{"code":"23864","sect":"El Salvador","sect_slug":"el-salvador","hits":"1878","link":"https:\/\/elfaro.net\/en\/201912\/el_salvador\/23864","link_edit":"","name":"Former Soldiers from Atlacatl Battalion Testify against Superiors in El Mozote Case","slug":"former-soldiers-from-atlacatl-battalion-testify-against-superiors-in-el-mozote-case","info":"\u201cThe people there weren\u2019t armed. They were just women, children, and the elderly!\u201d said key witness Sol. \u201cI didn\u2019t report this earlier because if I did, they would kill me,\u201d said key witness Juan. In an unprecedented turn of events, two former soldiers from the Atlacatl Battalion admitted that they took part in an operation 38 years ago to exterminate civilians. Both appeared as part of the trial of the El Mozote massacre in collaboration with the prosecutor\u2019s case against military officials accused of planning and leading the operation.","mtag":"Impunity","noun":{"html":"Nelson Rauda","data":{"nelson-rauda":{"sort":"","slug":"nelson-rauda","path":"nelson_rauda","name":"Nelson Rauda","edge":"0","init":"0"}}},"view":"1878","pict":{"cms-image-000032463-jpg":{"feat":"1","sort":"32463","name":"cms-image-000032463.jpg","link":"https:\/\/elfaro.net\/images\/cms-image-000032463.jpg","path":"https:\/\/elfaro.net\/images\/cms-image-000032463.jpg","back":"","slug":"cms-image-000032463-jpg","text":"<p>Jorge Guzm\u00e1n, juez de Instrucci\u00f3n de San Francisco Gotera, juramenta al primer testigo protegido, clave \"Juan\".\u00a0Foto: V\u00edctor Pe\u00f1a.\u00a0<\/p>","capt":"\u003Cp\u003EJorge Guzm\u00e1n, juez de Instrucci\u00f3n de San Francisco Gotera, juramenta al primer testigo protegido, clave \"Juan\".\u00a0Foto: V\u00edctor Pe\u00f1a.\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E"},"cms-image-000032462-jpg":{"feat":"0","sort":"32462","name":"cms-image-000032462.jpg","link":"https:\/\/elfaro.net\/images\/cms-image-000032462.jpg","path":"https:\/\/elfaro.net\/images\/cms-image-000032462.jpg","back":"","slug":"cms-image-000032462-jpg","text":"<p>Durante la audiencia se utiliz\u00f3 un aparato para distorsionar la voz. Dos testigos protegidos por la Fiscal\u00eda General de la Rep\u00fabica rindieron su declaraci\u00f3n durante la audiencia sobre la masacre de El Mozote y lugares aleda\u00f1os, el viernes 1 de noviembre de 2019. Foto: V\u00edctor Pe\u00f1a.<\/p>","capt":"\u003Cp\u003EDurante la audiencia se utiliz\u00f3 un aparato para distorsionar la voz. Dos testigos protegidos por la Fiscal\u00eda General de la Rep\u00fabica rindieron su declaraci\u00f3n durante la audiencia sobre la masacre de El Mozote y lugares aleda\u00f1os, el viernes 1 de noviembre de 2019. Foto: V\u00edctor Pe\u00f1a.\u003C\/p\u003E"}},"pict_main__sort":32463,"date":{"live":"2020\/01\/07"},"data_post_dateLive_YY":"2020","data_post_dateLive_MM":"01","data_post_dateLive_DD":"07","text":"\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E \u003Cfigure class=\"pict pict_land pict_move_posc 0 cs_img cs_img--curr rule--ss_c\" data-shot=\"pict\" data-hint=\"pict\"\u003E \u003Cdiv class=\"pict__pobj text-overflow\"\u003E\u003Cimg src=https:\/\/elfaro.net\/get_img?ImageWidth=2000&ImageHeight=1333&ImageId=32463 class=\"pobj\" style=\"max-width: 100%\" rel=\"resizable\" alt=\"Jorge Guzm\u00e1n, juez de Instrucci\u00f3n de San Francisco Gotera, juramenta al primer testigo protegido, clave \"Juan\".\u00a0Foto: V\u00edctor Pe\u00f1a.\u00a0\" \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E \u003Cfigcaption class=\"pict__text cs_img_caption folk_content typo_buttons line--ss_s0c line--ss_s0c--auto block full-width text-overflow rule--ss_l relative\"\u003E \u003Cdiv class=\"__content block-inline full-width align-top tint-text--idle relative\"\u003E Jorge Guzm\u00e1n, juez de Instrucci\u00f3n de San Francisco Gotera, juramenta al primer testigo protegido, clave \"Juan\".\u00a0Foto: V\u00edctor Pe\u00f1a.\u00a0 \u003Cdiv class=\"photographer text_italic rule--ss_l tint-text--idle\"\u003E \u003C\/div\u003E \u003C\/div\u003E \u003C\/figcaption\u003E \u003C\/figure\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EOn Friday, November 1, two former soldiers from the Atlacatl Battalion decided to cooperate with Salvadoran prosecutors, testifying as protected witnesses against those who, at the beginning of the Salvadoran civil war, were their former superiors and members of the military\u2019s high command.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThe ex-commandos admitted to participating in the El Mozote massacre, the military operation in December 1981 that ended the lives of 989 people\u2014most of them children. It was the bloodiest massacre of the entire Salvadoran civil war, which lasted from 1980 to 1992.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003ETheir testimonies about the timeline, transportation and involved military units, as well as the battalion\u2019s method of organizing the people in the village before killing them, coincide with the testimonies of dozens of victims who have already appeared in the examining court in San Francisco Gotera, a town in the Moraz\u00e1n department of eastern El Salvador. They also reinforce historical accounts of the United States military\u2019s advisement of the battalion and the use of M16 rifles described in ballistic reports from El Mozote.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThe soldiers named various defendants in the case: Colonel Natividad de Jes\u00fas C\u00e1ceres Cabrera, second in command of Atlacatl at the time of the massacre; General Mauricio Isaac Duke Lozano; Colonel Ernesto M\u00e9ndez Rodr\u00edguez; and Colonel Jos\u00e9 Mario God\u00ednez Castillo. They also mentioned other military figures who have since died, such as Colonel Domingo Monterrosa Barrios, commander of the battalion; Colonel Luis \u00c1ngel P\u00e9rez Reyes; and Captain Salvador Mauricio Alvarado Guevara. Although these last three are not standing trial, they had been identified before, through the El Mozote case or the court, as participants in the operation.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThe direct naming of the suspects is an inflexion point in the case, which was reopened in 2016 and has been in the discovery phase for three years already. During this phase, the court will receive evidence and determine whether it is sufficient to take the case to trial.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThe witnesses under the pseudonyms Juan and Sol are \u201cdirect witnesses of the military operation carried out in El Mozote and neighboring places,\u201d the Attorney General\u2019s office said in a brief presented to the court on September 13 of this year. The witness testimonies \u201cestablish the existence of the massacre and the participation of the responsible parties.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThat second part is key. To this point, all testimonies have confirmed the events and the commission of different crimes for which the officials stand accused, but witnesses had not directly pointed to any officials except the now-dead Colonel Monterrosa. Given that conviction is impossible without verifying individuals\u2019 roles in the plan, the testimony of soldiers who participated in the massacre changes the outlook of the case.\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThe judge overseeing the case, Jorge Guzm\u00e1n, is relying both on laws applicable in the present and in 1981 to create a unique, extended discovery process designed to reach two historic milestones.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EOne is the testimony of the ex-commandos, whom the court and the Attorney General identified after a complicated process. The other is the unearthing of military files documenting the order to carry out an operation ending in extermination. For years, it was said in El Salvador that the files did not exist and that the anonymous soldiers who participated in the massacre seemed to have vanished. But both of these lies were debunked on Friday, November 1. The President of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, added his testimony to that of the two soldiers, announcing that he will open an even broader inquiry into the military files than the court has ordered.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EIt seems to be the beginning of the end of the discovery phase of the El Mozote trial. The responses from witnesses Juan and Sol are unprecedented accounts, not just for the reconstruction of the crime scene, but also in the history of El Salvador.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E***\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E \u003Cfigure class=\"pict pict_land pict_move_posc 0 cs_img cs_img--curr rule--ss_c\" data-shot=\"pict\" data-hint=\"pict\"\u003E \u003Cdiv class=\"pict__pobj text-overflow\"\u003E\u003Cimg src=https:\/\/elfaro.net\/get_img?ImageWidth=2000&ImageHeight=1333&ImageId=32462 class=\"pobj\" style=\"max-width: 100%\" rel=\"resizable\" alt=\"Durante la audiencia se utiliz\u00f3 un aparato para distorsionar la voz. Dos testigos protegidos por la Fiscal\u00eda General de la Rep\u00fabica rindieron su declaraci\u00f3n durante la audiencia sobre la masacre de El Mozote y lugares aleda\u00f1os, el viernes 1 de noviembre de 2019. Foto: V\u00edctor Pe\u00f1a.\" \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E \u003Cfigcaption class=\"pict__text cs_img_caption folk_content typo_buttons line--ss_s0c line--ss_s0c--auto block full-width text-overflow rule--ss_l relative\"\u003E \u003Cdiv class=\"__content block-inline full-width align-top tint-text--idle relative\"\u003E Durante la audiencia se utiliz\u00f3 un aparato para distorsionar la voz. Dos testigos protegidos por la Fiscal\u00eda General de la Rep\u00fabica rindieron su declaraci\u00f3n durante la audiencia sobre la masacre de El Mozote y lugares aleda\u00f1os, el viernes 1 de noviembre de 2019. Foto: V\u00edctor Pe\u00f1a. \u003Cdiv class=\"photographer text_italic rule--ss_l tint-text--idle\"\u003E \u003C\/div\u003E \u003C\/div\u003E \u003C\/figcaption\u003E \u003C\/figure\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cYou\u2019re going to ask me about the massacre at El Mozote, Moraz\u00e1n, in December 1981,\u201d said Juan, hidden behind a wooden divider and speaking through a device distorting the pitch of his voice to a deathly gargle. Only the prosecutors and judge know the true identities of the two ex-commandos. In their judicial examinations, the witnesses must give short answers to concrete questions. This account uses only Juan\u2019s responses to recreate the story Juan told to the court.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cIt was the beginning of December. A few days before, I was at the Atlacatl Battalion headquarters in Opico, La Libertad. I joined on March 1, 1981. I was there because I earned a little more than where I was before, in the Second Infantry Brigade.\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EI was in the second of six companies, each with 160 men. The commander of the Atlacatl Battalion was Colonel Monterrosa and the second in command was Natividad de Jes\u00fas C\u00e1ceres.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003ECaptain Mauricio Isaac Duke Lozano gathered us. He was a skinny, tall, white, and curly-haired man. They told us to load up into the trucks. I put on my rucksack and climbed into one of the eight trucks. We came here, to San Francisco Gotera. The company got out to go to the store and eat something. The leaders entered the barracks. Among those who entered, I remember P\u00e9rez Reyes and Alvarado Guevara. They were there for around 45 minutes. When they came out, they ordered me back into the truck. I put on my pack and we traveled to Perqu\u00edn, where we slept in the hillside.\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EAt nine the next morning, they lined us up. Sergeant Julio C\u00e9sar V\u00e1squez Mart\u00ednez and Sergeant Mart\u00ednez Mart\u00ednez were there. We began marching. We didn\u2019t know where we were going or why. We were traveling on foot down paths that led toward El Mozote. We arrived between 11 in the morning and 12.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThe soldiers started forming groups while I stayed behind with the rucksacks. Aside from the groups, the rest of the unit was assigned to the perimeter, watching the terrain, which was both flat and hilly.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003ELieutenant Alvarado Guevara ordered them to form groups because they were going to kill the people. He received orders from Monterrosa, who received orders from the General Staff. A soldier, corporal, or officer can\u2019t make such a decision alone. Alvarado Guevara ordered them to pull the people out of the hallways and patios of the houses. They ordered other groups to start killing them. I saw Corporal Mart\u00ednez Callejas, Corporal Remberto Reyes L\u00f3pez, and Sa\u00fal Moreno Granada shooting.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EI was about fifty yards away looking after the equipment. We were carrying ammunition, clothes, and food for three days in our rucksacks, but careless eaters would finish it all in one day. We carried an M16. The uniform was olive green, with an Atlacatl patch and one other heavenly detail\u2014it came with a helmet of fiber and steel.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EI saw the people. Children from the age of two to six, women and men dressed humbly. The soldiers of Atlacatl shot them dead. After killing them, they left them there and we regrouped. They began to burn the houses down.\u00a0\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EI didn\u2019t report this before because if I did, they would kill me. I also didn\u2019t have the opportunity, as I\u2019m poor and work constantly. I told them what they were doing to the children was an injustice, but I couldn\u2019t stop it because I wasn\u2019t their boss.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EI was in El Mozote for two days and two nights. After, we traveled for about three hours along the path to San Fernando Gotera. That\u2019s where the trucks arrived.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThe journey to this morning of confessions has been winding and uphill. For a long time, the Atlacatl perpetrators at El Mozote had existed anywhere except in court. Victims of the massacre recall anonymous men on buses or those they met after the massacre, far from Moraz\u00e1n, telling them what they had done. But when asked their names or whereabouts, the answers were vague: I don\u2019t know what happened.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003ESof\u00eda Romero, witness to the court of the massacre, remembers an Atlacatl soldier told her what happened shortly after, at the end of December 1981 or at the beginning of the following January. That is how she found out that her father, once the church\u2019s groundskeeper, was tortured and killed for accusations that he had lent the key of the church to the guerillas to hold mass. The soldiers forced her mother to cook them tortillas before killing her. And as was common with many young women, they took one of her sisters to a hill to rape her. The soldier who divulged this to Sof\u00eda said that, after they raped her sister, he offered to take his sister to live with him. But the girl refused, saying: \u201cKill me.\u201d Sof\u00eda says the soldier lives \u201cover there in San Miguel\u201d and that if one were to see him now, they would pity his physical state. \u201cYou reap what you sow here,\u201d Sof\u00eda reflects.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThe survivors are not the only ones with vague answers. Three years ago, one month after the reopening of the El Mozote case, then-president Salvador S\u00e1nchez Cer\u00e9n, told the court that there was no documentation for \u201cOperation Rescue,\u201d the name of the operation that culminated in the El Mozote massacre. Despite S\u00e1nchez Cer\u00e9n\u2019s denial, the Institute of Social Welfare of the Armed Forces provided a roster of 480 soldiers to the court in February of 2019.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EGiven that the witnesses are in protective custody, there is no telling whether they contacted them through that roster. While the prosecution has been tight-lipped about its work on the case, things clearly sped up two months ago. On September 5, the Office of the Attorney General asked the Salvadoran Justice Sector, known by its acronym UTE in Spanish, to take protective measures on behalf of key witnesses Juan and Sol. UTE agreed on September 9. On the 13th, prosecutors petitioned Judge Guzm\u00e1n to allow Juan and Sol to testify under protection, arguing that they are \u201cindispensable to verifying the events, given their authoritative testimony as witnesses of some of the events under investigation.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E***\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cI\u2019ve been summoned to testify about the El Mozote massacre,\u201d said Sol in the afternoon of November 1, in the same condition as Juan: hidden and with a voice from a horror film.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cIt was 1981, between December 11 and 14. I was enlisted in the first company of the Atlacatl Battalion in the township of Sitio del Ni\u00f1o in La Libertad. I enlisted on March 1, 1981. There were nine companies.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThe commander, Colonel Domingo Monterrosa Barrios, told us that we were going on a mission. I began preparing my equipment, rucksack, and M16. We climbed into the trucks\u2014approximately 60 of them\u2014some from the Armed Forces, others from Caminos (an old division of the government tasked with street maintenance), and others from the now-defunct National Guard. We set out for Moraz\u00e1n.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EWe stopped by the Third Brigade in San Miguel. I don\u2019t know why. The commander and other leaders got out and entered the quarters, where they stayed for about an hour. Among them were Colonel Monterrosa Barrios, Major Natividad de Jes\u00fas C\u00e1ceres, Captain Ernesto M\u00e9ndez Rodr\u00edguez, Lieutenant (\u00c1ngel Rom\u00e1n) Serme\u00f1o Nieto, Lieutenant Carlos Fernando Herrera Carranza and many others that I don\u2019t remember.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EWhen they exited, Lieutenant Carlos Fernando Herrera Carranza told the driver we were headed to Gotera. The commander [at San Francisco Gotera], known as Colonel Crucito, was waiting for us as we got to the department capital city. Colonel Monterrosa talked with him for half an hour. We were on top of the trucks.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EWhen the leaders climbed into the vehicles, we left for Perk\u00edn. We got to the Torola River and the company\u2019s commanders got us out of the trucks. I only remember Captain M\u00e9ndez Rodr\u00edguez. He told us we were to march along the highway to Jocoaitique. There were 1,500 of us. We walked for four hours.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EAt the Jocoaitique exit, we started taking fire, supposedly from the guerillas. We took cover and returned fire. The exchange lasted for half an hour. After that, everything calmed down and later we looked for a spot to sleep.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EEarly the next morning, around 3am, we set out marching to El Mozote. One group traveled along the road and another in the hills. We arrived around six in the morning.\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThere were about 150 of us. On the outskirts of El Mozote we had a skirmish with the guerrillas that lasted about eight hours. Then we entered into the village and the guerillas pulled out.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EMonterrosa and C\u00e1ceres ordered us to thoroughly register the homes and group everybody in one place. We gathered the people\u2014women, the elderly, and children. They laid the villagers down in the Catholic church in the town center, and others in the homes surrounding the temple. The girls were up to ten years old. Some of the boys only had on their underwear or pants, and the girls had their little outfits. Some without shoes. The people were gathered like that for three more days.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EColonel Monterrosa said that the General Staff were coming to interrogate the people. That\u2019s how it went. They would arrive every morning by helicopter and in the afternoon they would leave. In one instance, six people got out\u2014some dressed in civil attire and others in olive green military garb. They told us they were the investigators, and that the General Staff would decide what would happen to the people. I was stationed about three blocks away but would pass close by them as I went to fetch water. They would bring us food by helicopter. Major God\u00ednez Castillo was in charge of the food supply.\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EAt the end, as the helicopters left, shots and the screams of children and women rang out. They were killing them.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThey said, \u201cOh no!\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003ESo many shots rang out- I can\u2019t say how many. Then I saw them light the houses on fire. It was the soldiers, because they were the only ones in the vicinity, along with their commanding officers. The civilians there weren\u2019t armed. They were just women, children, and the elderly!\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EI don\u2019t know who gave the order, it must have come from those tasked with coming to investigate. It couldn\u2019t have come without the knowledge of the General Staff. They authorized all operations.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EI hadn\u2019t had the opportunity to share this like I am now, and I was scared they would murder me too. But since the Attorney General summoned me, I gladly came.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EJust as in each previous testimony, the military\u2019s defense attorneys smirked and whispered when they heard Sol use the word \u201cguerilla\u201d.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cThe examination clearly shows what happened. He says they had a grotesque confrontation for eight hours. As a soldier, that\u2019s very significant. The military force in El Mozote was enormous,\u201d said lawyer Roberto Gir\u00f3n Flores after the hearing. \u201cAfter an eight-hour confrontation, how many bodies were left? Where are those bodies buried? Where are the children, women and elderly who fell in those firefights?\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EAfter hearing Sol describe the confrontation, Gir\u00f3n Flores tried to attribute all of the deaths to that event. But his conclusion is faulty: the witness said that there was a confrontation before entering the village and described how, at the time of the executions, the victims were unarmed.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EWhile it was the first time during the trial that a witness described confrontations with the guerillas before the executions of civilians, the information is not new. In 1991, Tutela Legal (Spanish for \u201clegal guardian\u201d), a plaintiff organization in the case, claimed in 1991 that on December 10, 1981, members of the first company of the Atlacatl Battalion \u201csustained combat with the guerrillas in the place known as El Portill\u00f3n, in Arambala\u201d under the command of the same Captain M\u00e9ndez Rodr\u00edguez. Sol\u2019s words confirm that account.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EGir\u00f3n Flores is the defense attorney for Colonel Natividad C\u00e1ceres, commanding officer of Atlacatl at the time of the massacre, and two other defendants: General Carlos C\u00e1ceres Flores and Colonel Luis Landaverde Barrera. A few weeks ago, Gir\u00f3n Flores and his firm failed in an attempt to file a countersuit against the judge of the El Mozote case.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThe defense showed drastically different strategies in its treatment of Juan and Sol. They were harsh with Juan, leading the witness to divulge information in the cross-examination that he had not at first. For example, in response to questions from defense attorney Rodolfo Garay Pineda, Juan recounted that he had \u201cworked with United States advisors\u201d and that they had trained him. Garay Pineda asked him if he remembered the anthem of the Atlacatl Battalion, in an attempt to sow doubt about his membership in the unit. The witness said he did not remember it.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EIn contrast, nobody grilled Sol. \u201cThere are already so many inconsistencies in the claims about my client that it\u2019s not worth asking further questions,\u201d explained Fernando God\u00ednez, attorney for Major God\u00ednez Castillo. Another defense attorney, N\u00e9stor Pineda, said that \u201cany inconsistency is in our favor because it contributes to a reasonable doubt in favor of the accused.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003ESol said that Atlacatl had nine companies, even though in 1981 it had six. For prosecutor Julio C\u00e9sar Larrama, this type of contradiction \u201cis not substantive and does not discredit the testimony.\u201d Larrama is the chief of the prosecutor\u2019s office that investigates war crimes. \u201cWe acknowledge that it was a place of frequent conflicts. But it\u2019s clear that at the time of the executions, the conflict had ended. They weren\u2019t armed at the time of their execution,\u201d said Larrama.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EDavid Morales, plaintiff and former human rights attorney, said that Sol\u2019s account of helicopters landing when the army had already taken El Mozote coincides with Tutela Legal\u2019s 1991 report and with the expert analysis of Terry Karl, who is on record in the case. To Morales, the fact of the helicopters \u201cdirectly involves Guillermo Garc\u00eda and Rafael Flores Lima,\u201d former Defense Minister and former chief of the General Staff, respectively.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E***\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EAt 8:59 in the morning, one minute before the time the attorneys has been summoned, defense attorney N\u00e9stor Pineda presented a brief to try to suspend the hearing.\u00a0 Lawyer Rodolfo Garay Pineda protested the application of the new laws to the case, like those protecting victims and witnesses, for a case that began in 1990. Lisandro Quintanilla made a commotion in arguing that the protected witnesses should, in fact, be considered coparticipants in the massacre, thereby testifying as part of a plea bargain. The judge ruled Pineda\u2019s brief inadmissible and rebuffed the petitions of Quintanilla and Garay.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThe moment that the military, and now their attorneys, had tried to avoid for so long has arrived. 38 years later, the soldiers have begun to testify against their superiors.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E*Translated by Roman Gressier\u003C\/p\u003E"}