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was breached, that domestic legislation forbade arrests between 6:00 p.m. and 6:00
a.m., and furthermore that the finding of the body of Juan Humberto Sánchez was
notorious and public, showing signs of torture of his genitals, his tongue, and a shot
in the forehead.
Juan Humberto Sánchez was buried in the same area where he was found, and the
judge justified this conduct due to the state of decay of the body. Nevertheless, its
disinterment was not requested to carry out an autopsy and to establish cause of
death.
Finally, even though the Justices of the Peace can only hear the preliminary
proceedings for a month and must refer the case to the departmental courts of first
instance, in the case of Juan Humberto Sánchez it took them two years to refer the
file to the higher court.
d)
Testimony of Luis Alonso Discua Elvir, former commander in
chief of the armed forces
Unit 316 was formed in 1983, to provide military intelligence and counterintelligence,
in case of war, for the two major units with brigade-level armed forces. The armed
forces had only three brigades: 110, 115 and 101, and the sum of the three
constituted 316. They could participate in any war theater or in any neighboring
country, such as Nicaragua.
In 1992, he was the commander in chief of the armed forces, responsible for the
military institution as a whole and for all the components of the armed forces that
were under that command. He does not remember the functions of the territorial
forces, because although they belonged to the army they were not under his
command, but under that of the respective lieutenant colonel or colonel.
He does not remember the units called “Tucán,” nor whether he received intelligence
reports in connection with them. He emphasized that a helicopter of the Honduran
army had been shot down in the border area with El Salvador by agents of the
Frente Farabundo Martí de Liberación Nacional. Due to the amnesty, people who
had been involved in the conflicts in the countries of the region began to return.
He knew Enmanuel Flores Mejía, who was the commander of the Tenth Infantry
Battalion until December 31, 1992. He knew Colonel Manuel Quintanilla Hernández,
but he does not remember his rank. He did not know Captain Nelson Lagos nor does
he recall the existence of a military detachment called “La Concepción”.
Officer Ángel Belisario Hernández González was a member of the Tenth Infantry
Battalion headquartered in Marcala and with jurisdiction in Colomoncagua. He acted
in response to a request by the mayor of the municipality of Colomoncagua and the
Justice of the Peace, who had received a complaint from the inhabitants of the
community of Santo Domingo for alleged threats and attacks against them, carried
out by Juan Humberto Sánchez, who dressed in semi-uniform and with illegal
military gear not commonly used. According to the Constitution, no citizen can be
detained without a court order, unless the person is found in fraganti and in that
type of situations the commanders act independently, always under constitutional
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