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such time as the State of El Salvador annuls the General Amnesty Law for Consolidation of the Peace
and pursues its investigations into the facts of the case.
4.
Actions subsequent to the dismissal
335.
The Commission notes that application of the amnesty law of August 27, 1993 led to the
suspension of all judicial or police investigations to clarify the facts and provide reparations to the
relatives. For many years the Salvadoran authorities have consistently failed to undertake a serious
investigation, a fact that, together with adoption of the LAGCP, engages the international responsibility of
the State.
336.
It must be noted that in 1993 the Second Court decided to suspend all exhumations of
human remains in the villages and cantons where the massacres occurred. It was only in the year 2000
that those activities were resumed. For seven years the Salvadoran judicial authorities failed to follow
through with the work begun in 1992, which was not only important for the judicial investigation but also
for making reparations to the relatives of the victims.
337.
Furthermore, although it has concluded that the decision of October 2, 2000 by the
Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice did not constitute an appropriate mechanism for
remedying the violations that the continued existence of the LAGCP represents, the Commission notes
that that judgment could have been used to good effect in this specific case. Thus, the Second Court or
any other judicial authority could have ordered the investigations to be re-opened in light of the obvious
unconstitutionality of the dismissal issued seven years earlier. What is more, the repeated petitions by
relatives of the victims and by the Tutela Legal (November 23, 2006 and August 13, 2007) to reopen the
case were ignored by the Salvadoran judicial authorities and the file on the massacre in El Mozote and
neighboring locales remains closed to this day.
338.
The Commission concludes that the State is still in omission with respect to pursuing
investigations and this constitutes a violation of the rights enshrined in articles 8.1 and 25.1 of the
American Convention in relation to article 1.1 thereof, as well as the obligations established in articles 1, 6
and 8 of the IACPPT and in article 7 of the Convention of Belém do Pará, to the detriment of the next of
kin of the victims listed in the Annex to this report.
V.
CONCLUSIONS
339.
From all that has been said to this point, the Commission concludes that the massacres
at El Mozote and neighboring locales constituted an unconscionable breach of the most fundamental
principles of the American Convention. The shocking number of men, women, children and older people
who died at the hands of the Atlacatl Battalion must remain etched in the memory of Salvadoran society
so that events such as those described in this report will never be repeated. The State of El Salvador has
an urgent duty to pay its historic debt to the memory of the victims, their surviving relatives, and the
people of the country who, nearly 30 years after the events, are still unable to heal the wounds through
acknowledgment of the truth and punishment of those responsible for these crimes against humanity.
Only when this happens will Salvadoran society achieve the national reconciliation it longs for.
340.
On the basis of the considerations of fact and of law set forth above, the Inter-American
Commission concludes that the State of El Salvador is responsible for:
(a)
Violation of the rights to life, to humane treatment and to personal liberty enshrined in
articles 4, 5, and 7 of the American Convention in relation to article 1.1 thereof, to the detriment of the
victims who were executed extrajudicially.
(b)
Violation of the special obligations with respect to children established in article 19 of the
American Convention, in relation to article 1.1 thereof, to the detriment of the children who were executed
extrajudicially.