Latest news with #SanSalvador
Associated Press
35 minutes ago
- General
- Associated Press
El Salvador human rights lawyer demands public trial as police haul her before judge
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — A lawyer from a prominent human rights organization who has been an outspoken critic of some of President Nayib Bukele's policies demanded a public trial as police brought her before a judge in El Salvador Wednesday. Prosecutors sought to charge her with illegal enrichment and jail her for six months pending trial. Observers say the case against Ruth Eleonora López is retaliation for her work while authorities allege she aided one of her former employers being prosecuted for embezzlement. Authorities arrested López at her home on May 18. The anticorruption lawyer, who works for the nongovernmental organization Cristosal, has denied the accusations. Wednesday's hearing was closed to the public as the case is under seal. As she was escorted by police through the court building Wednesday, a shackled López with a Bible between her hands, shouted: 'They're not going to silence me, I want a public trial,' according to a brief video posted by Cristosal on X. 'The people have to know.' She had not made her initial appearance before a judge until Monday, more than two weeks after her arrest. At that hearing, prosecutors announced the illegal enrichment, different from the original embezzlement, and requested that she be held while they continue to investigate. Cristosal has been an critic of some of Bukele's policies, including the state of emergency giving him special powers that has now been in place for more than three years. 'Ruth has dedicated her life to the defense of human rights and the fight against corruption,' Cristosal said in a statement last week. 'Hers is not an isolated case: it is part of a pattern of criminalization against critical voices.'
South China Morning Post
14 hours ago
- General
- South China Morning Post
El Salvador convicts ex-military for 1982 killings of Dutch journalists
A former defence minister in El Salvador and two retired colonels were found guilty Tuesday of the 1982 killings of four Dutch journalists during the country's civil war, a lawyer for families of the deceased said. Advertisement A five-member jury sentenced the defendants, now in their 80s or 90s, to 15 years in prison after an 11-hour session on the first day of the trial, lawyer Pedro Cruz said outside the courthouse. In a crime that shocked the world, Koos Koster, Jan Kuiper, Hans ter Laag and Joop Willemsen were killed while filming a television documentary. More than 75,000 people were killed in El Salvador's 1980-1992 civil war pitting the US-backed military against leftist guerillas. The Dutch reporters worked for IKON TV, a Dutch channel founded by several churches. Advertisement The accused were General Jose Guillermo Garcia, 91, former police colonel Francisco Antonio Moran, 93, and ex-infantry brigade commander Mario Reyes Mena, 85.
The Independent
21 hours ago
- General
- The Independent
Trial starts for Salvadoran officers accused of killing Dutch journalists in 1982
The trial of three retired Salvadoran military officers for the 1982 killings of four Dutch journalists during the Central American country's civil war began Tuesday in the northern city of Chalatenango. The three men could face prison sentences of up to 30 years if convicted in the jury trial, which was scheduled to start and conclude on the same day. On trial are former Defense Minister Gen. José Guillermo García, 91, former treasury police director Col. Francisco Morán, 93, and Col. Mario Adalberto Reyes Mena, 85, who was the former army commander of the Fourth Infantry Brigade in Chalatenango. García and Morán are under police guard at a private hospital in San Salvador, while Reyes Mena lives in the United States. In March, El Salvador's Supreme Court ordered that the extradition process be started to bring him back. García was deported from the U.S. in 2016, after a U.S. judge declared him responsible for serious human rights violations during the early years of the war between the military and the leftist Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front guerrillas. The Dutch TV journalists had linked up with leftist rebels and planned to spend several days behind rebel lines reporting. But Salvadoran soldiers armed with assault rifles and machine guns ambushed them and the guerrillas. The prosecution of the men was reopened in 2018 after the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional a general amnesty passed following the 1980-1992 war. It moved slowly, but in March 2022, relatives of the victims and representatives of the Dutch government and European Union demanded that those responsible for killing Jan Kuiper, Koos Koster, Hans ter Laag and Joop Willemson be tried. The United Nations Truth Commission for El Salvador, which was set up as part of a U.N.-brokered peace agreement in 1992, concluded there was clear evidence that the killings were the result of an ambush set up by Reyes Mena with the knowledge of other officials, based on an intelligence report that alerted of the journalists' presence. Other members of the military, including Gen. Rafael Flores Lima and Sgt. Mario Canizales Espinoza were also accused of involvement, but died. Canizales allegedly led the patrol that carried out the massacre of the journalists. Juan Carlos Sánchez, of the nongovernmental organization Mesa Contra la Impunidad, in comments to journalists, called the trial a 'transcendental step that the victims have waited 40 years for.' An estimated 75,000 civilians were killed during El Salvador's civil war, mostly by U.S.-backed government security forces. The trial was closed to the public. ____
Associated Press
a day ago
- General
- Associated Press
Trial starts for Salvadoran officers accused of killing Dutch journalists in 1982
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — The trial of three retired Salvadoran military officers for the 1982 killings of four Dutch journalists during the Central American country's civil war began Tuesday in the northern city of Chalatenango. The three men could face prison sentences of up to 30 years if convicted in the jury trial, which was scheduled to start and conclude on the same day. On trial are former Defense Minister Gen. José Guillermo García, 91, former treasury police director Col. Francisco Morán, 93, and Col. Mario Adalberto Reyes Mena, 85, who was the former army commander of the Fourth Infantry Brigade in Chalatenango. García and Morán are under police guard at a private hospital in San Salvador, while Reyes Mena lives in the United States. In March, El Salvador's Supreme Court ordered that the extradition process be started to bring him back. García was deported from the U.S. in 2016, after a U.S. judge declared him responsible for serious human rights violations during the early years of the war between the military and the leftist Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front guerrillas. The Dutch TV journalists had linked up with leftist rebels and planned to spend several days behind rebel lines reporting. But Salvadoran soldiers armed with assault rifles and machine guns ambushed them and the guerrillas. The prosecution of the men was reopened in 2018 after the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional a general amnesty passed following the 1980-1992 war. It moved slowly, but in March 2022, relatives of the victims and representatives of the Dutch government and European Union demanded that those responsible for killing Jan Kuiper, Koos Koster, Hans ter Laag and Joop Willemson be tried. The United Nations Truth Commission for El Salvador, which was set up as part of a U.N.-brokered peace agreement in 1992, concluded there was clear evidence that the killings were the result of an ambush set up by Reyes Mena with the knowledge of other officials, based on an intelligence report that alerted of the journalists' presence. Other members of the military, including Gen. Rafael Flores Lima and Sgt. Mario Canizales Espinoza were also accused of involvement, but died. Canizales allegedly led the patrol that carried out the massacre of the journalists. Juan Carlos Sánchez, of the nongovernmental organization Mesa Contra la Impunidad, in comments to journalists, called the trial a 'transcendental step that the victims have waited 40 years for.' An estimated 75,000 civilians were killed during El Salvador's civil war, mostly by U.S.-backed government security forces. The trial was closed to the public. ____ Follow AP's coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at
News24
2 days ago
- General
- News24
El Salvador President Nayib Bukele defies critics: ‘I don't care if they call me a dictator'
Nayib Bukele celebrated his re-elected as president of El Salvador. Human rights defenders criticised his rule. But he rejected criticism, arguing he is achieving results. El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele said he would rather be branded a 'dictator' than allow criminals to run loose, defying critics in a barnstorming speech marking one year since his re-election. His hardline approach to El Salvador's powerful gangs has made him one of the world's most domestically popular leaders, even as human rights defenders raise alarm over arbitrary arrests and eroding civil liberties. 'I don't care if they call me a dictator. I'd rather be called a dictator than see Salvadorans killed in the streets,' he said during his speech at the National Theatre. First elected in 2019, Bukele was returned to office in a landslide vote last year after the Constitutional Court knocked down a prohibition on consecutive terms. His second stint in office has been characterised by an alliance with US President Donald Trump on deportations as well as what critics describe as a widening offensive against human rights defenders. But Bukele accused NGOs of defending criminals and suggested the press was joining an 'organised attack' spearheaded by international groups. Let them discuss semantics while we remain focused on achieving results. Nayib Bukele 'Contrary to the lies they spread day and night, we have more results than any other government in all our history.' Bukele's war on gangs is widely credited with slashing homicides to the lowest rate in three decades. But rights groups say he has increasingly abused the state of emergency and crackdown on crime as a pretext to silence dissidents. In May, a coalition of rights groups, including Amnesty International, condemned rising repression under Bukele after the arrest of prominent lawyer Ruth Eleonora Lopez. Lopez was arrested on 18 May and accused of embezzling state funds when she worked for an electoral court a decade ago. Marvin Recinos/AFP A vocal critic of Bukele's anti-crime policy, she worked for a rights group that was investigating alleged state corruption and assisting Venezuelans deported by the US and imprisoned in El Salvador. Washington is paying Bukele's government to imprison 288 migrants accused by the Trump administration of belonging to gangs. Two activists were also arrested in May, while in February, the leader of the Human and Community Rights Defence Unit Fidel Zavala was detained and accused of links with gangs. Last month, Bukele's allies in the Legislative Assembly imposed a Foreign Agents Law levying a 30% tax on organisations receiving overseas funding and requiring them to join a special registry. Bukele's human rights commissioner Andres Guzman, who has defended the leader against allegations of abuses, told AFP at the end of May that he has resigned. 'In this first year of the second unconstitutional term, there is an authoritarian escalation. It is the consolidation of dictatorship,' Ingrid Escobar, director of the NGO Humanitarian Legal Aid, told AFP.
