Amnesty International Report 1995 - El Salvador

Members of the former armed opposition, including election candidates, were killed in circumstances suggesting that they had been extrajudicially executed. Despite human rights reforms introduced by the peace accords, these killings were committed with impunity. People identified with the opposition were subjected to death threats and attacks. There was concern about ill-treatment of detainees by the new police force and about harsh prison conditions. Elections in March and April 1994 returned the ruling Alianza Republicana Nacionalista (ARENA), Nationalist Republican Alliance, to power. President Armando Calderón Sol, who defeated the opposition coalition candidate, Rubén Zamora, in a second round in April, took office in June. The presidential, legislative and municipal elections were to have completed the implementation of the peace accords, signed in 1992 by the government and the Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional (FMLN), Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front. However, certain key measures had still not been implemented by the end of 1994. The new Policía Nacional Civil (PNC), National Civilian Police, continued to take on police and army personnel allegedly responsible for human rights violations in the past. The transfer to the PNC of members of the former Comisión Investigadora de Hechos Delictivos, Criminal Investigation Commission, and of the Anti-Narcotics Unit, both notorious for committing or covering up abuses in the past, was linked to continued abuses by the new police force, such as ill-treatment and excessive use of force. The process of judicial reform was boosted by the election of a new Supreme Court of Justice in July. The role of the judiciary in human rights violations committed during the armed conflict had been particularly criticized in the 1993 report of the Truth Commission (see Amnesty International Report 1994). The Commission had recommended the removal of Supreme Court judges and the evaluation of all judicial personnel; this evaluation was continuing at the end of 1994. In April the outgoing Legislative Assembly adopted a number of constitutional reforms incorporating some of the recommendations of the Truth Commission. However, key recommendations went unheeded, including further judicial reforms, reparation for victims of past human rights violations and accession to international human rights instruments. In April the UN Human Rights Committee examined El Salvador's second periodic report on its implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In its conclusions it expressed concern that the work of the Truth Commission and the future protection of human rights had been undermined by the 1993 amnesty law (see Amnesty International Report 1994). Observers from the UN Observer Mission in El Salvador (ONUSAL) continued to monitor compliance with the peace accords. The Grupo Conjunto para la Investigación de Grupos Armados Ilegales con Motivación Política, Joint Group for the Investigation of Politically Motivated Illegal Armed Groups, set up in December 1993 under UN auspices to investigate political violence since the end of the war, published its report in July 1994. The report concluded that organized groups carrying out political violence continued to operate, although their relation to state structures was more obscure and indirect than that of the so-called "death squads" of the past. Apparent links between political violence and organized crime made it difficult to ascertain motives in specific cases. Nevertheless, the Joint Group found evidence to suggest that many of the killings, attacks and threats reported since 1992 were politically motivated, and pointed to the absence of an official investigation in almost all cases. The Joint Group called for measures including the strengthening of El Salvador's judicial system, and the setting up of a special unit within the PNC to follow up cases of political violence. President Calderón Sol, who also received from the Joint Group a confidential appendix naming suspected perpetrators, promised to investigate all charges backed up by substantive evidence. However, the report was vehemently criticized as inconclusive and confusing by the Defence Minister, echoing the military's reaction to the Truth Commission's report in 1993. Little progress appeared to have been made by the end of the year to follow up the Joint Group's findings. There were several killings which appeared to be politically motivated extrajudicial executions. Among the victims were members of the FMLN involved in the elections or in peace accord reforms. Most of the cases were not investigated and the pattern of killings suggested official involvement. On 27 March Heriberto Galicia Sánchez was shot dead by unidentified individuals near his home in San Miguel. Seven days earlier he had stood unsuccessfully as candidate for the Legislative Assembly for the Movimiento Nacional Revolucionario (MNR), the National Revolutionary Movement, which had an electoral alliance with the FMLN. Heriberto Galicia was a leading member of the MNR and of the Sugar Workers' Union, SINAZUCAR. MNR members alleged that the murder was politically motivated and that Heriberto Galicia had previously received anonymous death threats by telephone. FMLN member José Isaías Calzada Mejía, chair of an election monitoring committee in Jicalapa, department of La Libertad, was killed on the day of the second round of presidential elections. His body, with several bullet wounds, was found dumped near the road to San Salvador. According to witnesses, he had received death threats earlier in April during a quarrel with members of ARENA and the centrist Partido Demócrata Cristiano (PDC), Christian Democratic Party, when he accused them of electoral irregularities. José Isaías Calzada Mejía had previously been attacked, allegedly by armed local arena members. He and other FMLN activists in the area had also previously received other death threats. David Merino Ramírez, FMLN coordinator of the land transfer program in Usulután, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in a restaurant outside San Salvador on 11 November. Two FMLN leaders from San Vicente, one of whom was also involved in land transfers, were injured in the attack. To Amnesty International's knowledge, no one was brought to justice for any of the above killings. Nor was there any apparent progress in similar cases reported since the end of the armed conflict. In July 1994 the PNC arrested two men accused of the 1993 murder of FMLN leader Francisco Velis (see Amnesty International Report 1994). But even in this high-profile case, proceedings appeared to have stalled by the end of the year. The failure of the authorities to carry out effective investigations into political killings and other human rights violations was repeatedly criticized by ONUSAL. In its report of July 1994, ONUSAL's human rights division reported on the progress of judicial investigations into 75 cases of violations of the right to life since 1992. In not one case had those responsible been brought to justice. In a quarter of the cases no judicial proceedings whatsoever had been initiated. New cases surfaced of previously unreported extrajudicial executions and "disappearances" by government forces during the armed conflict. However, the 1993 amnesty law continued to deny relatives of such victims the right to an investigation, to reparation and to justice. Numerous opposition political figures and others identified with the opposition received death threats or were attacked. On 19 May unidentified people shot at the vehicle of Marta Valladares (formerly Commander Nidia Díaz), who had recently been elected to the Legislative Assembly as an FMLN deputy and President of the Assembly's Justice and Human Rights Commission. Her bodyguard, Elmer Cruz Pineda, who had suffered a similar attack in February, was injured. According to ONUSAL, the PNC's Criminal Investigation Division appeared to have deliberately avoided pursuing significant leads in the case. In May the offices of the women's organization Movimiento Salvadoreño de Mujeres (MSM), Salvadorian Women's Movement, were ransacked by unidentified assailants who destroyed documents but did not steal any valuables. The following day, Alexánder Rodas Abarca, a reserve PNC member and security guard for an FMLN faction, was shot dead as he guarded the faction's offices, which were shared with a human rights organization. Although police investigations were initiated into the incidents, no progress was reported. Death threats continued to be issued in the name of "death squads" which had claimed responsibility for vast numbers of extrajudicial executions during the period of armed conflict, indicating the persistence of these clandestine structures. The targets of such groups included officials and church figures prominent as human rights advocates. In June individuals identifying themselves as members of the Comando Domingo Monterrosa (named after a military official killed in the 1980s), issued death threats against the Archbishop of San Salvador, Monsignor Arturo Rivera y Damas, and his auxiliary Monsignor Gregorio Rosa Chávez. Both had denounced the persistence of "death squads". The same month, the Comando Domingo Monterrosa telephoned the Salvadorian news media with death threats against a list of people including the Human Rights Procurator and the Attorney General. Cases of torture and ill-treatment by new and existing police units were reported. On 10 May Avilio Ricardo Martínez was allegedly tortured in detention by PNC members in San Miguel who tried to force him to confess to a robbery. PNC members and soldiers carrying out law enforcement functions were also reported to have used excessive force in several incidents which resulted in suspects being killed. Jesús Molina Ramírez was shot three times while attempting to avoid arrest by members of the Fourth Military detachment for allegedly stealing a bicycle. ONUSAL reported that military officials had tried to cover up the case by coercing witnesses. There was a series of riots in prisons around the country protesting against overcrowding and inhuman prison conditions. During the riots, it was alleged in some cases that prison guards had either been responsible for the death of inmates or had failed to protect them from other inmates. An Amnesty International delegation visited El Salvador in June to follow up cases of apparent extrajudicial execution and death threats and to assess the progress of human rights related reforms. It held talks with government and non-governmental representatives, as well as ONUSAL. Before the elections, Amnesty International sought guarantees for the safety of all participants. It urged the authorities to investigate cases of possible extrajudicial execution and death threats, and called for the remit of the Joint Group to permit a thorough investigation into human rights violations and the bringing to justice of those responsible. Amnesty International urged the incoming government to ensure full compliance with the peace accords' provisions for the protection of human rights and to fulfil its obligation to tackle the impunity enjoyed by those committing human rights violations.