Participant in Jesuit killings being deported from US

A junior Salvdoran army officer who was convicted of participating in the murder of the six Jesuits and their housekeeper at the University of Central America in 1989 is being deported from the US, but has amnesty in El Salvador:
Oct. 27 (CWNews.com) - A former Salvadoran military officer who was convicted in connection with the 1989 murder of 6 Jesuit priests has been arrested in California and now faces deportation, the San Jose Mercury News reports.

Gonzalo Guevara Cerritos was arrested at a motel in Los Angeles, and charged with entering the US illegally. He faces a deportation hearing next month.

Cerritos is one of 8 members of a military counter-insurgency unity who were charged with killing the Jesuit priests and members of their staff at a residence in San Salvador. The murders came at the height of the country's civil war, when many Catholic priests were viewed with suspicion because of links between Marxist guerillas and proponents of liberation theology.

Cerritos had been convicted, served a prison term in El Salvador, and received amnesty from the government in 1993.
Catholic World News

Although several lower level officers like Cerritos were convicted of the murders, no senior military officials who ordered the assassinations have ever been brought to justice.

Comments

Anonymous said…
This guy will probably receive a heroe's welcoming when he gets back. He will either get promoted to colonel, or maybe... he'll join the gangs as many of the simple soldiers did?
Carlos X. said…
The hour of reconciliation is here. Puño Cerrado is right that deporting Guevara will not lead to any positive results. He is immune from justice, except vigilante justice, which is just about the worst thing his victims would want to see result. Instead of seeking asylum, Guevara should seek reconciliation with the family, with the Church, with the Salvadoran community. What he wants from us is forgiveness. What we need from him is the Truth. There is room for working something out, no?