The United States expressed concern on Tuesday about the arrest warrant issued by the Salvadoran justice system against former president Alfredo Cristiani and four ex-deputies, accused of covering up those responsible for the murder of nearly 1,000 civilians by the Army in 1981, an attack known as the El Mozote massacre.
“The United States government expresses its deep concern about the decision made last December 22nd by an investigative court to issue arrest warrants” against Cristiani (1989-1994) and four ex-deputies, said a statement released by the U.S. embassy in San Salvador.
The Salvadoran justice system accuses Cristiani, whose whereabouts are unknown, of “personal concealment” for decreeing an amnesty in 1993 that prevented the prosecution of those responsible for the massacre, a decision overturned in 2016 after being declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of Justice.
The arrest warrant also affects four ex-deputies, including Rubén Zamora, who served as ambassador of El Salvador to the United States from April 2013 to September 2014.
According to the U.S. government, the victims of the El Mozote massacre “deserve justice,” but it considers that the court’s decision to order the arrests of the former president and the ex-deputies “unfortunately” is something that “does not help in that objective.”
“These arrest warrants do not advance the cause of providing justice or holding accountable the murderers responsible for the El Mozote massacre,” added the U.S. embassy in its account on the social network X.
The massacre occurred between December 9 and 13, 1981, during the country’s civil war. Units of the Salvadoran Army, led by the Atlacatl counterinsurgency battalion – trained by the United States – murdered at least 988 inhabitants, including 558 children, from El Mozote and nearby communities.
The military participated in the so-called “Operation Rescue,” a mission aimed at ending those suspected of collaborating with the then-guerrilla Farabundo Martà National Liberation Front (FMLN) in the department of Morazán, in the northeast of the country.
Another 712 people who survived the attack left the area.
The civil war in El Salvador (1979-1992) left more than 75,000 dead, at least 7,000 missing, and thousands displaced.
