Arrest warrants issued for three former Salvadoran guerrillas (July 25, 2017)

A Salvadoran issued arrest warrants against three former guerrillas last week, the first since an amnesty law was struck down last year, reports El Diario de Hoy. They are sought in connection to the execution of two U.S. soldiers killed in 1991, in the midst of the country's civil war. 

The warrants come amid mounting criticism of inaction with regards to human rights violations committed during the conflict, which lasted between 1979 and 1991, reports the Guardian. El Salvador’s civil war left about 80,000 people dead, 8,000 missing and a million displaced , according to a 1993 UN Truth Commission report.

The vast majority of war crimes were attributed to the American-backed armed forces and paramilitaries. Which makes it surprising that the first warrants out are for former guerrillas, notes the Guardian.

El Salvador's Supreme Court struck down a 1993 amnesty law as unconstitutional last year. (See posts for July 14 and July 15, 2016.) Chief prosecutor Douglas Meléndez told the court last week that a unit created to investigate war crimes is working on 139 reports of human rights violations during the armed conflict, reports La Prensa Gráfica. But he said he lacks resources -- just three prosecutors are working on a case load that would require 50, he said.

The case in question involves the summary execution of Lt Col David Pickett and Cpl Earnest Dawson, who were wounded when a U.S. army helicopter was shot down by FMLN guerrillas in the San Miguel district. According to the U.N. report, they were killed by Fernán Fernández Arévalo, on the orders of guerrilla leader Severiano Fuentes. The two presented themselves to justice in 1992, and were in pretrial detention when the amnesty law freed them, reports La Prensa Gráfica separately.

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