They order the capture of former president Alfredo Cristiani and four soldiers for massacre

A court in San Salvador ordered the capture of former Salvadoran president Alfredo Cristiani and four soldiers accused of the massacre of six Jesuit priests and two collaborators, which occurred in 1989 during the civil war that devastated the country.

The hearing for the massacre began last week and this Monday the court decided to send 11 accused of masterminding that massacre to trial, five of them absent.

These are Cristiani, former deputy Rodolfo Parker and former soldiers Joaquín Cerna, Juan Rafael Bustillo and Juan Orlando Zepeda for whom an arrest warrant was issued.

The rest of the defendants remain on parole.

In the early hours of November 16, 1989, during the largest guerrilla offensive in El Salvador, an elite commando of the Salvadoran Army murdered the religious and two women on the campus of the José Simeón Cañas Central American University (UCA).

The murdered priests were Ignacio Ellacuría, Segundo Montes, Ignacio Martín-Baró, Amando López and Juan Ramón Moreno and Joaquín López. Also, Elba Ramos, the university collaborator and her daughter Celina Ramos.

Previous convictions

For this crime, former colonel Guillermo Benavides Moreno, the first highest-ranking officer of the El Salvador army to be sent to 30 years in prison for the massacre, has already been sentenced.

Likewise, Inocente Montano was sentenced, who is serving a sentence of 133 years in Spain.

The repeal of the 1993 Amnesty Law, made by a 2016 constitutional ruling, allowed the reopening of the process in 2017 at the request of the Central American University (UCA).

The army of the time considered the UCA Pastoral Center a “refuge for subversives.”

Connect with the Voice of America! Subscribe to our channels YouTube, WhatsApp and to newsletter. Turn on notifications and follow us on Facebook, x and instagram.