On February 5, the Supreme Court of El Salvador delivered an unprecedented decision ordering the country’s General Prosecutor to investigate the 1981 massacre of 45 civilians in the community of San Francisco Angulo. The Court ruled that a previous stalled investigation had violated the rights of victims, and that a new investigation must make its results public and bring charges against perpetrators.
In a statement, Human Rights Ombudsman David Morales hailed the decision and recognized the “tireless work” of the Madeline Lagadec Center for Human Rights, which has accompanied surviving victims of the massacre, who filed legal complaints in 2006. Morales’ statement describes the massacre in no uncertain terms:
“…in these actions some 45 people were cruelly exterminated, all civilians, the majority of them women and children from the community of San Francisco Angulo. This crime was perpetrated by a death squad made up of Armed Forces troops and members of the Civil Defense of Tecoluca. The massacre is fully proven by witness testimony, as well as the exhumation of 30 victims…carried out in 2005 and 2006”.
The Supreme Court’s decision comes as survivors across El Salvador are calling for the investigation of crimes against humanity relating to torture, illegal detention, forced disappearances, and massacres. In March of 2013, Salvadoran citizens came forward with 43 legal complaints for such crimes; others have since joined with their own denunciations of grave human rights violations committed by the Salvadoran Armed Forces and their paramilitary allies.
The recent decision may also hint at the Court’s leanings regarding a pending decision on the constitutionality of a 1993 amnesty law which has shielded perpetrators from consequences for their participation in or ordering of human rights abuses, showing that the Court does not see the amnesty law as providing human rights violators with absolute protection from investigation and sanction for their crimes.