-41the detachment, “describing the place from where the said children were brought,
and also the place where they were handed over to the Red Cross.”
48(61) On August 15, 2001, the Chalatenango Trial Court indicated that the judicial
inspection of the “logbook of the captain of the barracks” should be carried out on
August 23, 2001. However, on August 20, 2001, the Chalatenango Trial Court issued
an official communication to the No. 1 Military Detachment’s personnel officer
informing him that the procedure “would not be carried out on the [23rd …], but […]
on the [28th] of the same month and year, in working hours.” The file of the criminal
proceedings contains no mention of the reason why the said inspection of the
logbook of the captain of the barracks of the No. 1 Military Detachment of
Chalatenango was not carried out on the day initially specified.
48(62) On October 11, 2001, the prosecutor assigned to the proceedings requested
that “the date and time for carrying out the inspection of the logbooks of the No. 1
Military Detachment and also of the El Paraíso Fourth Brigade be established as soon
as possible.” Consequently, on October 16, 2001, the Chalatenango Trial Court
indicated that the inspection of the logbooks of the No. 1 Military Detachment should
be carried out on October 25, 2001. As regards the inspection pending in the El
Paraíso Fourth Infantry Brigade, the Chalatenango Trial Court indicated that “it was
awaiting information on what had been decided,” since, on August 7, 2001, an
official communication had been issued to the El Paraíso Magistrate’s Court (supra
para. 48(59)). It did not reiterate the order to that court or insist that the requested
inspection be carried out.
48(63) The Chalatenango Trial Court did not carry out the judicial inspection of the
logbook of the captain of the barracks of the No. 1 Military Detachment of
Chalatenango on October 25, 2001, because the general “files [of that detachment]
had been transferred from one place to another and […] were in disarray[,] so that
this logbook had not been found.” The judge and the prosecutor were taken to the
place where the files were kept and confirmed that “they were […] in disarray; [they]
were shown several logbooks, which they had to sort out.” The judge asked “whether
the same measure could be ordered […] one month later, […] when the files were in
order,” to which the Detachment’s personnel officer replied that they would be sorted
out “within about 15 days [… and] asked for the telephone numbers” of the
prosecutor’s office and the court “to advise [them] when the files were in order.”
48(64) On November 27, 2001, the El Paraíso Magistrate’s Court and the prosecutor
visited the Fourth Infantry Brigade to carry out the judicial inspection of the
logbooks, files and records of this institution for the months of June and July 1982.
Almost four months had elapsed since the Chalatenango Trial Court ordered this
Magistrates Court to carry out this inspection (supra para. 48(59)). However, the
Brigade delivered official communication No. 286 to the court, advising that “it d[id]
not have the required information […] as it did not have any files from those dates[,]
because they had been destroyed by terrorist criminals in an attack of [March] 31,
1987” “when forces of the Farabundi Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN),
attacked [the said] military unit[,] so that there are no files from [1980] to March
[1987].”
48(65) On January 23, 2002, the prosecutor assigned to the proceedings, who had
been appointed on January 11, 2002, requested that “a second inspection [be made]
of the logbooks and records” of the No. 1 Military Detachment of Chalatenango,
“which ha[d] remained pending” for almost three months, since the first inspection