(C) Common Dreams
This story was originally published by Common Dreams and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .



How U.S. Actions Helped Hide Salvador Human Rights Abuses [1]

['Clifford Krauss']

Date: 1993-03-21

Mr. Moakley says Unites States officials repeatedly withheld evidence from him, and undercut one of his investigative trips by timing the release of military aid to his arrival in San Salvador. He said that when he sought to develop evidence linking the murders to more senior officers, after two middle-ranking officers were convicted in September 1991, "the Administration wanted us to keep quiet and go away."

Mr. Moakley's concerns center on the Administration's handling of testimony given by Maj. Eric W. Buckland, a United States adviser in El Salvador at the time of the murders. In the days following the slayings, Major Buckland informed his superiors that Col. Carlos Aviles had told him that Salvadoran soldiers had committed the crime and that he believed General Ponce knew.

Rather than take the information to investigators, Col. Milton Menjivar, the senior American officer in San Salvador, alerted General Ponce and informed him of the Salvadoran military source. General Ponce then went to Colonel Aviles, who retracted his accusation. William Walker, who was Ambassador at the time, said on Friday that Colonel Menjivar, who has since retired, was unauthorized to go to General Ponce and had made a mistake.

Major Buckland told the Federal Bureau of Investigation on Jan. 12, 1990, that he knew of army plotting to kill the Jesuits 10 days before the murders, but did not disclose the information because he believed General Ponce was working to stop the plan. But American officials withheld the major's testimony from the Salvadoran investigation for nearly a year. Mr. Moakley said the officials told him that they had no reason to believe Major Buckland had prior knowledge of the plotting.

The testimony became public only when a State Department official privately notified Mr. Moakley of its existence.

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://www.nytimes.com/1993/03/21/world/how-us-actions-helped-hide-salvador-human-rights-abuses.html

Published and (C) by Common Dreams
Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 3.0..

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/commondreams/