US deports general linked to killing of 'Martyrs of El Salvador'

One of the generals who has been charged in what the US Department of Justice has called the "terrorist murders" of six Jesuit priests in El Salvador, along with their housekeeper and her young daughter in November 1989, has been deported by the United States Government.

The LA Times said the deportation to El Salvador of General Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova for his participation in war crimes was one of 'two landmark cases' because they set new precedents. It opens the path for his extradition to Spain where he is charged with murder, terrorism and crimes against humanity.

Professor Terri Karl of Stanford University, said: "These are landmark cases, in part because they are actions against former US allies that conducted 'dirty wars' in Latin America, but also because they set important new legal precedents. General Vides is the highest ranking human rights abuser ever to be deported under a 'No Safe Haven' law passed by the US Congress, after extensive hearings from, among others, the Center for Justice and Accountability team involved in a 2002 civil suit against Generals Vides and Garcia."

The Human Rights Law Division of the Department of Homeland Security, where Prof Karl worked on this case, is currently pursuing removal cases involving suspected human rights violators from 97 different countries. The precedent of the Vides Casanova case refutes a previous policy that permitted known Nazi criminals, among others, to reside in the United States of America.

A spokesperson said that this case makes clear that their efforts are aimed at ensuring that "the United States does not become a safe haven for human rights abusers". Professor Karl says that on a personal note, these two cases mark an important time for her. "I started studying El Salvador and collecting human rights information in 1980 (35 years ago). I witnessed more terror than I ever thought possible. Three of the murdered Jesuits had been invited to Stanford University as Visiting Scholars immediately before their deaths; they were the country's best scholars, and we were hoping to have them join us. I will never forget what I saw and heard in Central America. If you look at these pictures of the mothers of the disappeared (right), at the airport for the arrival of General Vides, you may see what I mean."

If, as is widely expected, another senior military official from this period - Colonel Inocente Montano - is also extradited following a hearing in North Carolina, his will be the first criminal trial in Spain dealing with the widespread atrocities committed during the Salvadoran civil war, and it is an important step towards breaking the impunity that sustains the violence currently wracking that country.

Source: Jesuit Communications

For more information about the Martyrs of El Salvador, see: www.indcatholicnews.com/news.php?viewStory=26022