El Mozote: Why did the trial for the worst massacre in Latin America return to zero?

Last week, in a move that could well serve to remove the spotlight from his relentless quest for absolute power, the president of The Savior Here’s to watching announced that it would declassify the military files on the El Mozote massacre.

“We remain committed that if there are any missing files to be searched, they will even be made into the public domain”, He said after remembering that many of them were destroyed.

The situation is clearly contradictory because, as indicated by “The New Yorker”, it seems that Watch he is determined to avoid more talk of the subject.

In August of this year, the president ordered the retirement of all judges over 60 years of age, which affected the work of Jorge Guzman Urquilla (61), who was in charge of the massacre in the courts.

He was the one who decided that the process warranted a “criminal charge”.

“This may be the proof that Watch is trying to finish the process”, Writes the medium.

Why is there so much fear about El Mozote?

It is the last great massacre to take place in Latin America, the events of which took place in 1981.

Lo explica “The New Yorker”: “A counterinsurgency unit of the Salvadoran army, the Atlacatl Battalion, newly formed and trained by USA, he engaged in a sweep through the territory held by the leftist guerrillas of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN)”.

For three days, in El Mozote and “surrounding settlements”, they murdered 1,000 people, “mostly women and children, included ” 248 “children under the age of six”.

“It so happened that El Mozote It was an evangelical Christian people not aligned with the guerrillas; its population had increased by people fleeing the fighting, who thought they would be safe there”, agrega “The New Yorker”.

But that was roughly what happened. The details are chilling.

The afternoon of December 10, 81, the army arrived at Mozote – “that only had about 20 houses“-, they forced people to leave the houses and the”they lay face down” in the square.

They were interrogated and re-entered the houses.

What followed was to separate people into groups and “they locked them up in the village church” for interrogate, torture and execute them.

The same fate was met by women and minors, who were machine-gunned to death.

The fire caused by them finally consumed the place.

There were survivors: a few came to hide in ravines and caves, from where they left to see the remains of their relatives.

JUSTICE, FOR WHEN?

For years, the survivors of the massacre had no chance for justice to be served. Until, in 2016, the Supreme Court “repealed the 1993 General Amnesty Law″.

Since then, the subject has been discussed again and certain events have been recalled.

For example, “The New York Times” notes that as soon as Ronald Reagan became president of the United States, sent aid to The Savior to fight against communism, embodied in guerrillas like the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front.

Already in December, a “campaign to get insurgents out of the mountains”. According to a “judgment“Of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the operation began with a”aerial and artillery bombardment”Before the Mozote massacre.

However, the meddling of the court ended the chances of justice.

“Five days after the UN issued its report in 1993, El Salvador’s national assembly granted an amnesty for war crimes committed during this period.“Writes” NYT. “

And the medium adds: “Thus, impunity for the atrocities committed – 85,000 civilians were killed or disappeared during the conflict – was now enshrined in the law and it seemed that the military leaders would remain untouchable.”.

But the case was reopened, and among the news it was known that, during the massacre, he was present “American Sergeant Major Bruce Hazelwood”, Asesor de EE.UU.

Hazelwood “declared secretly before the United Nations Truth Commission”And was asked about the Colonel Domingo Monterrosa -who died in 1984 due to a guerrilla attack-, responsible for the massacre.

He answered: “I will not say that Monterrosa did not order it”.

And when the guilt of the Salvadoran State became more evident, a new setback has just happened.

Not only was it enough that, a few weeks ago, Wilfredo Medrano died, the lawyer who accompanied the victims for a decade, and who was in charge of the trial that began in 2017 – and for him until “the end of 2019 he had testified 46 witnesses” – .

Nor was it enough for the judge in charge of the case, Jorge Guzmán, to be dismissed from his duties due to a recent and controversial reform. He, in October 2016, “reopened the case, where a retired military man confessed, for the first time, the existence of the massacre”.

It has just been known that the president of the Supreme Court, Óscar López, announced that the trial will have to start over from scratch and, this time, led by the replacement of Guzmán.

It is worth noting that, according to “La Prensa”, the arrival of López to that position was thanks to Bukele, after his congressmen dismissed “the five members of the Constitutional Chamber, which included the president of the Supreme Court”.