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Generals connected to soa found liable for torture { July 23 2002 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)    http://www.commondreams.org/news2002/0723-14.htm http://www.commondreams.org/news2002/0723-14.htm FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE JULY 23, 2002 10:21 PM CONTACT: School of the Americas Watch Matthew Smucker, media@soaw.org 202.234.3440, 202.903.7257 El Salvadoran Generals Connected to SOA Found Liable for Torture Jury Awards $54.6 Million to Victims WEST PALM BEACH, FLORIDA - July 23 - A Florida federal jury today awarded $54.6 million to three Salvadorans who proved they were tortured by Salvadoran security forces. Juan Romagoza, Neriz Gonzalez and Carlos Mauricio sued two Salvadoran generals who retired to Florida in 1989. The suit is based on two federal laws that allow torture victims to seek redress in U.S. courts, even if the offenses occurred elsewhere. The two retired generals are José Guillermo Garcia, Salvadoran Minister of Defense and Public Security from 1979-1983, and Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova, the Director-General of the Salvadoran National Guard from 1979-1983, and subsequently Minister of Defense and Public Security. Both men are connected to the School of the Americas (SOA). General José Guillermo García received counterinsurgency training at the SOA in 1962. As defense minister García refused to investigate reports that approximately 900 hundred unarmed civilians were brutally murdered by the U.S.-trained Atlacatl battalion in 1981. A 1993 UN Truth Commission on El Salvador verified the reports. García also failed to launch a serious investigation of the murder of four U.S. church women by members of the Salvadoran National Guard in December 1980. García was granted residency in the U.S. in 1989. General Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova was a Guest Speaker at the SOA in 1985. A UN Truth Commission Report cited him for ordering the assassination of four U.S. church women in 1980. Vides Casanova was granted residency in the U.S. in 1989. During a four-week trial that began on June 24 the plaintiffs told of being detained and brutally tortured by Salvadoran national guardsmen and police under the command of the two generals. The jury began deliberations on Thursday afternoon, and deliberated for 20 hours. The SOA (renamed Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation) is a combat training school for Latin American soldiers. Its graduates are consistently involved in human rights atrocities. In 1996 the Pentagon was forced to release training manuals used at the school that advocated the use of torture, extortion and execution. In December 2000 Congress authorized the WHISC to replace the SOA. The renaming of the school was widely viewed as an attempt to diffuse public criticism and to disassociate the school from its reputation. SOA Watch maintains that the underlying purpose of the school, to control the economic and political systems of Latin America by aiding and influencing Latin American militaries, remains the same. Information was provided by the Center for Justice and Accountability. For more info about the case, including trial testimony and info about the plaintiffs, please see the Center's website: http://www.cja.org

Chomsky salvador { December 7 1990 } Cuba criticizes reagan for salvador war { June 7 2004 } El mozote massacre { December 10 1981 } General cleared churchwomen deaths { November 3 2000 } Generals connected to soa found liable for torture { July 23 2002 } Genocide { March 31 1980 } Killing 4 women not policy { October 19 2000 } Murdered nun case refused { June 5 1998 } Negroponte knowledge of 1980s death squads { March 21 2005 } Nuns raped murdered Nuns [jpg] Pentagon considers salvador option in iraq Prey for nuns [jpg] Rapist murderers of nuns in elsalvador released { July 22 1998 } Romero { March 24 2002 } Salvador commie threat just poor people { January 29 2007 } Salvador newsclips { October 22 1987 } Suit filed oscar romero death { September 17 2003 } Time line { July 18 2002 } Torture victims win { July 24 2002 } US considers salvador option for iraq { January 10 2005 } Us role death romero { March 24 2002 } Files Listed: 22

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