{"id":4322,"date":"2017-10-16T22:53:13","date_gmt":"2017-10-17T05:53:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/humanrights\/?p=4322"},"modified":"2019-10-07T12:13:38","modified_gmt":"2019-10-07T19:13:38","slug":"el-mozote-renewed-push-justice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/humanrights\/2017\/10\/16\/el-mozote-renewed-push-justice\/","title":{"rendered":"El Mozote: A Renewed Push for Justice"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When 93-year-old Don Tacho Pereira took the stand this June in the rural town of San Francisco Gotera, El Salvador, he made history. Don Tacho lost seven family members in the December 1981 massacre of El Mozote; he only survived because he was away from home during the three-day killing spree that many still consider the worst massacre in the modern history of the Americas. But almost thirty-six years after the crime took place, for the first time, a Salvadoran court took Don Tacho\u2019s testimony, and that of other victims in the El Mozote case.<\/p>\n<p>Salvadoran victims of atrocities have struggled for decades to pursue justice for the crimes committed during their country\u2019s twelve-year war. Many hoped the peace process would culminate in accountability, but this possibility was robbed from them by an amnesty law, passed just days after the United Nations Truth Commission published its findings that the US-backed government was responsible for the vast majority of wartime abuses. In 2016, the Constitutional chamber of the country\u2019s highest court overturned that law. The decision offers a rare second chance at learning the truth of what transpired, recovering the remains of lost loved ones, and securing some measure of justice. It set the stage for Don Tacho\u2019s historic testimony this June.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_4324\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"width: 375px\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.transparenciaactiva.gob.sv\/lo-que-declare-esta-copiado-y-vengo-a-que-se-haga-justicia\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-4324 size-half\" src=\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/humanrights\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2017\/10\/DonTachoMozote-375x211.jpeg\" alt=\"Don Tacho (second from left) on his way to testify in the trial for the El Mozote massacre. Photo: Transparencia Activa.\" width=\"375\" height=\"211\" srcset=\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/humanrights\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2017\/10\/DonTachoMozote-375x211.jpeg 375w, https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/humanrights\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2017\/10\/DonTachoMozote-300x169.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/humanrights\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2017\/10\/DonTachoMozote-768x432.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/humanrights\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2017\/10\/DonTachoMozote-1024x576.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/humanrights\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2017\/10\/DonTachoMozote-750x422.jpeg 750w, https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/humanrights\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2017\/10\/DonTachoMozote.jpeg 1140w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 375px) 100vw, 375px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Don Tacho (second from left) on his way to testify in the trial for the El Mozote massacre. Photo: Transparencia Activa.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>At the same time, however, the path ahead won\u2019t be easy. In striking down the amnesty, the court did nothing to alter the character or composition of the country\u2019s justice system. The cases human rights advocates have brought forward are now being heard by the same justices who, in many cases, have spent decades turning a deaf ear on victims\u2019 cries for justice. The Salvadoran justice system is notoriously plagued with corruption, inefficiency, and scarcity of resources. The victims are drawn disproportionately from the poorest and most marginalized sectors of society; the defendants \u2013 18 members of the former high command \u2013 remain among the country\u2019s most powerful men.<\/p>\n<p>What this meant in San Francisco Gotera this June, is that as octogenarian peasants came forward to share their most painful memories, they were summarily derided by a team of well-dressed attorneys who arrived \u2013 in vehicles with government license plates \u2013 to deny the truth of what transpired 35 years ago. At a public event in San Salvador, one of the defense attorneys even trotted out the tired canard that the massacre never happened.<\/p>\n<p>Yet even in the face of such treatment, the victims have shown themselves to be resolute. \u201cIt was terrible to see so many crimes, to have to flee through the hills to survive, that\u2019s what we lived, and I\u2019m not making this up,\u201d one survivor told the press. \u201cThat\u2019s why we want this [trial] to continue, and for those who committed these crimes to ask forgiveness so that they can also be forgiven by God\u2026 [we want] for there to be a clarification and for it to be said who were responsible for ordering this massacre.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In this context, the support of the international community is more important than ever. Since 2011 the UW Center for Human Rights\u2019 <a href=\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/humanrights\/projects\/unfinished-sentences\/\">\u201cUnfinished Sentences\u201d<\/a> project has had the honor of working alongside Salvadoran human rights defenders seeking truth, justice, and reparations for crimes against humanity committed during the armed conflict. Recent events have led us to intensify our efforts.<\/p>\n<p>To date, we have filed over 550 FOIA requests of US federal agencies. One of these many cases gave rise to the <a href=\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/humanrights\/2016\/10\/05\/lawsuit-update\/\">lawsuit we filed against the US Central Intelligence Agency<\/a> in 2015, which continues to date. Over the past year we continued our conversations with the CIA, which have resulted in the release of over 400 pages of previously-unseen information. These include several documents that shed light on important military operations in which atrocities occurred. One of these was admitted as evidence by the Salvadoran Supreme Court in early 2017; we anticipate the introduction of others in several pending cases. This summer, for example, our student research team constructed an exhaustive matrix of 205 pieces of evidence culled from US government documents relevant to the massacre of El Mozote. Work on other cases is ongoing.<\/p>\n<p>As an interdisciplinary research center, we are also mindful that the courtroom is only one place in which to seek justice. While essential, efforts at legal accountability must be supplemented by other initiatives to promote healing, reparations, and guarantees that such crimes will never be repeated. Over the past year, our Center worked to support Asociaci\u00f3n Pro-B\u00fasqueda\u2019s program of <a href=\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/humanrights\/2017\/10\/12\/angie-tamayo-2017-linder\/\">psychosocial support for families affected by the forced disappearance of children.<\/a> Promoting the psychosocial health of victims is vital to ensure that those breaking the silence about atrocities are supported by trained psychologists and their own community at a critical time \u2013 and to interrupt the cycle of transgenerational trauma. We hope to expand on these efforts in the years ahead, as we continue to deepen our work in solidarity with those who struggle for justice in El Salvador.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When 93-year-old Don Tacho Pereira took the stand this June in the rural town of San Francisco Gotera, El Salvador, he made history. Don Tacho lost seven family members in the December 1981 massacre of El Mozote; he only survived because he was away from home during the three-day killing spree that many still consider<\/p>\n<div><a class=\"more\" href=\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/humanrights\/2017\/10\/16\/el-mozote-renewed-push-justice\/\">Read more<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":492,"featured_media":4323,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,24],"tags":[59,185,80,84,157],"class_list":["post-4322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2016-2017","category-unfinished-sentences","tag-asociacion-pro-busqueda","tag-el-mozote","tag-el-salvador","tag-foia","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>El Mozote: A Renewed Push for Justice - 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