{"code":"24822","sect":"El Salvador","sect_slug":"el-salvador","hits":"1287","link":"https:\/\/elfaro.net\/en\/202009\/el_salvador\/24822","link_edit":"","name":"Trudging towards Justice: The El Mozote Massacre\u2019s Decades Long Trials","slug":"trudging-towards-justice-the-el-mozote-massacre-rsquo-s-decades-long-trials","info":"","mtag":"Impunity","noun":{"html":"Felipe de la Hoz","data":{"felipe-de-la-hoz":{"sort":"","slug":"felipe-de-la-hoz","path":"felipe_de_la_hoz","name":"Felipe de la Hoz","edge":"0","init":"0"}}},"view":"1287","pict":{"cms-image-000034445-jpg":{"feat":"1","sort":"34445","name":"cms-image-000034445.jpg","link":"https:\/\/elfaro.net\/images\/cms-image-000034445.jpg","path":"https:\/\/elfaro.net\/images\/cms-image-000034445.jpg","back":"","slug":"cms-image-000034445-jpg","text":"<p>Dress of the child of \u00d3scar M\u00e1rquez, who in December of 1981 when she was around a one-and-a-half years old. Due to rumors of military operations in the area around El Mozote, \u00d3scar and his partner, along with their daughter, sought refuge with his parents. The only surviving cousin in the family can't remember the little girl's name, and there are no other survivors, or surviving records, to help. There were 248 children under five years old killed in the massacre, according to official statistics. Photo from El Faro: Fred Ramos.<\/p>","capt":"\u003Cp\u003EDress of the child of \u00d3scar M\u00e1rquez, who in December of 1981 when she was around a one-and-a-half years old. Due to rumors of military operations in the area around El Mozote, \u00d3scar and his partner, along with their daughter, sought refuge with his parents. The only surviving cousin in the family can't remember the little girl's name, and there are no other survivors, or surviving records, to help. There were 248 children under five years old killed in the massacre, according to official statistics. Photo from El Faro: Fred Ramos.\u003C\/p\u003E"},"cms-image-000034446-jpg":{"feat":"0","sort":"34446","name":"cms-image-000034446.jpg","link":"https:\/\/elfaro.net\/images\/cms-image-000034446.jpg","path":"https:\/\/elfaro.net\/images\/cms-image-000034446.jpg","back":"","slug":"cms-image-000034446-jpg","text":"<p>In the El Mozote massacre of December 11, 1981, more than half of the victims were children: 553 minors. 93 were older than 56.\u00a0There were also 12 fetuses killed in utero. Photo from El Faro, por V\u00edctor Pe\u00f1a.<\/p>","capt":"\u003Cp\u003EIn the El Mozote massacre of December 11, 1981, more than half of the victims were children: 553 minors. 93 were older than 56.\u00a0There were also 12 fetuses killed in utero. Photo from El Faro, por V\u00edctor Pe\u00f1a.\u003C\/p\u003E"},"cms-image-000034451-jpg":{"feat":"0","sort":"34451","name":"cms-image-000034451.jpg","link":"https:\/\/elfaro.net\/images\/cms-image-000034451.jpg","path":"https:\/\/elfaro.net\/images\/cms-image-000034451.jpg","back":"","slug":"cms-image-000034451-jpg","text":"<p>In 2017 survivors from La Joya, in the municipality of Meanguera, in the department of Moraz\u00e1n, bury six victims from the El Mozote Massacre. Survivors continue to pursue justice. Photo from El Faro, por V\u00edctor Pe\u00f1a.<\/p>","capt":"\u003Cp\u003EIn 2017 survivors from La Joya, in the municipality of Meanguera, in the department of Moraz\u00e1n, bury six victims from the El Mozote Massacre. Survivors continue to pursue justice. Photo from El Faro, por V\u00edctor Pe\u00f1a.\u003C\/p\u003E"}},"pict_main__sort":34445,"date":{"live":"2020\/09\/18"},"data_post_dateLive_YY":"2020","data_post_dateLive_MM":"09","data_post_dateLive_DD":"18","text":"\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003ETo say the words \u201cEl Mozote\u201d in El Salvador is to conjure up an event that is at once concrete and obscure\u2014an atrocity whose basic facts are well known and documented in grisly detail, but whose motivations and architects have remained stubbornly obscure, or unaccountable. Legal proceedings currently underway hope to finally change that, and clarify one of the darkest chapters of El Salvador\u2019s gruesome war. It\u2019s been a decades-long, rocky process with starts and stops, constant obfuscation, a state apparatus that\u2019s at best ambivalent, and tired, elderly survivors who have watched their ranks thin under the inexorable pressure of time. Yet they are still in court, seeking redress. \u201cThis is a disgrace for the judicial system, because there\u2019s no justice,\u201d Juan Bautista, a survivor, \u003Ca href=\"\/es\/201709\/el_salvador\/20936\/El-juicio-por-El-Mozote-contin%C3%BAa-su-lenta-marcha.htm\"\u003Esaid\u003C\/a\u003E in 2017 testimony.\u00a0\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThe basic facts are these: between December 10 and 13, 1981\u2014around two years into El Salvador\u2019s long and brutal civil war\u2014soldiers from the elite, U.S.-trained Atlacatl Battalion descended on the village of El Mozote and several other sites in the northeastern department of Moraz\u00e1n and systematically tortured, raped, and executed nearly one thousand civilians, more than half of them children.\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=34445 class=\"pobj\" style=\"max-width: 100%\" rel=\"resizable\" alt=\"Dress of the child of \u00d3scar M\u00e1rquez, who in December of 1981 when she was around a one-and-a-half years old. Due to rumors of military operations in the area around El Mozote, \u00d3scar and his partner, along with their daughter, sought refuge with his parents. The only surviving cousin in the family can't remember the little girl's name, and there are no other survivors, or surviving records, to help. There were 248 children under five years old killed in the massacre, according to official statistics. Photo from El Faro: Fred Ramos.\" \/\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 Dress of the child of \u00d3scar M\u00e1rquez, who in December of 1981 when she was around a one-and-a-half years old. Due to rumors of military operations in the area around El Mozote, \u00d3scar and his partner, along with their daughter, sought refuge with his parents. The only surviving cousin in the family can't remember the little girl's name, and there are no other survivors, or surviving records, to help. There were 248 children under five years old killed in the massacre, according to official statistics. Photo from El Faro: Fred Ramos. \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\"\u003EThere had been signs of a developing military operation, so people had actually congregated in El Mozote and surrounding towns and villages to avoid the danger. Many of the survivors were men who had left to hide, incorrectly believing that the soldiers would not harm their families. After the killings, soldiers set fire to the homes and many of the bodies. A structure known as the convent, adjacent to El Mozote\u2019s church, was found to contain the charred remains of 143 people, all but a handful of them young children.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThe troops were there as part of a broader deployment known as the Rescue Operation, which was overseen by the Third Infantry Brigade and which itself remains shrouded in secrecy, though it was likely an attempt to target encampments of the Farabundo Mart\u00ed National Liberation Front (FMLN), the guerrilla at war with the government.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EEarlier that year, a separate operation in the same department had turned out catastrophically for the military, and high-ranking officials suspected that the local population was broadly sympathetic to the FMLN. At base, it\u2019s a story that played out with depressing frequency among armed internal conflicts throughout Latin America in the latter half of the 20th century: a dispossessed, often agrarian population caught in the crossfire and targeted by a sadistic security apparatus in its moments of impotence. Often, that security apparatus was funded, trained, or armed by the United States.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThe tragedy is transnational, with shared responsibility. The United States did not make the Salvadoran military massacre those people, but it certainly facilitated it. The tactical Rapid Deployment Infantry Battalions (BIRIs), of which Atlacatl was the first, were created directly under the supervision of the United States, and many of their soldiers and officers were trained at the infamous School of the Americas, then located in Panama.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EA report prepared by the nonprofit Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team in 1992 noted that 245 spent shell casings were recovered at the convent\u2014where about 140 children were slaughtered and set on fire\u2014of which 184 bore recognizable markings identifying the bullets as having been manufactured for the U.S. government in Lake City, Missouri. All but one bullet was fired from an M16 assault rifle, standard issue for the U.S. military.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EIt wasn\u2019t just the training and equipment, but the sense that the might of the United States was adamantly behind them. The military was emboldened by the steadfast support of Ronald Reagan, who viewed them as a dam holding a reservoir of regional communism at bay. This, too, is a familiar story: a war between a landed elite and its failed plutocratic leadership and an armed and fed-up segment of its constituency being immediately deemed a proxy for a greater global conflict, justifying any possible countermeasures. This was one of the war\u2019s most infamous atrocities, but by no means the only one. Nor was El Salvador \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/article\/archive\/border-patrol-guatemala-dictatorship\/\"\u003Ethe only country\u003C\/a\u003E in which the anti-communist zeal led the United States to ignore or actively foment crimes against humanity.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003E\u201cThe U.S. starts becoming involved in the months before El Mozote and starts taking a larger and larger role right around that time,\u201d said Naomi Roht-Arriaza, a lawyer and professor at the U.C. Hastings College of Law who has researched and written about the massacre. \u201cWhat happens in between is the change between the Carter and the Reagan administration, and Reagan is, you know, full throttled support for the Salvadoran military.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThere are \u003Ca href=\"\/en\/202003\/el_salvador\/24087\/El-Mozote-judge-asks-the-United-States-for-confidential-documents-on-the-massacre.htm\"\u003Eindications\u003C\/a\u003E that the U.S. embassy in El Salvador knew pretty quickly that civilians had been killed in and around El Mozote, that there hadn\u2019t been crossfire in the area between the military and the FMLN, and that they weren\u2019t being given the full story by the Salvadoran government. However, no action was taken until simultaneous front-page stories, in The New York Times and The Washington Post on January 27, 1982, brought the killings to the attention of the U.S. public and lawmakers. The stories were published just two days before the administration was required to certify to Congress that El Salvador was observing human rights, or risk closing the security aid spigot.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EFaced with the possibility that its activities in the country would be curtailed by a wary Congress, the Reagan administration chose to \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2020\/01\/28\/el-mozote-massacre-reagan-war-on-press\/?comments=1#comments\"\u003Elaunch a now-infamous\u003C\/a\u003E full-court press to discredit the reporters and news organizations that had reported on the crimes and prevent a thorough inquiry into what had taken place. In testimony to policymakers, officials\u2014including Elliot Abrams, now Trump\u2019s special representative to both Iran and Venezuela\u2014deliberately took unreliable Salvadoran government information at face value and insisted that reported details of the massacre were communist propaganda.\u00a0\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=34451 class=\"pobj\" style=\"max-width: 100%\" rel=\"resizable\" alt=\"In 2017 survivors from La Joya, in the municipality of Meanguera, in the department of Moraz\u00e1n, bury six victims from the El Mozote Massacre. Survivors continue to pursue justice. Photo from El Faro, por 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 In 2017 survivors from La Joya, in the municipality of Meanguera, in the department of Moraz\u00e1n, bury six victims from the El Mozote Massacre. Survivors continue to pursue justice. Photo from El Faro, por V\u00edctor Pe\u00f1a. \u003C\/div\u003E \u003C\/figcaption\u003E \u003C\/figure\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EJustice Demurred\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EEfforts at accountability were even less impressive in El Salvador, where despite ample evidence of the crimes committed there was no official attempt to investigate until 1990, when a complaint by a survivor opened a criminal investigation before the San Francisco Gotera Court of the First Instance. Much of the investigative and legal work was done by victims\u2019 lawyers and private entities like the human rights legal team at the office of the Archbishop of San Salvador and nonprofit forensic investigators, with government prosecutorial personnel taking a pretty lax approach.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp\u003EA 1992 peace accord between the FMLN and the government created a United Nations Truth Commission to examine claims of atrocities committed during the war. Relying on both the forensic examinations being conducted for the criminal trial and its own interviews with witnesses and review of the available documentation, the commission presented a report to the U.N. Secretary General in March 1993, which concluded that the massacre had taken place as the victims had described and blasted the government for failing to investigate, as well as for interfering in the ongoing inquiry. It specifically called out the president of the Supreme Court of Justice, Mauricio Guti\u00e9rrez Castro, for having \u201cinterfered unduly and prejudicially, for biased political reasons, in the ongoing judicial proceedings on the case.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EJust five days later, the prospect of even a glimpse of accountability was disintegrated as the country\u2019s legislature approved a general amnesty law that broadly prevented prosecution for any crimes related to the civil war. The criminal investigation was promptly closed, leaving only international bodies to continue their examinations. In 2012, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/www.corteidh.or.cr\/docs\/casos\/articulos\/seriec_252_ing1.pdf\"\u003Eissued a decision\u003C\/a\u003E painstakingly documenting the atrocities at each site and finding El Salvador responsible, mandating reparations for the victims and making a series of other recommendations. That same year, then-President Mauricio Funes formally issued a public apology for the massacre.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003ENonetheless, the possibility that the full truth would ever come out seemed to peter completely until 2016, when the Supreme Court\u2019s Constitutional Chamber declared that the 1993 amnesty law was unconstitutional. The reversal cleared the way for the criminal investigation to reopen in September 2016. The next year, the first batch of alleged perpetrators were formally charged in the investigation, including retired generals Juan Rafael Bustillo Toledo, Jos\u00e9 Guillermo Garc\u00eda, and former joint chiefs leader Rafael Flores Lima.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThe strategy of the military high command and the Salvadoran state has mostly involved pleading a mixture of ignorance and powerlessness: they didn\u2019t know, it wasn\u2019t ordered by the higher-ups, their subordinates were acting alone, it was actually the FMLN who either made them do it or did it themselves. In the face of now-overwhelming forensic evidence that the massacre took place and was conducted by Atlacatl soldiers, the defense has settled on a convenient scapegoat: hanging the entire ordeal around the neck of now-deceased officers, mainly Atlacatl commander Domingo Monterrosa, who died in a 1984 helicopter explosion. Last July, the accused generals \u003Ca href=\"\/es\/201907\/el_salvador\/23509\/Los-generales-de-El-Mozote-quieren-lavarse-las-manos-en-Duarte.htm\"\u003Eclaimed that\u003C\/a\u003E now-dead members of the military junta were the real masterminds. As the saying goes, dead men tell no tales.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThe claim that certain officials were acting in isolation and defying military protocol is, on its face, an absurd one. The assault involved coordination between several Salvadoran military units, with the Third Battalion overseeing the Rescue Operation, which also included troops from the San Francisco Gotera Command Training Center and required the cooperation of the Air Force for aerial bombardments that preceded the murders. \u201cAt one point they go up to the border and they have the Hondurans come down to the border to keep people from crossing. You can't do that without a plan. That's not something that you do spontaneously on the spur of the moment. It's not something that a local captain can take into his own hands,\u201d said Roht-Arriaza.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThe massacres happened over several days, during which commanders would have had to be aware of their soldiers\u2019 movements, and they may have needed to be resupplied and transported. Monterrosa was supposedly spotted arriving in a helicopter at one point, and helicopters were carrying other officers around. The evidence of a state-sanctioned crime is not just about what happened over those calamitous days in December 1981, but what happened later. \u201cTheir careers were never negatively impacted by this. They continued their ascent through the ranks, without any indication that this was problematic to anybody in high places,\u201d said Roht-Arriaza. Two former Atlacatl soldiers, who were allowed to remain anonymous as protected witnesses, have thus far named several specific officers on the ground as having been aware of and tasked with implementing orders that came from above.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EIn a perfect information landscape, the path of the orders and their originators would be easy to establish, even if no one was stupid enough to put the war crime directives in writing. Orders for troop movements and coordination, documents about ammunition expended and resupplies, and other such military records would go a long way towards establishing who knew what and when, and who gave the orders. Indeed, presiding Judge Jorge Guzm\u00e1n has brought on a number of archivists and documentary experts to untangle the records\u2019 significance and help substantiate clear culpability. The trouble is, the relevant records have by and large not been handed over.\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=1500&ImageId=34446 class=\"pobj\" style=\"max-width: 100%\" rel=\"resizable\" alt=\"In the El Mozote massacre of December 11, 1981, more than half of the victims were children: 553 minors. 93 were older than 56.\u00a0There were also 12 fetuses killed in utero. Photo from El Faro, por 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 In the El Mozote massacre of December 11, 1981, more than half of the victims were children: 553 minors. 93 were older than 56.\u00a0There were also 12 fetuses killed in utero. Photo from El Faro, por 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\u003Cstrong\u003EThe Struggle to Remember\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThis is the crux of the ongoing proceedings, and a battle that has been going on for thirty years. Ever since the criminal process began in 1990, successive administrations and military leaders have variously claimed that documents related to the operation were never created, were subsequently destroyed, simply cannot be found, or cannot be turned over. The latest denial came just last month. Despite the fact that President Nayib Bukele had said in November 2019 that the government would hand over \u201cA to Z,\u201d his administration claimed no responsive records existed just later that month.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThe records sought don\u2019t just pertain to the massacre itself, but to operations and human rights violations throughout the war. Dr. Terry Karl, a Stanford professor and longtime expert on violence in Central America who is serving as a sworn expert in the trial, said that the events of El Mozote can best be understood in the context of the totality of war planning and policy. \u201cThe documentation of everything prior to this as a part of understanding, because it's all the same leadership,\u201d she said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThis June, Judge Guzm\u00e1n ordered the government to allow the technical experts to personally conduct inspections at several military archives and installations to look for documents. In late August, a representative of the government claimed that some of the documents sought were secret and couldn\u2019t be revealed without endangering national security, an argument that the judge dismissed as absurd.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThere is another transnational quirk to these proceedings in that many experts suspect the United States has a trove of relevant documents it hasn\u2019t turned over. The security coordination between the Salvadoran military and U.S. advisers was closely intertwined. \u201cIn my view, there's more information in the United States about what happened in El Salvador than there is in Salvador,\u201d said Karl. A series of declassifications by former President Bill Clinton shed some light, but the judge is \u003Ca href=\"\/en\/202003\/el_salvador\/24087\/El-Mozote-judge-asks-the-United-States-for-confidential-documents-on-the-massacre.htm\"\u003Edemanding that agencies\u003C\/a\u003E throughout the government, including the CIA and the Department of Defense, turn over additional classified documents.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EIn this, Judge Guzm\u00e1n has had support from some U.S. lawmakers, who have tied foreign aid to assisting with the investigation and pressured the Pentagon into turning more material over. It\u2019s a last-ditch effort to gather more information before the case moves to a trial phase, which is expected to happen later this year. Meanwhile, the clock is ticking; Lima, one of the indicted generals, died in July. There are questions about how the court procedures will be run, as the penal code changed during the time that the investigation was closed. The legal wrangling over how the proceedings themselves are handled could lead to further delays.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EThere is also the specter of a new amnesty law; a measure that tied a reparations program to new protections from prosecution for the perpetrators was passed by the National Assembly but vetoed by President Bukele. The legislature could try again, and Bukele has given mixed signals as to his commitment to a full investigation. Survivors were pleased by the veto and by his decision to strip Monterrosa\u2019s name from the Third Battalion\u2019s barracks. Nonetheless, he\u2019s been less than forthcoming with the documents, and has exhibited his own concerning \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/thebaffler.com\/latest\/history-unheeded-de-la-hoz\"\u003Eauthoritarian tendencies\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cbr\/\u003E\u003Cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003EMeanwhile, both witnesses and the accused, many now quite elderly, keep dying. Yet even with the uncertainty that the perpetrators will ever truly be made to answer for their crimes, a full accounting is important for El Salvador and its future. \u201cKnowing that this came from the top is still something that is not universally understood. The massacre itself, people do know about and they'll tend to kind of shake their heads and go, \u2018Oh, that was horrible. What a horrible thing to do,\u2019\u201d said Roht-Arriaza. \u201cBut that this was part of a pattern, was part of a plan, that this is what they did in order to win this war, that's not universally understood. And I think that would make a difference.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E"}