Category Archives: Historical Memory

To learn where we are coming from and avoid mistakes of the past.

A new date to discuss progress on Reconciliation Law / Discusión de la ley de reconciliación

(EN ESPAÑOL AQUÍ)   The Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) notified the plaintiffs of the amnesty law, the resolution of unconstitutionality issued. In a letter addressed to José Benjamín Cuellar Martínez and Pedro Antonio Martínez González, the Secretary of the Chamber states that they decided to reschedule for October 30 the […]

Guarjila celebró otro aniversario de repoblación

Radio Sumpul compartió el siguiente reportaje sobre el aniversario de repoblación de Guarjila. Esto con el objetivo de mantener viva la memoria histórica de El Salvador porque “pueblo que olvida su historia está condenado a repetirla”. Radio Sumpul es apoyada por varios hermanamientos de la red de Ciudades Hermanas.  

“One more president of Impunity”. No access to the military files in Morazan.

ARPAS reports: “The organization of victims of the massacre, which left at least 1,000 people dead, calls on Bukele’s lack of coherence and summons him. ‘This was a dishonorable and dishonest decision by the President of the Republic towards the community of victims (…) This day is engraved in our memory that he is one […]

Mozote files – Defense Minister says they will not comply with a judicial order that, according to him, has no legal basis

FACTUM reports: The Minister of National Defense, Francis Merino Monroy, asked the magistrates of the Supreme Court of Justice to stop the inspection of military archives scheduled for next Monday, September 21, as part of the proceedings ordered by a judge in the criminal case for the massacre that occurred in El Mozote in 1981. […]

Orlando Montano convicted

(EN ESPAÑOL AQUÍ) The National Court in Spain has sentenced former Colonel Inocente Orlando Montano to 134 years in prison for ordering the murder of six Jesuits in El Salvador. It has been 31 years since the massacre took place on November 16, 1989, when several troops of the Army of El Salvador machine-gunned six […]

Will the military files be opened? Latest developments on “El Mozote” trial

EL FARO reports:   The presidency of Nayib Bukele told Judge Jorge Guzmán, who reopened and has promoted the investigation of the El Mozote massacre (1981), that “there are secret military plans that cannot be revealed by the Ministry of Defense” because the Armed Forces protect “superior assets of a collective nature, such as national […]

La Jornada: The CIA and the FBI knew of the plans to kill Ellacuria

(EN ESPAÑOL AQUI)   Madrid. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the State Department, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) knew about the plans of the Salvadoran army’s high command to assassinate the Jesuits of the Central American University (UCA), especially Ignacio Ellacuría, who had been placed on the list of men to be eliminated, […]

Compañero Víctor, ¡presente!

(EN ESPAÑOL ABAJO)   Raymundo Centeno, “Víctor” passed away on July 16th, 2020. Víctor was a founding member of CRIPDES and the father of the former president Rosa María Centeno. A pioneer in the organization of farmers in Chalatenango. He worked with CRIPDES all through the eighties until the peace accords were signed.   Isabel […]

Orlando Montano’s trial resumes in Spain

(PUEDE LEER EN ESPAÑOL AQUÍ)   Today in Spain the trial resumed against Orlando Montano, a former general of the Salvadoran army and for now the only accused as intellectual author of the massacre of six Jesuit priests and two collaborators, committed in 1989 at the Central American University (UCA). These are the witnesses who […]

Virtual Panel honoring Romero

As we mentioned before, Sacramento State University intended to organize an event to commemorate Oscar Romero’s martyrdom in March 2020. Due to the covid19 pandemic, the event was postponed and later changed into an online panel available here. Sister Cities’ board president Michael Ring and María Elena Martinez represented USESSC on this panel. We hope […]