El Salvador processes the man known as a “death squad” – RTVE

The Prosecutor’s Office of El Salvador has presented before a court of instruction an indictment against a “death squad” structure, which is the first to be prosecuted for crimes against humanity perpetrated during the civil war (1980-1992), as reported by the institution on Wednesday. He has indicated on his social networks that “the fiscal accusation has been filed against four people who were part of a structure known as death squads”, which operated in the 1980s in the department of San Miguel (east). “This is the first time in the history of the country that a structure of this type is prosecuted for acts committed in the 1980s, under the modality of crimes against humanity,” said the source. Accused for various crimes The Public Ministry has maintained that they are accused of the crimes of murder, deprivation of liberty, illicit associations and crimes against the laws or customs of war. The accused have been identified as José Inés Benavides Martínez, Luis Alonso Benavides Polio, José de la Cruz Orellana and Ángel Aníbal Alvarado Benítez. In August 2021, the two defendants named Benavides and Orellana were arrested, and the court that heard the case declared the massacre of 5 people at the hands of these ex-military a crime against humanity. defendants are accused of the murders of Ángel María Chávez, María Aguilar de Chávez, José Luciano Benavides, Guillermo Magaña and Rogelio de la Cruz Magaña. Crimes against humanity attributed mainly to the Army The Salvadoran civil war left some 75,000 dead and 8,000 missing and it was not until 2016 that a ruling by the Constitutional Chamber allowed crimes against humanity to be investigated and tried, most attributed to the Army. Among these cases are that of San Óscar Arnulfo Romero and the massacre of some 1,000 unarmed civilians in the remote town of El Mozote in 1981.