The Truth Commission and the Jesuit Massacre

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The Truth Commission and the Jesuit Massacre

The outbreak of the Salvadoran Civil War in 1980 initiated twelve years of violent conflict within Central America’s most densely populated nation. For years, President Ronald Reagan employed a traditional Cold War platform to reinforce conservative governments, insisting that the leftist insurgency organization, the Frente Faribundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional (FMLN), posed a dangerous threat to global democracy. The Jesuit massacre in 1989 forced the international community to recognize the horrendous scores of crimes against humanity that transpired throughout the Salvadoran Civil War. In 1991, the Salvadoran courts finally convicted twenty members of the military of war crimes; but this relatively small step towards justice rang hollow when all twenty soldiers were released only two years later under the terms of an international amnesty law. Spanish Judge Eloy Velasco recently reopened the case under the universal jurisdiction law, expressing his personal objection regarding the failure to bring the militants and associated death squads to justice. While the resurrection of the case may represent a small triumph for civic rectitude and the eight victims of the Jesuit Massacre, it is quite possible that the culprits would once again escape conviction, as few precedents are in place regarding universal jurisdiction law.

This analysis was prepared by COHA Research Associate Jennifer Nerby.
To read the full article, click here .

Priests, Hookers, and Guns: Tales from Cuscatlán
The Council on Hemispheric Affairs (COHA) is proud to announce the release of the newly completed English edition of Dr. Francisco Acosta’s autobiography, Priests, Hookers, and Guns: Tales from Cuscatlán. Acosta, who currently serves as a COHA Senior Research Fellow, is a prominent member of Washington’s metropolitan Latino community. He has served as the President of CASA Maryland and took part in the negotiations in Washington that ultimately terminated the Salvadoran Civil War. In addition to such activism within the United States, Acosta founded the Bishop Oscar Romero University in Chalatenango, El Salvador.
Priests, Hookers, and Guns: Tales from Cuscatlán is a highly emotional and humorous account of Acosta’s life on El Salvador’s Guazapa Volcano. This captivating series of vignettes catalogues more than three decades of Salvadoran history, ending with the outbreak of the Salvadoran Civil War in the early 1980s. A delightful mix of historical analysis and personal anecdote, this compelling work truly captures the inspirational as well as the horrific moments in recent Salvadoran history.
The Spanish edition of Priests, Hookers, and Guns: Tales from Cuscatlán will be published by the University of Central America in the fall of 2011 and will be presented at the Salvadoran Embassy in Washington, D.C on October 5th at 6pm.

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