A Salvadorean judge seeks to investigate President Nayib Bukele as part of the ongoing inquiry on the El Mozote massacre. The judge asked the Prosecutor's Office to determine if Bukele and his Defense Minister René Merino covered up or blocked Army archives' judicial inspections.
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Judge Jorge Guzmán, from the San Francisco Gotera Examining Court, requested the Prosecutor's Office investigate Bukele and Merino on the basis that the Armed Forces, with their support, have prevented scheduled inspections of the archives of various military units, arguing that the files were destroyed in the past 40 years.
#ÚLTIMAHORA Juez de Instrucción de San Fco. Gotera certificó que el Presidente Bukele y el Ministro de Defensa ordenaron e impidieron ingresar, así como ejecutar diligencias de inspección en archivos militares del Estado Mayor de @FUERZARMADASV relacionados a masacre #ElMozote pic.twitter.com/aXiK91f0lc
— Tutela Legal MaríaJH (@TutelaLegalMJH) November 9, 2020
El Mozote massacre is one of the deadliest passages in El Salvador's civil war. On December 11, 1981, the Salvadoran Army killed more than 1.000 people, almost half of them children, as part of the armed conflict between the military dictatorship and left-wing guerillas.
In this sense, the document submitted to court noticed that “crimes have been incurred by act or omission on the part of the president of the republic and General Commander of the Armed Forces, and the National Defense Minister, who allegedly gave the order to deny access.”
Bukele said in September that documents regarding the massacre were destroyed during previous administrations, and a month later called the judges to visit military facilities "a show" and a "farce."
The comments unleashed a wave of anger among the massacre survivors and revealed Bukele's attitude towards the judicial process.
Latin America's priest of the poor was killed by US backed death squads in El Salvador. pic.twitter.com/2jFD4bgQWI
— teleSUR English (@telesurenglish) March 25, 2019