El Salvador to prosecute guerrillas who executed US soldiers in 1991

For the first time since the nullification of the 1993 amnesty law, the office of the attorney general in El Salvador has sought arrest warrants for figures involved in a crime committed during the war.   But it is not one of the infamous massacres by members of the Salvadoran armed forces.   Instead, the arrest is sought of three guerrilla fighters who participated in downing a US helicopter in 1991 and killing two defenseless, wounded US soldiers.  

 The event was investigated and described in the UN Truth Commission Report following the war:

On 2 January 1991, a United States helicopter gunship was shot down by an FMLN patrol in San Francisco canton, Lolotique district, Department of San Miguel, while flying at low altitude towards its base at Soto Cano, Honduras. The pilot, Daniel F. Scott, was killed and in the crash and Lt. Colonel David H. Pickett and Corporal Earnest G. Dawson were wounded; all were United States nationals.  

Members of the patrol approached the helicopter and fired at the survivors from a certain distance. The patrol left the dead United States soldier and the two wounded soldiers at the scene and departed, carrying off weapons and equipment from the helicopter. Shortly afterwards, a member of the patrol was sent back to the scene and killed the two wounded men.... 

Findings 

The Commission considers that there is sufficient proof that United States soldiers Lt. Colonel David H. Pickett and Corporal Earnest G. Dawson, who survived the shooting down of the helicopter by an ERP unit, but were wounded and defenceless, were executed, in violation of international humanitarian law, by Fernán Fernández Arévalo, acting on the orders of Severiano Fuentes Fuentes. The Commission has found no evidence that other members of the unit participated in the execution. 

The Commission has likewise found no evidence that the executions were ordered by higher levels of command, or that they were carried out in accordance with an ERP or FMLN policy of killing prisoners. FMLN acknowledged the criminal nature of the incident and detained and tried the accused.

 You can read a Chicago Tribune story concerning the executions of the wounded soldiers here.   A collection of news clippings in US papers about the incident can be found here.  El Diario de Hoy has some 1991 photos of US military investigating the scene here.

Headline -- Pentagon Presumes FMLN Killed Advisors