Spanish trial of soldiers who killed priests raises hopes of ending impunity in El Salvador
Source: Guardian
Spanish trial of soldiers who killed priests raises hopes of ending impunity in El Salvador
US-trained elite troops killed six Jesuits and two women at Central American University in 1989. Now the perpetrators face a criminal trial
Nina Lakhani in San Salvador
Friday 8 April 2016 06.00 EDT
Every so often, Father Jon Sobrino makes the short walk from his office in San Salvador to the pretty little rose garden where, 26 years ago, soldiers forced five of his Jesuit colleagues to lie face down on the ground before shooting each one in the back of the head.
After killing the five Spaniards, the soldiers then shot an infirm Salvadoran priest in his bedroom before opening fire on the Jesuits’ housekeeper and her teenage daughter as they cowered in the guest room.
The 1989 killings at the Central American University (UCA) in San Salvador was one of the most notorious crimes committed during El Salvador’s 12-year civil war, which left 75,000 civilians dead and only formally ended in 1992.
Sobrino – who still works just a few steps away from the site of the atrocity – only escaped because he was teaching missionaries in Thailand at the time. It was the middle of the night when a friend in San Salvador called with the news.
Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/08/spanish-trial-of-soldiers-behind-uca-atrocity-raises-hopes-of-ending-impunity-in-el-salvador
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Images of the vicious crime scene are too graphic to post, however they are important. Google images:
https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1317&bih=574&q=murdered+priests+el+salvador&oq=murdered+priests+el+salvador&gs_l=img.3...782.5999.0.6340.19.1.3.15.18.0.90.90.1.1.0....0...1ac.1.64.img..0.1.89.Gr0bpWWv0yA#imgrc=_
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