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General in El Salvador Killings in ’80s Can Be Deported, BIA Rules

March 13, 2015 (1 min read)

"In a decision setting a significant human rights precedent, an immigration appeals court has ruled that a former defense minister of El Salvador, a close ally of Washington during the civil war there in the 1980s, can be deported from the United States because he participated in or concealed torture and murder by his troops.  The decision, published Wednesday by the Board of Immigration Appeals in the case of the former official, Gen. Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova, found that he had a direct role in the abuse and killings of civilians because of his “command responsibility” as the top military officer.  It is a major statement by the highest immigration court, interpreting a central issue in a human rights law passed in 2004. General Vides is the highest-ranking official to be prosecuted under the command provisions of the statute. ... 

Among other crimes, the board found that General Vides was directly involved in covering up the role of National Guard troops under his command in the rape and murder of four American churchwomen in December 1980.  Those killings, as much as any others by the Salvadoran armed forces during the decade-long war, revealed the rampant violence of the military that Washington staunchly supported in its Cold War confrontation with leftist guerrillas.  This immigration case is the first time General Vides has been held responsible in American courts in those murders. ... 

The board decision is likely to have an immediate effect on the similar deportation case of another former Salvadoran defense minister, Gen. José Guillermo García, which is also on appeal in Florida.  In 2000, a Florida jury acquitted General Vides and General García of responsibility for the churchwomen’s murders.  But in 2002 in a separate case, a Florida jury found the officers liable for the torture of three Salvadorans, including Dr. Romagoza, and ordered them to pay $54 million. The government started the deportation cases after those verdicts." - Julia Preston, New York Times, Mar. 13, 2015.

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