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48(43) On October 2, 2000, after one year and three months during which no
measures of any type were taken in the criminal proceedings, an assistant agent of
the Public Prosecutor’s office requested the Chalatenango Trial Court to order six
persons to testify, based on the June 1982 payroll forwarded by the President of the
Salvadoran Red Cross. Five of them were selected from among 51 persons on the
payroll, and the sixth was the president of the Red Cross female volunteers (damas
voluntarias) in October 2000. The President of the Red Cross stated that, in 1982,
volunteers had been working with the institution, and also Swiss representatives of
the International Committee of the Red Cross, “supported by a numerous group of
national employees with offices in several departments of the country.” Additionally,
the Public Prosecutor’s assistant requested that an official communication be sent
“for the second time,” to the Director of the International Committee of the Red
Cross with offices in Guatemala, asking him to advise whether the children had been
received by the ICRC. On November 17, 2000, the Chalatenango Trial Court issued a
letter rogatory to the Second Magistrate’s Court of San Salvador to receive the
statements of the said witnesses.
48(44) On May 11, 2001, almost six months after the Chalatenango Trial Court had
requested the Second Magistrate’s Court of San Salvador to receive the statements
of these six witnesses (supra para. 48(43)), the Chalatenango Trial Court issued an
official communication requesting the justices of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal to
provide the addresses of these persons.
48(45) On July 31, 2001, the Secretary General of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal
advised that “he [had] found eight homonyms” with regard to two of the said
witnesses and forwarded the respective codified information. He indicated that, of
the four remaining witnesses, “there [was] no one with th[ose] name[s] in the
Electoral Register kept by the institution.” On September 24, 2001, almost two
months after the first communication had been sent, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal
sent the Chalatenango Trial Court the requested electoral information on two
persons, but this information was provided “in code, once again.” Even though, on
August 15, 2001, the Trial Court requested that the information should be sent
decoded, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal again sent the information coded. There is
no record in the file of the criminal proceedings that the testimony of the five
persons who were selected from the 51 persons who appeared on the payroll of the
Red Cross in June 1982 (supra para. 48(43)) was received, or that other persons
who worked for the institution in 1982 and were also on the payroll were summoned.
48(46) On August 27, 2001, the prosecutor assigned to the proceedings presented a
brief with the list of the persons who were working for the Salvadoran Red Cross in
May 2001 and indicated that “when the names were compared” with the June 1982
payroll of personnel, he had found that, on the current list, “there [were] persons
[who were employed in 1982] and who were still employed” by this institution;
consequently, four persons could be summoned to testify. Nevertheless, the brief did
not request that three persons who were on both lists should be summoned to
testify, without indicating the reason. Also, in this brief, the prosecutor gave the
address of the president of the Red Cross female volunteers in August 2001 (supra
paras. 48(43) and 48(45)). During the criminal proceedings, only two of the four
witnesses requested by the prosecutor gave testimony. One of them, who testified
on September 21, 2001, before the Second Magistrate’s Court of Ahuachapan, stated
that “he never […] live[d] or work[ed] in any part of Chalatenango,” that “in the
cases of those who disappeared during the war, it was the International Committee