IV. CASES AND PATTERNS OF VIOLENCE (cont.)

B. VIOLENCE AGAINST OPPONENTS BY AGENTS OF THE STATE

2.  EXTRAJUDICIAL EXECUTIONS

(f) LAS HOJAS

SUMMARY OF THE CASE

On 22 February 1983, members of the Jaguar Battalion, under the command of Captain Carlos Alfonso Figueroa Morales, participated in an operation in Las Hojas canton, San Antonio del Monte Municipality, Department of Sonsonate. Soldiers arrested 16 peasants, took them to the Cuyuapa river and shot and killed them at point-blank range.

The accused have consistently maintained that this was a clash with terrorists. An investigation by the Ministry of Defence concluded that no members of the armed forces were responsible for the incident.

The judicial proceedings were dismissed by the Supreme Court of Justice under the 1987 Amnesty Act. In 1992, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights accused the Government of El Salvador of failing in its duty to investigate and punish those responsible for violations of the American Convention on Human Rights.

On the basis of various degrees of evidence, the Commission finds the following:

DESCRIPTION OF THE FACTS ²⁰⁶

The massacre

In the early morning of 22 February 1983, Captain Carlos Alfonso Figueroa Morales, commanding the Jaguar Battalion based in Military Detachment No. 6 at Sonsonate, mobilized three units from there belonging to the first company. One unit was under the command of Second Lieutenant Carlos Sasso Landaverry, one under the command of Second Lieutenant Cadet Francisco del Cid Díaz and the third under the command of Sergeant José Reyes Pérez Ponce. ²⁰⁷

At about 6 a.m., a unit entered the Las Hojas cooperative of the Asociación Nacional de Indígenas (ANIS). With the help of members of the local civil defence unit, who had scarves tied around their faces to conceal their identities, they arrested seven members of the cooperative. The soldiers had a list of alleged subversives and several members of the civil defence unit pointed out the people whose names were on the list. They were dragged from their houses, beaten and bound, then taken from the cooperative along the road towards the Cuyuapa river.

The members of the cooperative arrested were Gerardo Cruz Sandoval (34 years), ²⁰⁸ José Guido García (21 years), ²⁰⁹ Benito Pérez Zetino (35 years), ²¹⁰ Pedro Pérez Zetino (24 years), ²¹¹ Marcelino Sánchez Viscarra (80 years), ²¹² Juan Bautista Mártir Pérez (75 years) ²¹³ and Héctor Manuel Márquez (60 years). ²¹⁴

Another unit of about 40 soldiers entered the San Antonio farm in Agua Santa canton, near the Las Hojas cooperative, arrested a number of people and took them also towards the Cuyuapa river. ²¹⁵ The people arrested there included Antonio Mejía Alvarado, ²¹⁶ Romelio Mejía Alvarado, ²¹⁷ Lorenzo Mejía Carabante, ²¹⁸ Ricardo García Elena (19 years), ²¹⁹ Francisco Alemán Mejía (36 years), ²²⁰ Leonardo López Morales (22 years), ²²¹ Alfredo Ayala ²²² and Martín Mejía Castillo. ²²³

When the leader of ANIS, Adrián Esquino, was informed of the arrest of the members of the cooperative, he went immediately, at 7 a.m., to speak to Colonel Elmer González Araujo, ²²⁴ Commander of Military Detachment No. 6 at Sonsonate. Colonel González Araujo told him he knew nothing about the arrest of the members of the ANIS cooperative, but that he knew that a number of subversives with the surname Mejía had been captured.

Later that morning, a group of ANIS members found 16 bodies on the banks of the Cuyuapa river; there were marks that showed that their hands had been tied, their faces were disfigured by bullets and they had all been shot at point-blank range in the forehead or behind the ear.

That same day, 22 February, Roberto Rogelio Magaña, the justice of the peace and experts examined the bodies. Alfredo Ayala's body still had "... his arms and forearms behind his back with the thumbs tied together with a piece of string ...". ²²⁵ The other victims also showed signs of having had their thumbs tied together and had been riddled with bullets at point-blank range.

The official version

The operation was discussed and decided upon the previous day by Colonel González Araujo, Major Oscar León Linares, the commanding officer of the Battalion, and Captain Figueroa Morales, the Chief of S-2. According to their version, they were informed of the presence of subversives and the purpose of the operation was to search the area.

Later, Captain Figueroa Morales said that during the operation he heard shots coming from up ahead. ²²⁶ When he arrived at the Cuyuapa river, the two Second Lieutenants informed him that there had been a clash with guerrillas. They found a number of bodies there, but none of them were bound. ²²⁷

Although in several depositions soldiers alleged that there had been a clash with guerrillas, none of them admitted to having witnessed such a clash and all of them said that they had only heard it.

After the clash, Captain Figueroa Morales made a report to Colonel González Araujo. ²²⁸ Major León Linares also received reports on arriving at the Detachment at about 8 a.m.

The investigations

Three investigations followed. President Magaña ordered the newly established governmental Human Rights Commission to investigate the case. Thus, before the case went to the Attorney General's Office, family members were interviewed and a first account of the incident was drawn up.

The Minister of Defence, General José Guillermo García Merino, entrusted Colonel Napoleón Alvarado with investigating the case. Statements were taken from several witnesses as part of the investigation, but not from the two Second Lieutenants, Cid Díaz and Sasso Landaverry, who were in Morazán. ²²⁹ According to the testimony of Captain Figueroa Morales, it was they who had headed the unit which took part in the alleged clash.

In April 1983, Colonal Alvarado determined that no proof had been found of the guilt of any member of the armed forces and that the deaths had occurred in a clash. He also expressed the view that the investigation by the Human Rights Commission had been biased. He added that the case had been politicized by enemies of the armed forces and that "... the armed forces cannot take any responsibility for what may happen to Mr. Adrián Esquino Lisco, since he ... it would appear, is protecting guerrilla elements within the association he heads". ²³⁰

The judicial investigation followed a different course. In March 1984, on the basis of a recommendation by the Office of the Attorney General,²³¹ the preventive detention of seven civil defence members and other members of the military escort was ordered, but the order did not extend to soldiers.²³² However, in December 1984, the judge of Sonsonate First Criminal Court ordered a stay of proceedings and in July 1985, the criminal court approved the case's dismissal. It also determined that the law on complicity could not be applied to civil defence members without any proof as to the main perpetrators. It had been established only that the escorts had assisted the army in the arrest. However, the court did not indicate who the immediate perpetrators were.²³³

As to the dismissal of the case against Captain Figueroa Morales and Major Léon Linares, the court affirmed that there was not enough evidence to bring charges against them.²³⁴

In July 1986, through the intervention of the United States Embassy and with new evidence that soldiers had been involved, criminal proceedings were reopened against a number of defendants, including Colonel González Araujo, Major León Linares and Captain Figueroa Morales. ²³⁵

In March 1987, however, the judge of the Court of First Instance again dismissed the case;²³⁶ in august, the appeal court revoked his decision and ordered the case brought to trial.²³⁷

Colonel González Araujo then filed a remedy of habeas corpus with the Supreme Court, when it was not yet certain that the National Assembly would approve the Amnesty Act (27 October 1987).²³⁸ In July 1988, the Supreme Court held that the Amnesty Act should apply to the Las Hojas case, and dismissed the case against all the defendants.²³⁹

Resolution of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on the application of the 1987 Amnesty Act in the Las Hojas case

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights received a petition in 1989²⁴⁰ denouncing the application of the 1987 Amnesty Act as a violation of the obligation of the Government of El Salvador to investigate and punish the violations of the rights of the Las Hojas victims and to make reparation for the injury caused.²⁴¹ On 24 September 1992, the Commission issued a resolution in which it determined that the amnesty decree adopted after the order to arrest officers of the armed forces had legally foreclosed the possibility of an effective investigation, the prosecution of the culprits and appropriate compensation for the victims.²⁴²

The Commission stated that the Government of El Salvador had failed in its obligation to guarantee the free and full exercise of human rights and fundamental guarantees for all persons under its jurisdiction.²⁴³ It further recommended that the Government of El Salvador should: (1) conduct an exhaustive, rapid, complete and impartial investigation of the facts in order to identify all the victims and the culprits and bring the latter to justice; (2) take the necessary steps to prevent the occurrence of similar incidents in future; (3) make reparation for the consequences of the situation and pay fair compensation to the victims' families.²⁴⁴

The Commission gave the Government of El Salvador three months in which to implement its recommendations, i.e., up to 24 December 1992. So far, no action has been taken to comply with the Commission's recommendations.

FINDINGS

The Commission finds the following:

(g) SAN SEBASTIAN

SUMMARY OF THE CASE

On 21 September 1988, members of the Jiboa Battalion detained 10 people in San Francisco canton in the district of San Sebastián. That same morning, Major Mauricio Jesús Beltrán Granados, chief of the Intelligence Department of the Fifth Brigade, under orders from Colonel José Emilio Chávez Cáceres, Chief of the Fifth Brigade, arrived at San Francisco canton. After interrogating several of the detainees, he ordered all 10 of them executed and the staging of a fictitious ambush.

In March 1989, an Honour Commission of the armed forces conducted an investigation in which members of the Jiboa Battalion said that Major Beltrán Granados had ordered them to execute the detainees and cover up the incident. Beltrán Granados, another officer and other non-commissioned officers and soldiers were brought before the judge, who ordered their detention. They were then released, except for Beltrán who is awaiting judgement.

The Commission on the Truth finds the following:

DESCRIPTION OF THE FACTS ²⁴⁵

The executions

On 20 September 1988, the second company of the Jiboa battalion of the Fifth Brigade arrived in the municipality of San Sebastián in the Department of San Vicente. Lieutenant Manuel de Jesús Gálvez Gálvez, commander of the unit, was informed that four men were involved in subversive activities. He ordered Second Lieutenant Arnoldo Antonio Vásquez Alvarenga to go to San Francisco canton and detain them.

Second Lieutenant Vásquez Alvarenga detained one of these men that same night. The detainee took the soldiers to a place where they found subversive propaganda, explosive devices, rucksacks, wire and two M-16 rifles. ²⁴⁶

Second Lieutenant Vásquez Alvarenga informed Lieutenant Gálvez Gálvez of the find.²⁴⁷ Captain Oscar Armando Peña Durán heard the information on the radio and transmitted it to the Fifth Brigade. Early next morning, over the Cerro Las Delicias radio relay station, Captain Peña Durán was ordered to "eliminate" the detainee. Captain Peña Durán said that his officers (Gálvez and Vásquez) could not obey that order. He then informed Gálvez Gálvez of the order, and the latter also refused to carry it out. Gálvez told him that if the order was repeated, the Brigade should be requested to give the order in writing.

During the night, Second Lieutenant Vásquez Alvarenga continued to interrogate the detainee and the latter agreed to point out the house of the other three suspects.²⁴⁸ All of them were subsequently detained.

The four detainees were taken to the village school. Second Lieutenant Vásquez received a message over the radio from Lieutenant Gálvez informing him that he would come to San Francisco canton and telling him to assemble the residents of the canton in the school.²⁴⁹

At 7.30 a.m. on 21 December, Lieutenant Gálvez arrived and interrogated one of the detainees again.²⁵⁰ He again contacted Captain Peña and told him that he would not kill the detainees without a written order from the Commander of the Brigade.²⁵¹ The Commander of the Fifth Brigade, and of the Fifth Military Zone, was Colonel José Emilio Chávez Cáceres. Peña requested permission to go to the Brigade and explain the situation in San Francisco. Major Beltrán Granados refused permission. ²⁵² He added that he would go to San Francisco canton with two interrogators. Peña Durán then contacted Gálvez Gálvez to inform him that Major Beltrán was coming, and told him to make a report to him.²⁵³

On the morning of 21 September, under orders from Colonel Chávez Cáceres, Major Beltrán went to San Francisco canton. He arrived the same morning, with two other interrogators and his assistant.

Captain Peña Durán, for his part, arrived at the Brigade²⁵⁴ at midday. He reported to Major Rodríguez, informing him of what had happened and of the order to eliminate the detainee. According to Captain Peña, Major Rodríguez said that the detainee should be taken to Brigade headquarters, in accordance with the procedure for normal operations. The two of them informed Lieutenant Colonel Turcios of the situation and of the order to eliminate the detainee. Peña then gave the same report to Colonel Chávez Cáceres. According to Chávez Cáceres, he told Peña that the detainee should be transferred to the Brigade.²⁵⁵

When Major Beltrán Granados arrived in the canton, Gálvez Gálvez made a report to him.²⁵⁶ Beltrán had three detainees brought out for interrogation. On his return from the interrogation, Major Beltrán, who as intelligence officer was not in command of the unit, informed Lieutenant Gálvez Gálvez that they had to execute the detainees. Gálvez Gálvez replied that he would not obey that order and that he would hand over command of the unit that was carrying out the operation to Major Beltrán.²⁵⁷

Beltrán Granados told Gálvez to order the detention of other persons, which he did. The total number of detainees increased to 10.²⁵⁸ Then, according to testimony, Major Beltrán Granados gave the order to execute them by simulating a guerrilla ambush. ²⁵⁹

Major Beltrán Granados ordered Sergeant Tobar Guzmán to look for a place down in the street in which to lay the confiscated mines to prepare an ambush.²⁶⁰ Tobar laid the mines and connected the wire to them. ²⁶¹

Second Lieutenant Vásquez ordered the soldiers to take the rest of the confiscated material to the site of the ambush. Second Lieutenant Vásquez told soldiers "Churute" (Fermín Cruz Castro), Matute (José Carlos Hernández Matute) and "Ciguanabo" (José Alfredo Méndez Beltrán) that they would finish off any detainee who was left alive.²⁶²

The detainees' hands were tied behind their backs (except for the women) and they were blindfolded. At about 3 p.m., they were taken to the place where they were to be executed, on the road. Vásquez gave a battery to Tobar, who installed it and activated the mines.²⁶³

Some soldiers shot off their weapons to simulate an ambush, as ordered by Major Beltrán.²⁶⁴ The gunfire lasted five minutes. Since the detainees did not die as a result of the mines, Major Beltrán ordered some soldiers to finish them off. One of them, Manuel de Jesús Herrera Rivera, refused to obey the order. Soldiers "Churute" (Fermín Cruz Castro), "Balazo" (Francisco Ponce Ramírez) and Matute (José Carlos Hernández Matute) finished off the detainees.²⁶⁵

Major Beltrán Granados ordered Deputy Sergeant Rosales Villalobos to shoot the detainees, and he did so. He also ordered a soldier to take the blindfolds off the bodies and ordered soldier Hernández Alfaro to smear blood on the uniform of soldier Méndez Beltrán ("Ciguanabo") and put a dressing on him to make it look as if he had been wounded in combat.

Major Beltrán then ordered Lieutenant Gálvez Gálvez to inform the Brigade that terrorists had ambushed them and that eight detainees and two terrorists had been killed, and to request a helicopter to transport a wounded soldier.²⁶⁶

A helicopter arrived with a lawyer from Department 5 of the Brigade and a United States adviser. Beltrán got into the helicopter with the allegedly wounded soldier and they went to Brigade headquarters.

The cover-up and the official investigations

The next day, the San Sebastián justice of the peace identified the murdered peasants and COPREFA reported that 10 subversives had died in a clash between troops of the Jiboa Battalion and guerrillas. On 23 September, COPREFA published the version that Colonel Chávez Cáceres says he received from Major Beltrán Granados.

Officials from non-governmental human rights bodies (Legal Protection and the non-governmental Human Rights Commission) and journalists went to San Francisco canton on 22 September. A number of witnesses reported that the peasants had been murdered by the soldiers. In public statements, President Duarte refuted the accusations.

General Blandón, Chief of Staff, communicated with Colonel Chávez Cáceres on 23 September and told him that the version of the incident he had been given was untrue.

On 24 September, Major Beltrán Granados learnt that a soldier called Escoto had been wounded by guerrillas. He suggested to Escoto that he pretend to have been wounded at San Francisco on 21 September, so as to help them find a way out of the problem. Two days later, he presented him to the other members of the second section of the second company of the Jiboa Battalion and told them that they should say that Escoto had been at San Francisco on 21 September and that he had been wounded there. Escoto was then presented as having been at San Francisco that day.²⁶⁷

On the night of 26 September, Major Beltrán Granados assembled the officers, non-commissioned officers and soldiers who had been at San Francisco. He indicated the places where each of them had been when they left San Francisco canton and said that was the version they should give. Later, there were other meetings to remind the soldiers what they had to say.

On one occasion, Second Lieutenant Vásquez Alvarenga took the soldiers to San Francisco canton and placed each soldier in the position that had been indicated to him, so that each soldier would recognize his position and not forget what he had to say.

On 27 and 28 September, members of the Commission for the Investigation of Criminal Acts interviewed Major Beltrán, Lieutenant Gálvez, Second Lieutenant Vásquez and the non-commissioned officers and soldiers. They all adhered to the cover-up version.

Some days later, lawyers Paredes and Parker of the Ministry of Defence and of the General Staff, respectively, interrogated the personnel of the Fifth Brigade who had been in San Francisco canton. All of them kept to the version of an ambush. An investigator administered lie detector tests. The results showed that some people were giving "dubious" replies. The lawyers then drew up a report which Chávez Cáceres sent to the General Staff and the Ministry of Defence.

Nine days after the incident, a member of the Jiboa Battalion told Colonel Chávez Cáceres that Major Beltrán had ordered the execution of the detainees and that they had been murdered. On 5 October, the corpses were exhumed and the forensic analysis revealed that the peasants had died after being shot at close range and not during combat.²⁶⁸

On 29 October 1988, the Commander of the Fifth Brigade announced at a press conference that the detainees had died in an ambush and that the guerrillas had returned during the night and mutilated the bodies to make it look as if they had been executed at close range.

Between 8 and 10 December 1988, investigators from the Commission for the Investigation of Criminal Acts again interrogated the officers, non commissioned officers and soldiers. All of them kept to the cover-up version.

On 3 February 1989, United States Vice-President Dan Quayle visited El Salvador and called for the punishment of those responsible for the San Sebastián massacre. He handed over a list of three officers who were implicated: Colonel Chávez Cáceres, Major Beltrán Granados and Second Lieutenant Vásquez Alvarenga.

Some days later, Colonel Chávez Cáceres left the Brigade and Lieutenant Colonel Turcios was put in command. The other officers were then relieved of their duties. Lieutenant Gálvez Gálvez was held at Treasury Police headquarters, along with Second Lieutenant Vásquez Alvarenga.

In the course of February and March 1989, the military personnel who had been in San Francisco canton were questioned again. With the exception of Major Beltrán Granados, all of them abandoned the version of an ambush and said that Major Beltrán had ordered the execution and also the cover-up version of the incident.

The Commission for the Investigation of Criminal Acts identified Major Beltrán Granados as having ordered the executions and Second Lieutenant Vásquez Alvarenga, Sergeant Tobar Guzmán, Deputy Sergeant Rosales Villalobos, Corporal Ayala Arias and soldiers Cruz Castro, Hernández Matute, Mendéz Beltrán and Ponce Ramírez as having been responsible for carrying them out. ²⁶⁹

Colonel Chávez Cáceres was not summonsed to make a statement or accused of or held responsible for any act or omission.

The judicial proceedings

The results of the investigations were sent to the judge of the Court of First Instance of San Sebastián on 11 March 1989.²⁷⁰ The judicial detention of nine people was ordered.²⁷¹ In February 1990, the judge released all of them except Major Beltrán²⁷² and Deputy Sergeant Rosales Villalobos.²⁷³

In May 1990, the court of San Vicente confirmed the judgement ordering the detainees' release and revoked the decision to bring Deputy Sergeant Rafael Rosales Villalobos to trial.²⁷⁴

As of the date of drafting of this report, Major Beltrán was still in prison awaiting the public hearing.

FINDINGS

The Commission finds the following:

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Posted by USIP Library on: January 26, 2001
Source: UN Security Council, Annex, From Madness to Hope: the 12-year war in El Salvador: Report of the Commission on the Truth for El Salvador, S/25500, 1993, 76-86.