Washington Post Article
Extradition sought for ex-Salvadoran colonel over slayings
RALEIGH,
N.C. (AP) — The U.S. government is working to extradite a former Salvadoran
colonel to face charges that he helped plot the 1989 slayings of five Jesuit
priests from Spain during El Salvador's civil war, prosecutors said Wednesday.
Inocente
Orlando Montano Morales, 72, is one of 20 former military officials who were
indicted in Spain on charges related to the notorious killings known as the
Jesuit Massacre, according to a news release from the U.S. Department of
Justice.
A
federal prosecutor in North Carolina, where Montano Morales is serving a prison
sentence for immigration fraud, filed a complaint Wednesday in federal court
seeking to extradite him to Spain.
A
lawyer who worked with the victims' families to pursue the criminal case said
the prosecution of Montano Morales will be significant because the rest of the
accused officers aren't likely to be extradited from El Salvador.
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"His
case will be the site where the full truth of what happened that night and the
role that high level military officials played in the crime will be
prosecuted," said Carolyn Patty Blum, senior legal adviser to the Center
for Justice & Accountability.
From
1980 to 1991, El Salvador was caught in a conflict between the government and
leftist rebels, and the priests had been calling for discussions between the
two sides to end the fighting, according to court documents.
The
complaint says Montano Morales, who also served as El Salvador's vice minister
of defense and public safety, oversaw a government radio station that issued
death threats against Father Ignacio Ellacuria Beascoechea and other priests. It
says the colonel was present during a meeting when another officer "gave
the order to kill Father Ellacuria and leave no witnesses."
The
following day, Nov. 16, 1989, members of the Salvadoran military killed six
Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and the housekeeper's 16-year-old daughter,
court documents say. Five of the priests were from Spain, while the rest of the
victims were from El Salvador.
A
translated arrest warrant issued in Spain states that Montano Morales is
accused of murder and other charges.
Montano
Morales is serving a 21-month federal prison sentence for immigration fraud and
perjury, and his sentence at a North Carolina prison was set to finish later
this month.
The
former colonel has denied involvement in the killings of the priests. A message
left seeking comment from his lawyer in the immigration case wasn't immediately
returned.
He
told a judge in 2011 that he'd come to the U.S. about 10 years before his 2011
arrest. He'd been living in the Boston suburb of Everett and worked for six
years in a candy factory, making $14 an hour.
A
2011 affidavit filed by an investigator said Montano Morales falsely claimed he
hadn't served in the military on an immigration form for people seeking
temporary immigration status because they can't safely return to certain
countries.
Blum
said her organization partnered with a Spanish advocacy group to file a 2008
complaint asking authorities there to look into the case. The indictments were
issued in 2011 after an investigation by a Spanish court.
Of
the others indicted, one has died and the other 18 are in El Salvador, Blum
said. She says a Salvadoran law granting amnesty to people who participated in
the conflict is preventing their extradition.
"As
it stands now, those defendants are not going to be extradited to Spain,"
she said.
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