Amnesty International Report 1998 - El Salvador

(This report covers the period January-December 1997)

At least five people died in circumstances suggesting that they had been extrajudicially executed. Human rights defenders were threatened. The reintroduction of the death penalty was not pursued.

Elections in March for the Legislative Assembly resulted in the ruling Alianza Republicana Nacionalista (arena), Nationalist Republican Alliance, losing its majority and gains for the Frente Farabundo Martí de Liberación Nacional (fmln), Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, the main opposition party.

In April the Legislative Assembly approved a Penal Code and Penitentiary Law which complemented the Procedural

Penal Code approved in 1996 (see Amnesty International Report 1997). The Penal Code created new offences such as torture and enforced disappearance, and stated that these crimes would not be subject to statutes of limitations. The Codes were due to come into effect in January 1998.

In July the UN Verification Office (onuv) in El Salvador, the last UN body overseeing the implementation of the peace process, was closed. In August the final report on the UN's direct presence in El Salvador stated that changes to the military forces had transformed them into a professional body functioning according to the mandate given them by the peace accords. The report welcomed advances in establishing a new Supreme Court of Justice, but regretted the slow progress in the purging of dishonest or incompetent judges and judicial officials as provided for in the peace accords. The report also urged the implementation of recommendations towards national reconciliation, such as compensation for victims of human rights violations.

At least five people were reported to have died in circumstances suggesting that they had been extrajudicially executed. Various groups, including the church, claimed that clandestine armed groups within the police force were operating as "social cleansing squads", targeting members of juvenile gangs and criminal suspects. There were investigations by the authorities in some cases, but in many others there was none.

In February, during the election campaign, Moisés Cano Reyes was killed instantly when a group of up to 12 men dressed in black, wearing face masks and carrying m-16 guns, revolvers and grenades, opened fire on a group of people socializing in Nejapa, Cantón Calle Vieja, San Salvador department. Pedro René Ardón Peña was injured and died later as a result of his injuries. Two other people were injured. All those killed or injured were fmln members. By the end of the year, no one had been brought to justice for these deaths. Other fmln members were attacked during the election campaign, including a deputy and a candidate for the National Assembly. Those responsible were reported to have been members of the ruling arena party.

In April, 16-year-old Alexander Alberto Guillén and Jaime Ernesto Molina Rivas were shot dead in Colonia Carlota, barrio San Jacinto, San Salvador, and Víctor Baldemar Orellana was seriously wounded. According to witnesses, three men carrying firearms, with their faces covered and wearing military boots, emerged from a car with tinted windows and approached a group of six young men on a street corner. Three ran away and the other three were searched at gunpoint, then shot. Two weeks earlier, a patrol of the Policía Nacional Civil (pnc), National Civil Police, had approached and searched the group in the same place and told them they should not gather in groups. The methods and appearance of the attackers suggested that they were members of illegal groups operating either from within the security forces or in close connection with them. Although dozens of pnc agents were arrested and charged with crimes or abuse of authority, the institutional changes called for in the peace accords appeared to be some way from full implementation. Many cases involving pnc members were not properly investigated.

In May José Rodolfo García Avendaño died after being kicked and beaten by a group of policemen in Ilobasco. José García, a manual worker, was standing with a group of other men outside a house when a group of about 15 policemen – in uniform and civilian clothes – ordered them to raise their arms for a search. All but José García, who was slightly drunk, obeyed. He told the policemen he had done nothing wrong and was going away. The group of policemen threw him to the ground, kicked him and beat him with gun-butts. They then left José García unconscious on the ground. He was taken to hospital, where he died two days later. Five policemen were arrested a few days after his death.

Proceedings in the case of Francisco Antonio Manzanares Monjaraz, an fmln member killed in October 1996, made progress. He claimed to have been under surveillance in the weeks before he was killed by eight heavily armed men in Colonia Satélite de Oriente, department of San Miguel (see Amnesty International Report 1997). In October 1996 a pnc sergeant was charged with premeditated murder and a pnc agent with complicity. In October 1997 the First Criminal Court of San Miguel ruled that there was evidence of a plan to kill Francisco Manzanares, that he had been under surveillance and that the killing had been political. The Court changed the charge of premeditated murder against the pnc sergeant to one of complicity and the pnc agent was charged with premeditated murder. In October organizers of an event in San Miguel to commemorate the first anniversary of the killing of Francisco Manzanares were allegedly followed and placed under surveillance by members of the pnc.

In November Dr Victoria Marina Velásquez de Avilés, National Human Rights Procurator, received anonymous telephone death threats. Since taking office in 1995, Dr Velásquez de Avilés had received several death threats and threats against her daughters (see Amnesty International Report 1997). By the end of the year there had been no investigations into any of the threats.

As a result of arena losing its majority in the National Assembly, the President of the Assembly's Commission on Legislation announced in April that arena would not seek ratification of a motion to reintroduce the death penalty (see Amnesty International Report 1997). arena officials made it clear, however, that the party had not abandoned its intention to reinstate capital punishment.

In March Amnesty International wrote to President Armando Calderón Sol to express its concern about the attack on fmln members in late February, and other apparently politically motivated attacks. It called on the government to take the necessary measures to guarantee the safety of political activists and asked for information about the investigation into the incident and measures to bring those responsible to justice. Amnesty International reiterated its concern about illegal armed groups and the impunity they had enjoyed for many years.

Amnesty International called on the authorities to guarantee the safety of those working on the case of Francisco Manzanares. Amnesty International also expressed concern about the continuing death threats against the National Human Rights Procurator and called for an immediate, impartial and thorough investigation into those threats, for those responsible to be brought to justice, and for immediate and effective measures to ensure her protection.

Amnesty International welcomed the decision not to pursue the reintroduction of the death penalty and urged the government to take steps to sign and ratify the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty, and the Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights to Abolish the Death Penalty.