UCA.
The soldiers tried to force their way into the Pastoral Centre. When the priests realized what was happening, they let the soldiers in voluntarily. The soldiers searched the building and ordered the priests to go out into the back garden and lie face down on the ground.
The lieutenant in command, José Ricardo Espinoza Guerra, gave the order to kill the priests. Fathers Ellacuria, Martín-Baró and Montes were shot and killed by Private Oscar Mariano Amaya Grimaldi, Fathers López and Moreno by Deputy Sergeant Antonio Ramiro Avalos Vargas. Shortly afterwards, the soldiers, including Corporal Angel Pérez Vásquez, found Father Joaquín López y López inside the residence and killed him. Deputy Sergeant Tomás Zarpate Castillo shot Julia Elva Ramos, who was working in the residence, and her 16-year-old daughter, Celina Mariceth Ramos. Private José Alberto Sierra Ascencio shot them again, finishing them off.
The soldiers took a small suitcase belonging to the priests, with photographs, documents and $5,000.
They fired a machine gun at the façade of the residence and launched rockets and grenades. Before leaving, they wrote on a piece of cardboard:
"FMLN executed those who informed on it. Victory or death, FMLN."
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Page 48Preceding events
A few hours earlier, on 15 November between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m., Colonel Guillermo Alf redo Benavides Moreno, Director of the Military College, met with the officers under his command. The officers present included Major Carlos Camilo Hernández Barahona, Captain José Fuentes Rodas, Lieutenants Mario Arévalo Meléndez, Nelson Alberto Barra Zamora, Francisco Mónico Gallardo Mata, José Vicente Hernández Ayala, Ramón Eduardo López Larios, René Roberto López Morales, Yusshy René Mendoza Vallecillos, Edgar Santiago Martínez Marroquin and Second Lieutenant Juan de Jesus Guzmán Morales.
Colonel Benavides told them that he had just come from a meeting at the General Staff at which special measures had been adopted to combat FMLN offensive, which had begun on 11 November. Those present at the meeting had been informed that the situation was critical and it had been decided that artillery and armoured vehicles should be used.
Those present at the meeting had also been informed that all known subversive elements must be eliminated. Colonel Benavides said that he had received orders to eliminate Father Ignacio Ellacuria and to leave no witnesses.
Colonel Benavides asked any officers who objected to the order to raise their hands. No one did.
Major Hernández Barahona organized the operation. Troops from the Atlacatl Battalion were used, under the command of Lieutenant
José Ricardo Espinoza Guerra. In order to overcome any reluctance on his part, it was arranged that Lieutenant Yusshy René Mendoza Vallecillos, who had graduated from officer training school in the same class ("tanda") as him, would also participate.
After the meeting, Major Hernández Barahona met with Lieutenant Mendoza Vallecillos, Lieutenant Espinoza Guerra and Second Lieutenant Gonzalo Guevara Cerritos of the Atlacatl Battalion. In order to pin responsibility for the deaths on FMLN, they decided not to use regulation firearms and to leave no witnesses. After the murders, they would simulate an attack and leave a sign mentioning FMLN.
It was decided to use an AK-47 rifle belonging to Major Hernández Barahona, because the weapon had been captured from FMLN and was identifiable. The rifle was entrusted to Private Mariano Amaya Grimaldi, who knew how to use it.
In order to reach UCA, it was necessary to pass through the defence cordons of the military complex. Lieutenant Martínez Marroquin arranged for the Atlacatl soldiers to pass.
Lieutenants Espinoza Guerra and Mendoza Vallecillos and Second Lieutenant Guevara Cerritos left the Military College in two pick-up trucks with the soldiers from the Atlacatl Battalion. They went to some empty buildings which are close to the UCA campus, where other soldiers of the Atlacatl Battalion were waiting. There, Lieutenant Espinoza indicated who would keep watch and who would enter the Jesuits residence.
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Page 49Background
Members of the armed forces used to call UCA a "refuge of subversives". Colonel Juan Orlando Zepeda, Vice-Minister for Defence, publicly accused UCA of being the centre of operations where FMLN terrorist strategy was planned. Colonel Inocente Montano, Vice-Minister fo