The International Center for Justice (CEJIL) has reacted to the statements made by the president in December at an event in El Mozote. But it also urges the Judiciary and the Prosecutor’s Office to activate the lawsuits and the investigation of war crimes that continue with impunity.
The International Center for Justice (CEJIL) today recalled the importance of the signing of the Peace Accords that ended the war in El Salvador, which it described as a process with which it was paving the way for a more just, inclusive and cohesive nation, but at the same time it has regretted that President Nayib Bukele does not value them and uses “pejorative language” when referring to a historical fact that it is important to thousands of Salvadorans.
In a statement issued, the organization urges the various state institutions to follow the pacification process that began in Mexico 29 years ago, among these units which represents Bukele, who is asked to contribute to the clarification of cases of human rights violations during the war allowing access to military archives and leaving the “pejorative language” towards this historical fact.
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“(To the President of the Republic) we also ask him to give up the use of pejorative language about this historical commemoration which is of enormous significance to thousands of people,” they urge Bukele separately.
But it also makes him see the organization as questioning the importance of the Peace Accords “revictimizes those who for thirty years or more have seen their expectations of truth, justice and reparation thwarted.”
On December 18, at an event in Mozote, where one of the most cruel and voluminous massacres took place during the war, Bukele not only stated that “the war was a farce,” but also showed that the more than 75,000 dead there were and attributed to both sides and the peace agreements was also a farce, because according to him, these only represent a negotiation between two domes.
Bukele also claimed that he was tarnishing the peace pact because it had brought “no benefit” to the country and mentioned the 25 homicides that were on average after the end of the war.
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Different sectors, left and right, as well as pro-human rights and family organizations of war victims have questioned the president for such claims. On social media, a campaign was even launched with the hashtag #ProhibidoOlvidarSV in which many citizens told a story of pain that occurred in the family or in their neighborhood, all in order to show that the war did not go being a farce, as Bukele said, but something real that caused a lot of pain in country.
And last January 16, thousands gathered in the Plaza Gerardo Barris in the center of the capital to show that for them the signing of the agreement at the Chapultepec Castle in Mexico between the then government and the guerrillas and supported by the United Nations (UN).
Precisely from the UN, through the resident coordinator for El Salvador and Belize, Birgit Gerstenberg, also came a reaction. “The El Salvador Peace Accords created an example to prevent the resurgence of violence through specific interventions: restoring respect and protection of human rights, transforming the role of the military, purging the police and the concept of public force, disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of ex-combatants, on the one hand. On the other, negotiating and establishing more social justice and introducing 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 aspired for the Peace Accords to begin the break with an authoritarian past. and repressive that characterized El Salvador for decades. “
Pending issues
While for this pro-human rights organization all the new institutionalization that was generated from the signing of the peace are democratic achievements, there is no denying that there were outstanding issues excluded from the agenda or avoiding the “huge debts and omissions that have hindered full compliance “with this pact.
In its statement, the organization calls on all Salvadoran state bodies to resume responsibly and seriously their obligations to comply with the content of the agreements, in spirit and letter, but also calls on them to comply with their obligations set out in the 2016 Amnesty Act unconstitutionality ruling.
In this sentence of the Constitutional Chamber it establishes, among other aspects, that the Legislative Body as well as the Executive must take actions directed to the reparation of the victims of the conflict.
It urges the Judiciary to activate lawsuits over “serious crimes committed during the armed conflict, adhering to the highest standards of human rights and in accordance with its international obligations.”
While the Attorney General is being asked to “diligently push for investigations into the serious crimes of the armed conflict that are still going unpunished.”