The trial of Inocente Orlando Montano, former colonel and former deputy public security minister of El Salvador for the murder of the Jesuits of the Central American University (UCA), their cook and her daughter in November 1989, resumed in Madrid on 8 July.
The first day was devoted to the evidence of Yushy René Mendoza, who had been a lieutenant in the Salvadoran army and had accompanied the unit of the élite Alacatl batallion that carried out the murders. Mendoza gave evidence by video-link from Chile, since on his release from prison in 1993 he had been advised to leave El Salvador for his own safety. The Spanish prosecutors had accepted that sufficient time had elapsed since the murders for a prosecution to be impossible, and he gave evidence for the prosecution.
Mendoza said he had accompanied the Alacatl unit to the UCA, but had not fired a weapon. When he first arrived he saw Elba and Celina sitting in their house, but when he returned a few minutes later Elba “was almost cut in two by bullets”, and she was lying over Celia’s body as though she had attempted to shield her.
Much of the questioning of Mendoza focused on who had given the order for the killing. Mendoza said Colonel Guillermo Benavides, who ordered the attack on the UCA, had been at a meeting of the high command on the premises of the General Staff, which would have included Montano. According to Mendoza, Benavides said that the Salvadoran president, Alfredo Cristiani, had been informed of the decision to kill the Jesuits and might countermand the decision, but he did not.
This version was confirmed by a diary written by Benavides, which was presented in evidence. Asked by Montano’s defence counsel if he had not returned to El Salvador because he feared arrest, Mendoza said it was because he was afraid he might be killed, “among other things, because I am giving evidence here”.
The court also heard from two Salvadoran human rights prosecutors who had investigated the murders, Álvaro Henry Campos and Edward Sidney Blanco. Campos said that there was so much security in the area surrounding the UCA that it would have been impossible for a military unit to enter the UCA without senior officers being aware of it. He also described the trial that took place for the murders in El Salvador as “strange”, and said that a verdict was “imposed”. Sr Blanco said the state had “invented a story”.
Some of the most moving evidence came from Lucía Barrerra and her husband Jorge Cerna. Lucía did cleaning for the Jesuits at the UCA and the provincial house. Because of the guerrilla offensive, they felt unable to stay in their house in Soyapango on the other side of San Salvador, and Lucía asked Fr Martín-Baró if he could put them and their four-year old daughter up at the UCA, and he agreed.
In the middle of the night of the 15/16 November they were awakened by the sound of shooting. Lucía went to a window and saw soldiers. When the soldiers left she ventured out and saw the bodies of the Jesuits. She ran to the provincial house and told the provincial, Fr José-María Tejeira. The Jesuits later took them to the Spanish embassy, where they gave a statement.
They were later moved to the French embassy, where there was greater security. The Jesuits advised them to leave El Salvador for their own safety, and a French minister arranged for them to be taken on a French military aircraft to Miami. On the flight they were intercepted by Richard Chichester, a legal officer of the US embassy in El Salvador. On their arrival at Miami Chichester diverted them from the Jesuits who had come to meet them and handed them over to the FBI, who subjected them to bullying and hectoring, and succeeded in getting them to withdraw their original statement.
On Thursday 9 July the court heard from Fr José María Tojeira, at the time of the murders Jesuit provincial in Central America and also a former rector of the UCA. Asked about the claim that the UCA was “a nest of communists”, he replied that “all sorts of people” studied at the university, including the children of military officers. Commenting on a letter from Lt Mendoza in which he asked for forgiveness for not doing anything to prevent the murders, Fr Tojeira said: “We forgave the murderers right from the start. We are Jesuits. We have faith in the person of Jesus Christ, and it’s that attitude: Father forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.
The Madrid hearing is expected to finish on Wednesday 22 July.
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