Man linked to priest slayings in El Salvador arrested

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Reuters

Man linked to priest slayings in El Salvador arrested
Reuters

5:19 p.m. EDT, August 23, 2011

BOSTON (Reuters) - A former Salvadoran military officer linked to the notorious killing of six Jesuit priests during El Salvador's vicious civil war was arrested on Tuesday, officials said.

Inocente Orlando Montano was taken into custody without incident by authorities, according to a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's office in Massachusetts.

~snip~
Montano, officials learned, served in the Armed Forces of El Salvador from 1963 to 1994 and retired as a colonel. He later held the post of Public Safety Vice-Minister while the country's military government was waging civil war, the criminal complaint said.

Montano has been linked to a gruesome killing of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her teenage daughter.

The group was killed at their home at a local university on November 16, 1989. The priests had been critics of the human rights abuses committed by the army during the 12-year civil war that ended in 1992.

Read more: http://www.courant.com/news/nation-world/sns-rt-us-crime-etre77m8ci-20110823,0,198924.story

[gratuitous]

1. Somewhere, a goose walks across Dick Cheney's grave

I just hope it doesn't take 22 fucking years to bring our own domestic swine to face justice. As long as we have presidents who refuse to investigate serious crimes of their predecessors under the misguided notion that it would be politicizing policy differences (no, crimes against humanity are crimes against humanity; nothing political to investigating them at all), we may have to wait that long if not longer.

In the meantime, I hope none of the survivors of U.S. crimes get any hot-headed ideas about exacting retribution on their own. Truly. I hope and pray that.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Killings of 6 Jesuit Priests by US-Backed Salvadoran Forces

Killings of 6 Jesuit Priests by US-Backed Salvadoran Forces
Posted on July 6, 2011 by jagadees
Thousands of human rights activists are gathering at Fort Benning, Georgia this weekend for the annual protest to shut down the US Army training center once known as the School of the Americas. The school, now known as the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, or WHISC, is used to train Latin American soldiers in combat, counterinsurgency and counter-narcotics. Critics have dubbed the training center the “School of the Assassins,” because some of its graduates have been responsible for some of the worst human rights abuses in Latin America.

This year’s protest will commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the murder of six Jesuit priests in El Salvador, their housekeeper and her daughter by the US-backed Salvadoran military. The Jesuit priests were killed November 16, 1989, twenty years ago this week, when a military unit entered the Central American University campus and shot them to death—the priests’ housekeeper and her daughter also killed. The Jesuits had been outspoken advocates for the poor and critics of human rights abuses committed by the ARENA government. Many of the soldiers involved in the murders were graduates of the School of the Americas at Fort Benning.

Earlier this week in El Salvador, the Jesuit priests were bestowed the nation’s highest civilian award, marking the first time the Salvadoran government has honored the priests since their deaths. El Salvador’s defense minister announced the military is ready to ask for forgiveness and open its archives to a long-sought investigation.

More:
http://jagadees.wordpress.com/2011/07/06/killings-of-6-jesuit-priests-by-us-backed-salvadoran-forces/

http://cache.daylife.com.nyud.net:8090/imageserve/0702aAXfAXcb6/439x.jpg

A garden has been planted to mark the spots where the assassination targets fell.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com.nyud.net:8090/_e529C8IQH7w/SwH4Krc4emI/AAAAAAAAAyo/BWcF8E8Au-w/s1600/Martyrs+of+El+Salvador.jpg

[duhneece]

3. Thank you. nt

[EFerrari]

4. Finally. n/t

[whathehell]

5. It's about time...That was a hideous multiple murder. n/t