INTER - AMERICAN COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS COMISION INTERAMERICANA DE DERECHOS HUMANOS COMISSÃO INTERAMERICANA DE DIREITOS HUMANOS COMMISSION INTERAMÉRICAINE DES DROITS DE L'HOMME ORGANIZACIÓN DE LOS ESTADOS AMERICANOS WASHINGTON, D.C. 2 0 0 0 6 EEUU March 8, 2011 Ref.: Case No. 10.720 The Massacres of El Mozote and Neighboring Locations El Salvador Mr. Secretary: I am pleased to address you on behalf of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in order to file Case No. 10.720, The Massacres of El Mozote and Neighboring Locations v. the State of El Salvador (hereinafter “the State,” “the Salvadorian State” or “El Salvador”), before the jurisdiction of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. The case concerns consecutive massacres committed between December 11 and 13, 1981 within a military operation by the Atlacatl Battalion, together with associated military units, in seven different locations in the north of the Department of Morazán. Thus, the indiscriminate attack against the civilian population commenced in the small village of El Mozote, continued in the Canton of La Joya, the townships of Ranchería, Los Toriles and Jocote Amarillo, and concluded in the Canton of Cerro Pando and the Cave of the Ortiz Hill (Cerro Ortiz.) As a result of these facts, about a thousand people lost their lives. While an investigation of these events was initiated, they remain unpunished after the dismissal of the case rendered on September 27, 1993, in the light of the General Amnesty Law for the Consolidation of Peace, which remains in effect in El Salvador. In later years, some exhumations were carried out but they did not cause the reactivation of the investigations, despite repeated requests to the relevant authorities. The State ratified the American Convention on Human Rights on June 23, 1978, and accepted the contentious jurisdiction of the Court on June 6, 1995. In addition, the State ratified the Inter-American Convention to Prevent and Punish Torture and the Inter-American Convention to Prevent, Punish and Eradicate Violence against Women on December 5, 1994 and January 26, 1996, respectively. Mr. Pablo Saavedra Alessandri, Secretary Inter-American Court of Human Rights P.O. Box 6906-1000 San José, Costa Rica Enclosures The Commission has designated Commissioner Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, and Executive Secretary of the IACHR, Santiago A. Canton, as its delegates. Likewise, Elizabeth Abi-Mershed, Deputy Executive Secretary, and Isabel Madariaga and Silvia