El Salvador Killings

This article “El Salvador Arrests Ex-Military Officers in 1989 Jesuit Killings” was about killings of six Jesuit priests, a housekeeper and her teenage daughter back in 1989. Recently, the El Salvadoran police force raided two days to find out 20 ex-military officers, who were involved in the killings during 1989. As a result four men were arrested inside El Salvador and now authorities are looking for rest of the 16 men. The article mentions that the killing was conducted by “the Salvadoran high command in 1989, have planning, ordering and carrying out these murders.” (Malkin, 2016) The men arrested this week were former colonel, Guillermo Alfredo Benavides, the man behind giving order for the killings to other military unit. He was convicted
of murder and terrorism in 1991, along with lieutenant, but both were released due to amnesty agreements. The other convicts were former sergeant and former corporal. However, there hasn’t been arrest or detained for the former high-commander. The convicted high-command officers are giving statement to television saying they were not involved in the Jesuit killings as well they denied conviction in Spanish court. They have released statement saying, “We remind the Salvadoran people that those who were truly responsible for the deeds were tried, convicted and amnestied.” (Malkin, 2016) This killing dates back to the time when there was military intervention in the Latin American countries.
The article mentioned, “The killings were carried out by the high command’s orders by an elite military unit trained by the United States.” (Malkin, 2016) The members of military unit entered in to the Central American University in San Salvador and killed the rector, the Rev. Ignacio Ellacuria, and five other priests in the garden in front of their house. They killed housekeeper and her daughter because they were the potential witnesses of that crime. At the same time, the United States was providing aid to the military to stop civil war in El Salvador. The civil war was carried by the organization called Farabundo Marti Front for National Liberation (FMLN) in El Salvador. (Vanden, 2015) The United States provided about 5 billion aids to stop the revolution. Later in 1990s, peace agreement was made and the FMLN became the major political party in El Salvador. (Vanden, 2015) This killing was occurred due to the result of this brutal civil war in El Salvador. After the 1992 peace agreement, the case was not fully prosecuted in El Salvador. The victim’s family took their case to Spain because five of the six priests were Spanish. In 2011, Spanish National Court issued an indictment of accusing 20 former military men for the killings of priests, housekeeper and her
daughter. Well, after referring to the history of civil war in El Salvador and looking on this particular case. El Salvador has ruling parties from F.M.L.N therefore the government of El Salvador will not acted on Judge Velasco’s 2011 warrants. However, now the El Salvadoran police raided but they just arrested the lower level former military men. Still the Salvadoran officials are leaving the mastermind of those killings behind. The Judge Velasco of Spanish National Court issued indictment of accusing 20 former military men during 2011, however until now the El Salvadoran authority has arrested low ranking officers leaving the heads of that killings. As well as it could be possible that these higher officers might have good relation with the current El Salvadoran administration.