This Tuesday marks the thirty-second anniversary of the signing of the 1992 Peace Accords in El Salvador. However, the country faces outstanding debts with the victims of human rights violations and a process of democratic dismantling, denounce human rights organizations.
On January 16, 1992, 32 years ago, the Salvadoran Government and the left-wing guerrilla Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, FMLN, signed the historic Peace Accords in Mexico with the mediation of the United Nations.
El Salvador commemorates the thirty-second anniversary of the signing that marked the end of the civil war that took place between 1980 and 1992. But today, outstanding debts still persist with the victims of human rights violations, while opponents denounce a weakening of democracy and judicial advances that, according to the evaluations of the NGOs Cristosal and Tutela Legal, are considered “neutralized.”
Despite the milestone of achieving Peace, “unfortunately the governments in power and the military power prevented the fulfillment of this agenda of the Peace Agreements related to the rights of the victims,” recalls David Morales, from the humanitarian organization Cristosal. In his opinion, these rights were discriminated against while the perpetrators were protected, in addition to “other practices of impunity.”
Morales, who represents the survivors of the El Mozote massacre in a criminal trial, recalls that in 2016 the obstacles to trying those responsible for war crimes were eliminated with the declaration of unconstitutionality of the 1993 amnesty.
The massacre, which occurred in December 1981, during the country's civil war, was carried out by the Atlácatl Battalion of the Salvadoran Army, and it is estimated that at least 978 people, including 552 children, were murdered. In fact, it is considered the largest massacre in Latin America during the 20th century.
The 2016 ruling of the Constitutional Chamber allowed the reopening of criminal proceedings that were closed for decades, such as the El Mozote case or the massacre of six Jesuit priests in 1989, among others. Alejandro Díaz, from the organization Tutela Legal 'María Julia Hernández', affirms that “what this (resolution of) unconstitutionality is has been neutralized. These cases have been stalled,” he affirms.
A Government behind the Agreements
This year marks the fifth anniversary of the failure by the Government of Nayib Bukele and the Salvadoran State to carry out commemorative events for the signing of the Peace Agreements. This distancing originates from the president's statement, who described these agreements as a “farce.”
In 2020, Bukele actively supported the blocking of a series of proceedings led by Judge Jorge Guzmán, in charge of the El Mozote case, within the military archives. The judge asked the Prosecutor's Office to investigate whether the Salvadoran president and his military commanders were involved in any crime.
Díaz affirms that the impact of the actions of Bukele's Executive and Congress, dominated mostly by the ruling party, left its mark on judicial cases, especially after the irregular dismissal of the Constitutional Chamber in May 2021 and the removal of judges , including Guzmán.
Morales believes that all the high command of the Armed Forces and civilian presidents, including Bukele, have a position of blocking investigations and “protecting war criminals.”
He regretted that with the current Administration “a dictatorship is being established again in El Salvador and militarization is reaching much higher levels” than those recorded in previous governments.
The analyst warned of a “dismantling of the division of powers and undermining of judicial independence that the Bukele Government and its legislative group have promoted, limiting the possibilities of achieving justice in cases of war crimes.”
In addition to this, since March 2022, Bukele has kept El Salvador under a state of exception, raising concerns about respect for fundamental rights and the functioning of institutions.
Under this regime, various constitutional guarantees have been suspended, including freedom of cross-border mobility, freedom of expression, the right to association, the right to defense, as well as the inviolability of correspondence and communications. All this, according to the Government, to combat organized crime and reduce crime rates.
This prolonged state of emergency sparked criticism from human rights organizations and has raised questions about the balance between national security and the preservation of individual freedoms in El Salvador.
They protest against Bukele to commemorate the anniversary of the Agreements
This Sunday, hundreds of Salvadorans commemorate the 32nd anniversary of the end of the civil war in El Salvador. They did so protesting against the Government of President Nayib Bukele, who is seeking re-election despite the fact that the Constitution prohibits it.
About 500 people, including union members, war veterans, opposition political leaders and relatives of those detained during the emergency regime, marched through the main arteries of the Historic Center of San Salvador.
Among the claims were the “unconstitutional re-election” of Bukele, the reduction of benefits for around 19,000 war veterans, and they demanded the release of people detained under the emergency regime.
Human rights organizations report more than 200 deaths in prisons, along with around 6,000 victims of abuse, predominantly linked to “arbitrary detentions”, as well as cases of torture and illegal raids.
In one of the books that recounts the Salvadoran civil war published in 1991 and called 'The thousand and one stories of Radio Venceremos', in reference to the clandestine radio that became the voice of the FMLN and broadcast until 1994, The writer, José Ignacio López Vigil, wondered what would happen after the signing of the Salvadoran Peace Agreements: “Who will be able to speak for Venceremos? Everyone. Except the dead, everyone.”
With EFE and AP
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