Recent days have brought new developments in the University of Washington’s long-standing lawsuit against the US Department of Defense for access to records pertaining to wartime atrocities in El Salvador. In this case, originally filed in December 2017, the University of Washington seeks the declassification of US documents pertaining to the armed conflict, focusing particularly

On Tuesday, April 2, 2019, the University of Washington Center for Human Rights celebrated the success of a hearing in federal district court regarding its ongoing Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the US Department of Defense and Southern Command (SOUTHCOM). At the hearing SOUTHCOM agreed to release relevant portions of two previously unseen collections

Newly declassified U.S. Government documents show American Embassy’s support for the El Mozote massacre trial and other cases of wartime abuses, and provide new insight into wartime dynamics and atrocities such as the assassination of Archbishop Óscar Romero, UN involvement in El Salvador, and the alleged corruption and crimes against humanity committed by U.S.-trained Salvadoran Armed Forces and former Defense Minister García.

The University of Washington Center for Human Rights has received the first major cache of newly-declassified documents from our Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the US Department of Defense, filed in December 2017. The documents, which are publicly accessible via UW Libraries, reveal key operational details about military operations, deeply relevant to many families’ ongoing search for basic information about the context in which loved ones were victimized or abducted. Sadly, they also reveal frustrating limitations to agencies’ compliance with FOIA, underscoring the need for greater transparency across the board.

A new report from the UWCHR’s Unfinished Sentences project features the story of former Salvadoran political prisoner Rafael Segura, whose legal case represents progress for survivors of torture and arbitrary detention during the civil war in El Salvador.

UW Center for Human Rights research intern Grace Sorenson reflects on a trip to El Salvador, where she observed workshops in which survivors of the El Mozote massacre presented their interpretations of declassified U.S. government documents about the U.S.-backed counterinsurgency in their country.

In May of 2018, after more than two years of discussions, the University of Washington settled its 2015 Freedom of Information lawsuit brought by the UWCHR against the CIA. The UWCHR’s lawsuit resulted in the declassification of 139 documents regarding Sigifredo Ochoa Pérez, a former Salvadoran Army officer implicated in human rights violations, including the 1981 Santa Cruz massacre and the 1982 El Calabozo massacre. We are pleased with this outcome, and are continuing our work to further struggles for truth, justice, and accountability through access to information.

On December 6, 2017, the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of El Salvador ordered the Salvadoran Public Prosecutor’s office and Ministry of Defense to carry out a new investigation of the disappearance of the Rivas Clímaco siblings, five children who were forcibly disappeared during a 1982 military operation. The Chamber’s ruling cites as evidence a

In November 2017, UWCHR director Angelina Godoy, accompanied by UW students Emily Willard, Angie Tamayo, and Clare Morrison, traveled to El Salvador to attend the National Assembly of Armed Conflict Victims. The assembly was the first to be held following the 2016 repeal of an amnesty law which had blocked efforts to investigate crime against

Decades after the infamous massacre of El Mozote, the fight for accountability continues. The massacre of El Mozote was committed during “Operation Rescue,” a counterinsurgency operation spearheaded by the US-trained Atlacatl Battalion in December of 1981 in the department of Morazán in northeastern El Salvador. Over several days, the Salvadoran military killed at least 978