The International Center for Justice (ECJIL) reacted to statements made by the president in December at a ceremony in El Mozote. But it also urges the Judicial Branch and the Prosecutor’s Office to activate legal cases and investigate war crimes that go unpunished.
The International Center for Justice (ECJIL) today recalled the importance of signing the Peace Accords that ended the war in El Salvador, which it described as a process that began on the road to a more just, inclusive and cohesive nation. , but at the same time regretted that President Nayib Bukele did not appreciate them and used “pejorative language” when referring to a historical fact that is important to thousands of Salvadorans.
In a statement, the organization urges various state institutions to follow the peace process initiated in Mexico 29 years ago, including Bukele, which is being asked to help clarify rape cases. to human rights during the war by allowing access to military archives and leaving the “pejorative language” to that historical fact.
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“(We also ask the President of the Republic) to give up the use of pejorative language regarding this historical commemoration, which has enormous significance for thousands of people,” he partially urges Bukele.
But the organization also makes him see that questioning the importance of peace agreements “revictimizes those who for thirty years or more have seen their expectations of truth, justice and reparation frustrated.”
On December 18, at an event in El Mozote, where one of the most cruel and voluminous massacres occurred during the war, Bukele not only claimed that “the war was a farce,” but also revealed that the more than 75,000 deaths which were attributed to the two sides and the peace agreements was also a farce, because, according to him, they are just a negotiation between two leaders.
Bukele also said he had tarnished the peace pact because it had brought “no benefit” to the country and mentioned the 25 killings that took place on average after the end of the war.
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Various sectors, from the left and the right, as well as from human rights organizations and relatives of war victims, asked the president for such statements. On social media, a campaign was even created with the hashtag #ProhibidoOlvidarSV in which many citizens recounted a pain that took place in the family or in their neighborhood, all to show that the war was not a farce, as he said Bukele. But something real that caused a lot of pain to the country.
And on January 16, thousands gathered in Gerardo Barrios Square in the center of the capital to demonstrate that for them the signing of the agreement in Chapultepec Castle, Mexico, between the then government and the guerrillas and supported by the United Nations (UN).
It was from the UN, through the resident coordinator for El Salvador and Belize, Birgit Gerstenberg, that a reaction came. “The peace agreements in El Salvador have set an example to prevent the recurrence of violence through specific interventions: restoring respect for and protection of human rights, transforming the role of the military, purging the police and the concept of law enforcement, disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of ex-combatants. on the one hand. On the other hand, negotiate and establish more social justice and introduce guarantees for democracy, “the official told Deutshe Welle, the German public television.
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For CEJIL, the agreements signed 29 years ago represented “the full guarantee of human rights, institutional strengthening and, of course, democracy. However, society hopes that the peace agreements will begin to break with an authoritarian and repressive past that has characterized El Salvador for decades. “
Pending issues
Although for this human rights organization, the whole new institutional framework that has been generated since the signing of the peace agreement is a democratic achievement, there is no denying that there have been pending issues excluded from the agenda and it cannot ignore the “debts” and the enormous omissions that made full compliance ”with that pact.
In its statement, the organization calls on all bodies of the State of Salvador to assume responsibly and seriously their obligations to comply with the content of the agreements, in spirit and in the letter, but also to respect their obligations under the judgment. of unconstitutionality of the Amnesty Law of 2016.
In this decision, the Constitutional Chamber establishes, among other things, that the Legislative Body as well as the Executive must take actions aimed at repairing the victims of the conflict.
He urges the Judicial Branch to activate legal cases concerning “serious crimes that took place during the armed conflict, respecting the highest standards in the field of human rights and in accordance with its international obligations”.
While urging the Attorney General to “diligently promote investigations into serious crimes of armed conflict that are still unpunished.”