CAFOD voices shock at closure of human rights office in El Salvador

Thousands of cases remain unresolved

The Archbishop's Human Rights Office in El Salvador was closed suddenly last week. This office has documented human rights abuses in the country ever since, the 1970s. It holds more than 50,000 archive documents of human rights abuses in El Salvador. There are huge concerns about the future of these archives and also the closure of the legal aid fund which is relied upon by massacre survivors to take legal action.

CAFOD who has been supporting the work of Tutela Legal since 1981, has made the following statement:

CAFOD is shocked and bewildered at the abrupt closure of the San Salvador Archdiocesan Human Rights and Legal Aid Office, Tutela Legal on 30 September 30.

Tutela Legal is the most respected Church-based human rights organisation with the highest reputation in El Salvador and across Latin America; its work has given the Church huge credibility in difficult times and its reports formed the basis of the United Nations' Truth Commission findings at the end of the decade-long civil war.

We are concerned at the manner in which Archbishop Escobar Alas ordered the offices of Tutela to be closed: private security personnel escorted staff - many of them with decades of faithful service - to their desks giving them just ten minutes to collect their belongings and leave, obliging them to sign papers that they were ‘satisfied’ with the arrangement.

CAFOD has supported the establishment and closely accompanied the work of Tutela since 1981. Its work serves the poorest, most marginalised and victimised communities in El Salvador, demanding justice for thousands of survivors and victims of El Salvador’s brutal civil war.

CAFOD’s head of Latin America Clare Dixon said: "Tutela Legal is a source of pride for the universal Church, widely admired for its courageous and professional service to the poorest victims of human rights abuses. Its sudden closure can only bring comfort to the enemies of truth, justice and reconciliation which Tutela has sought so long to establish."

The initial explanation given by the Archbishop was that “Tutela Legal no longer has a raison d'etre", arguing that its work was no longer needed.

Whist the civil war may be over, El Salvador is a desperately polarised society and there are still huge issues of justice and peace and human rights violations. Tutela’s forensic research and legal accompaniment is still vital as communities find themselves at the mercy of abusive practices by mining and extractive industries, gang violence and organised crime.

In the face of massive protests at the closure, from inside and outside the Church, the Archbishop issued a second communique, casting a shadow over the reputation of staff members whilst providing no further explanation or basis for accusations against them.

We are also concerned about the preservation of the more than 50,000 case files which represent years of painstaking research which are at the heart of ensuring that justice is seen to be done, including cases of massacre that Tutela is currently presenting at the Inter-American Court for Human Rights.

We are calling for the reversal of the decision to close the Archdiocese Offices of Tutela Legal, and for its staff to be reinstated."