Organizations denounce stagnation in the judicial process of the El Mozote massacre, as well as in cases of the disappearance of children.

CEJIL shares the statement of the Association for the Search for Disappeared Children, Tutela Legal Dr. María Julia Hernández, the Association for the Promotion of Human Rights of El Mozote and the Cristosal Foundation.

December 10, 2024. The stagnation of the judicial process in the case of the massacre of El Mozote and surrounding sites, which, despite being one of the cases of the armed conflict with the greatest quantity and quality of evidence, has not been elevated to the final stage of the plenary, public hearing and sentencing. The paralysis in the case has occurred since the appointment of the current San Francisco Gotera Instructional Judge, Licda. Mirtala Portillo, in September 2021, following the unconstitutional removal of her predecessor, Judge Jorge Guzman.

On November 6, 2024, the current judge decided to separate from the main judicial process the cases of the forced disappearances of the girls Emelinda Hernández, Ana Julia and Carmelina Ramírez, whose investigation has also been ordered by two judgments of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR), although these facts were committed within the framework of the same massacres. The breakdown of these cases leaves them without most of the evidence contained in the general case of the massacre, related to the existence of the military massacre operation and the evidence related to the responsibility of former Minister of Defense Guillermo Garcia and the remaining defendants, all former officers of the Atlacatl Battalion. In this way, the trials of the disappeared girls, now separated, are almost back to their initial state.

In the case of the girl Emelinda Hernández, based on the exhumations carried out in 2022, the same court ordered the restitution of her remains to her mother, which was carried out in November of this year and has allowed the closure of a long-delayed mourning. However, the current judicial decision may generate new uncertainty in the family, by initiating the investigation again for disappearance, when the court had already notified her of the “reasonable probability” that the remains delivered to her -and that she watched over and buried- are those of her daughter. The above, in addition, can have an adverse psychosocial effect on the process that was already underway in her case.

The appeals presented on behalf of the families of the three girls have been rejected by the judge, in a tone that evidences her animosity and partiality against the legitimate actions of the private prosecution, who legally represent the victims in the process.

This recent judicial decision has occurred, moreover, in a context of recurrent violations of due process by Judge Mirtala Portillo, who for the past three years has applied dilatory judicial criteria that have paralyzed the effective progress of the trial. Among them, the promotion of various investigative measures that are repetitive with respect to facts already proven, which are carried out without the presence of the parties and without a prior court order for their realization.

On the other hand, the case has been hindered by the incorporation of an investigation for facts other than the massacre and disappearances, related to the criminal prosecution of former deputies to whom the approval of the 1993 amnesty law is attributed, delaying the process for at least a year. Such prosecution was ordered under inconsistent legal criteria and in any case should have been processed separately.

The stagnation of the judicial process occurs in a context of serious failures by the Government to implement the reparations ordered by the Inter-American Court 12 years ago, as well as the refusal of the Legislative Assembly to process the Special Bill for Transitional Justice for Victims of the Armed Conflict in El Salvador, presented last October 29, by victims’ groups and human rights organizations. At least 143 victims of the massacre have died since the filing of the original complaint, without having had access to justice.

Therefore, we publicly demand full compliance with the Inter-American and constitutional rulings that order justice and reparations for the victims of the El Mozote massacre and surrounding sites. We especially demand that the judicial delay of the case cease and that it proceed to the plenary, public hearing and sentencing phase.

SIGNATORIES

PRO BUSQUEDA -Association for the Search for Disappeared Children,

Tutela Legal Dr. María Julia Hernández

Association for the Promotion of Human Rights of El Mozote

Cristosal Foundation.