{"id":1645,"date":"2015-10-05T10:00:05","date_gmt":"2015-10-05T10:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/humanrights.washington.edu\/?p=1645"},"modified":"2017-02-23T01:17:43","modified_gmt":"2017-02-23T01:17:43","slug":"uwchr-sues-cia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/humanrights\/2015\/10\/05\/uwchr-sues-cia\/","title":{"rendered":"Seeking information on El Salvador atrocities, University of Washington Center for Human Rights sues CIA"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: left\"><a href=\"http:\/\/humanrights.washington.edu\/uw-demanda-cia\">Espa\u00f1ol<\/a><\/p>\n<p><b><\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">On Friday, October 2, 2015,\u00a0the University of Washington Center for Human Rights (UW CHR) filed a lawsuit against the CIA in the U.S. District Court in Seattle, alleging that the agency has failed to meet its obligations under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The UW CHR is seeking the release of U.S. government documents relating to the 1981 Santa Cruz massacre in El Salvador, as part of its mission to conduct research in support of front-line human rights organizations around the world. Earlier this year, the UW CHR released <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/unfinishedsentences.org\/santa-cruz\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">the first comprehensive report<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> on the massacre, as well as an <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/hKPTfH3gch4\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">18-minute documentary<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> featuring survivors and human rights advocates.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cWe believe that the CIA is unlawfully withholding documents regarding a commander of the military operation that resulted in the Santa Cruz massacre, as well as files on a U.S. citizen caught up in the operation,\u201d said Angelina Snodgrass Godoy, Director of the UW CHR.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"750\" height=\"422\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/oOgLGmqNxow?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Since 2013, the UWCHR has filed over two hundred FOIA requests relating to the Salvadoran conflict. One such request sought CIA files on retired Salvadoran military officer Sigifredo Ochoa P\u00e9rez, commander of a 1981 counterinsurgency operation in which witnesses reported the slaughter of dozens of civilians at Santa Cruz, in the state of Caba\u00f1as, El Salvador. The CIA responded that it could \u201cneither confirm nor deny the existence or nonexistence of records,\u201d due to national security concerns.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cThe CIA\u2019s denial of our request is not credible,\u201d said Mina Manuchehri, a third year student at the UW School of Law, and the UWCHR\u2019s lead FOIA researcher. \u201cThe CIA has previously declassified <a href=\"http:\/\/unfinishedsentences.org\/en\/cia-ochoa-documents\/\" target=\"_blank\">20 documents relating to Ochoa<\/a>. Why didn\u2019t they at least give us copies of those same documents?\u201d, she asked. \u201cThere can be no national security concerns about documents that have already been made public.\u201d Ms. Manuchehri is a co-plaintiff on the UWCHR\u2019s lawsuit.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Survivors of the Santa Cruz massacre and international human rights experts are in Seattle this week for <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/humanrights\/2015\/07\/22\/access-to-information-as-a-human-right\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cAccess to Information as a Human Right,\u201d<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> a conference organized by the UWCHR. At the conference, Dina Cabrera, who was five months pregnant when she was wounded in the Santa Cruz massacre, called on U.S. and Salvadoran authorities to ensure truth, justice, and reparations for survivors of civil war atrocities.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Salvadoran survivors of human rights abuses including the Santa Cruz massacre have filed dozens of criminal complaints in the country\u2019s justice system, but cases have seen few advances. \u201cDespite favorable court rulings ordering investigations of these crimes, we have seen a lack of political will to deliver justice, especially in the Attorney General\u2019s office,\u201d said Mirla Carbajal, a lawyer with the Human Rights Institute of the Central American University, who travelled to Seattle for the conference at the UW.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Philippe Bourgois, a professor of Psychiatry and Anthropology at UCLA, who survived the Santa Cruz massacre while conducting research as a graduate student, also participated in the conference. The UWCHR\u2019s lawsuit also challenges the CIA\u2019s refusal to release documents regarding Bourgois, who advocated against U.S. military aid to El Salvador during the 1980s. In 2014, Bourgois provided sworn testimony to a Salvadoran prosecutor investigating the criminal complaint against Ochoa P\u00e9rez. \u201cAfter the war ended, I thought that my time to speak out was over,\u201d said Professor Bourgois. \u201cBut Salvadoran survivors are still fighting for justice, and it is an honor to be able to support them.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mina Manuchehri reflected on the impact of her work with the UWCHR. \u201cSurvivors and family members of victims in El Salvador are still struggling to learn what happened to their loved ones, and as a student, it is really gratifying to be able to contribute to their right to know the truth.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cIn addition to its legal obligations under FOIA, the U.S. government has a moral responsibility to support the cause of truth and justice in El Salvador, especially given the extent to which the U.S. supported the Salvadoran military during the country\u2019s civil war,\u201d said UWCHR Director Angelina Snodgrass Godoy.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Espa\u00f1ol On Friday, October 2, 2015,\u00a0the University of Washington Center for Human Rights (UW CHR) filed a lawsuit against the CIA in the U.S. District Court in Seattle, alleging that the agency has failed to meet its obligations under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The UW CHR is seeking the release of U.S. government<\/p>\n<div><a class=\"more\" href=\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/humanrights\/2015\/10\/05\/uwchr-sues-cia\/\">Read more<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":492,"featured_media":3299,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,15,1,24],"tags":[80,84,181,157],"class_list":["post-1645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2015-2016","category-news","category-uncategorized","category-unfinished-sentences","tag-el-salvador","tag-foia","tag-idhuca","tag-unfinished-sentences"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Seeking information on El Salvador atrocities, University of Washington Center for Human Rights sues CIA - Center for Human Rights<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/humanrights\/2015\/10\/05\/uwchr-sues-cia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Seeking information on El Salvador atrocities, University of Washington Center for Human Rights sues CIA - Center for Human Rights\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Espa\u00f1ol On Friday, October 2, 2015,\u00a0the University of Washington Center for Human Rights (UW CHR) filed a lawsuit against the CIA in the U.S. District Court in Seattle, alleging that the agency has failed to meet its obligations under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The UW CHR is seeking the release of U.S. government\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/humanrights\/2015\/10\/05\/uwchr-sues-cia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Center for Human Rights\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/uwchr\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-10-05T10:00:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-02-23T01:17:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/humanrights\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2017\/02\/Conference_Oct5_-8449-1024x683.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"683\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Phil Neff\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@uwchr\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@uwchr\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Phil Neff\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/humanrights\/2015\/10\/05\/uwchr-sues-cia\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/humanrights\/2015\/10\/05\/uwchr-sues-cia\/\",\"name\":\"Seeking information on El Salvador atrocities, University of Washington Center for Human Rights sues CIA - 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