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 testified today:

 

René Mendoza testified today as a former lieutenant in the Salvadoran army. At first he was one of the accused of participating in the act, but he accepted his guilt and became a key witness

Mendoza assured that the Jesuit Ignacio Ellacuría was identified as “guerrilla leader” and that the Atlacatl battalion was assigned to “eliminate” Ellacuría.

“The order was given not to use the weapons of the Atlacatl battalion and leave no witnesses. The instructions were to make it appear as if the guerrillas had committed the crime“, Mendoza said, in the trial against Orlando Montano.

“When we entered the UCA we came to a house. There were two women sitting on the sofa, a woman and her daughter” said Mendoza, regarding the murder of Elba and Celina Ramos, collaborators of Ellacuría and five other Jesuit priests killed.

Mendoza said he stil saw the two women alive and then heard gunshots. He left the house to find the bodies of other people facing down in the yard. Elba and Celina were killed later.

René Mendoza, in his participation during the trial, confessed that Rodolfo Parker, then a lawyer, prohibited him from mentioning the names of his superiors when he confessed during the first investigation that was made of the massacre, in 1990.

The former lieutenant said that on January 8, 1990, he went to give a statement before an honor commission at the police headquarters for the murder of the Jesuits. Five days later he also testified before a member of the Investigation Commission of Criminal Matters (CIHD, in Spanish)

Mendoza said that when he testified before the CIHD, Rodolfo Parker attended as a lawyer from the same institution and told him that no high command officer could be named in the statement. Then he destroyed a sheet with the statements he had already provided.

“Colonel (Guillermo) Benavides said that everything (they planned to do at the UCA) would be informed to president (Alfredo) Cristiani. He said that if (Cristiani) opposed they would inform it“, said Mendoza. He added that it was an “authorized mission”.

Mendoza confessed that the entire high command of the Salvadoran army, including the general commander, a position that corresponded to President Alfredo Cristiani, knew of the operation against the Jesuits. “There was no counter order,” he said.

“Colonel Benavides said that he was in coordination with Colonel Rivas, who was in charge of the CIHD, so that they could not get to the bottom of the matter, to go ahead with the investigation and that the Atlacatl battalion was not mentioned“, explained Mendoza at the National Court.

“They forbade us from having private defenders. They told us that we would only have lawyers from the army and that they would all follow the same strategy: deny everything and say that, on (the day of the massacre), no one left the Military School“.

Mendoza also confessed that the Salvadoran army had access to the list of jurors who participated in the first trial for the massacre held in El Salvador, and that they were contacted to achieve a favorable result.

The former liutenant stated that he had to leave El Salvador in 1992 because he received threats for collaborating with the investigation of the Truth Commission. “I declared the same to them, I told them everything“.

Mendoza corroborated the authenticity of a notebook in which there are notes by Colonel Benavides on the plans to attack Ignacio Ellacuría and the Jesuits. In these notes is the name of former General Orlando Montano as part of the “decision-making group”.

 

 

During his presidency, Mauricio Funes denied the extradition to Spain of other militars accused. During the administration of Sanchez Cerén, the government declared that they “would not hinder such request“.