Spain charges Salvadoran soldiers over Jesuit killings

Icon of the Jesuit Martyrs of El Salvador

A Spanish judge has charged 20 Salvadoran soldiers with the killing of six Jesuit priests and two women during El Salvador's civil war. The case was filed using Spain's universal jurisdiction law, which holds that some crimes are so grave that they can be tried anywhere. Among those indicted are two former defence ministers.

On 16 November 1989, a military death squad besieged the campus of the Jesuit-run University of Central America in San Salvador, and murdered Fathers Segundo Montes, Ignacio Martin Baro, Juan Ramon Moreno, Amando Lopez, Joaquin Lopez y Lopez and Ignacio Ellacuria, as well as their housekeeper Elba Ramos and her 16 year old daughter Celina.

Col Rene Emilio Ponce was the head of the Salvadoran Armed Forces' joint chiefs of staff at the time of the killings. He was later promoted to general and became the country's defence minister.

According to a report by a United Nations Truth Commission, Gen Ponce, who died earlier this month, ordered the killing of the priests.

Gen Rafael Humberto Larios was the minister of defence at the time of the shooting and was present at the meeting where Col Ponce ordered the killing, the commission says.

See also: ICN Remembering the Jesuit Martyrs of El Salvador www.indcatholicnews.com/news.php?viewStory=15165

Source: BBC/UCAN/ICN