Covering events from January - December 2002

REPUBLIC OF EL SALVADOR
Head of state and government: Francisco Flores
Death penalty: abolitionist for ordinary crimes
International Criminal Court: not signed

There were renewed efforts in the fight against impunity. Trade union leaders were threatened as a result of their lawful activities.

Background

January marked the 10th anniversary of the Peace Accords which brought an end to the armed conflict in El Salvador. Despite improvements in the human rights situation during this period, those responsible for the massive human rights violations committed during the country's 11-year conflict had not yet been brought to justice, an issue central to the peace process. However, local organizations renewed their efforts to ensure accountability for the violations.

Economic conditions in some areas of the country deteriorated dramatically as a result of bad weather or low prices for agricultural products in the international market, leading to high levels of child malnutrition, in some cases resulting in deaths.

Impunity

The struggle to end impunity continued. A case brought by three Salvadoran torture victims against two former Salvadoran army generals in the USA stimulated renewed efforts within El Salvador. The case, brought under US civil legislation, resulted in the court ruling in favour of the victims and imposing punitive financial damages on the defendants, all of whom were resident in the USA.

Non-governmental organizations submitted proposals to the authorities to provide medical assistance to victims of torture and to investigate "disappearances" during the conflict. They also proposed initiatives to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights that would lead to the annulment of the Amnesty Law, so that prosecutions could be initiated against those responsible for human rights violations.

In March the Office of the Human Rights Procurator, PDDH, published a report on the case of Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero, who was murdered in 1980. The PDDH recommended that the case should be reopened. The authorities had not taken up this recommendation by the end of 2002.

In October the Supreme Court of Justice allowed an appeal filed in late 2001 in the case of six Jesuits who were murdered in 1989 along with their housekeeper and her daughter. The appeal was against a decision in 2001 in which the Third Magistrate's Court of San Salvador had dismissed all charges against high-ranking civilian officials and military officers accused of ordering the killings. The Supreme Court ruled, among other things, that the right to access to justice had been obstructed. Further proceedings were pending. In a resolution issued in November the PDDH accused the state of failing to investigate, prosecute or punish those involved in the murders and therefore of failing to comply with the recommendations made by the Truth Commission in 1993. The resolution also considered the Amnesty Law, which prevented legal proceedings against those involved in human rights violations, and asked parliament to annul it.

Threats to trade unionists

In October leaders of trade unions in the health sector received death threats. Doctors and other health personnel were involved in prolonged strikes during 2002 in opposition to government plans to privatize health services. Trade unions argued that the outsourcing of ancillary services marked the start of a privatization process which would damage the population's health care.

  • Dr Guillermo Mata, President of the Colegio Médico, Medical Association, Dr Melvin Guardado, President of the Asociación de Médicos del Sistema Nacional de Salud, Association of Doctors in the National Health Service, Dr Ricardo Alfaro Barahona, Secretary General of the Sindicato de Médicos Trabajadores del Instituto de Seguro Social (SIMETRISS), Doctors' Union in the Institute of Social Security, and approximately 27 other health professionals, received death threats in October. The anonymous threats were communicated by telephone to the individuals' homes, all in the capital, San Salvador. They allegedly came from a self-styled "death squad" calling itself Comando de Exterminio, Extermination Command. AI urged the government to investigate the threats and bring those responsible to justice and to ensure that people were free to carry out legitimate trade union activities.

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