El Salvador: Ex-president charged over priest killings in 1989

Former President Alfredo Cristiani has been charged in a case that has been pursued by prosecutors for years. Six Jesuit priests were killed in 1989 for being critics of the US-backed government during the civil war.

Alfredo Cristiani was president of El Salvador from 1989 to 1994

Former El Salvadorian President Alfredo Cristiani on Friday was charged in connection with the 1989 killing of six Jesuit priests.

Prosecutors also charged another dozen people, including former military officers.

The list of charges apparently ranges from murder and terrorism to conspiracy, according to The Associated Press news agency.

1989 massacre

On November 16, 1989, an elite commando unit killed six priests as well as their housekeeper and the housekeeper's daughter at their home at a university. Five of the priests were Spaniards and one was Salvadorian.

The soldiers tried to make it look like the killings were committed by leftist guerrillas.

One of the slain priests was Father Ignacio Ellacuria, who was a prominent critic of the US-backed right-wing government of El Salvador. He was also the rector at the university.

In September 2020, a Spanish court sentenced a former El Salvadorian army colonel to 133 years in prison for his role in the murder of the priests.

Case opened and closed many times

The case, one of the most notorious episodes in the country's civil war from 1980 to 1992, had been opened and closed several times over the course of the investigation.

In 2016, El Salvador's Supreme Court declared unconstitutional a 1993 law that prohibited the prosecution of crimes committed by the El Salvadorian military and leftist guerillas during the civil war. 

That meant prosecutors could investigate the atrocities and alleged war crimes committed during the bloody war, which killed around 75,000 people and left another 8,000 people missing.

In 2016, prosecutors detained former soldiers connected to the killing, arguing the priests had been targeted for criticizing the rights abuses committed by the US-backed army.

In 2018, a court reopened the investigation and named former President Alfredo Cristiani and six military officers as suspects in their investigation into the 1989 massacre.

In 2019, the investigation was once again put on hold when military officers filed an appeal in the Supreme Court.

In January, the Supreme Court ordered the reopening of the investigation, with Attorney General Rodolfo Delgado tweeting that his office was determined "to go after those accused of ordering this regrettable and tragic event."

rm/nm (Reuters, AP, EFE)