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Judi Lynn

(160,655 posts) Wed Apr 8, 2015, 04:31 PM Apr 2015

U.S. seeks extradition to Spain of Salvadoran wanted in priest killings

Source: Reuters

US | Wed Apr 8, 2015 12:45pm EDT

U.S. seeks extradition to Spain of Salvadoran wanted in priest killings

WASHINGTON | By Lindsay Dunsmuir

(Reuters) - U.S. authorities will seek the extradition of a former colonel in the Salvadoran army wanted by Spain to face charges over the murder of five Spanish Jesuit priests in El Salvador in 1989, the Department of Justice said on Wednesday.

Inocente Orlando Montano Morales, 72, had been indicted in Spain in March 2011 along with 19 other former Salvadoran army officers in connection with the murders, which took place during El Salvador's bloody 12-year civil war from 1980-1992.

He is currently serving a 21-month prison sentence in North Carolina on unrelated U.S. immigration fraud charges, and was due for release on April 15. At the time of the killings, Montano Morales was both a colonel in the army and the vice minister of defense and public safety.

He is accused of overseeing a radio station that urged the murder of the priests as well as participating in meetings a day before the deaths in which a colleague gave the order to kill the men.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/08/us-elsalvador-spain-crimes-idUSKBN0MZ1TH20150408?rpc=401

[center]

Roses planted where the Army assassins took the 5 priests, their housekeeper, her daughter to murder.

Inocente Orlando Montano Morales [/center]

8 replies

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U.S. seeks extradition to Spain of Salvadoran wanted in priest killings (Original Post) Judi Lynn Apr 2015 OP

They deported former Defense Minister Casanova to El Salvador as well karynnj Apr 2015 #1

Good for Spain! vlakitti Apr 2015 #2

Didn't the murderers of the 4 nuns end up living in the US? project_bluebook Apr 2015 #3

Good for Spain in indicting him, good for the US in extradicting him karynnj Apr 2015 #4

So, when does Bush Gang get shipped to the Hague? PeoViejo Apr 2015 #5

Bravo, Spain!! Beacool Apr 2015 #6

Morales is a School of the Americas (SOA) graduate. Zorra Apr 2015 #7

^ Zorra Apr 2015 #8

karynnj

(59,507 posts)

1. They deported former Defense Minister Casanova to El Salvador as well

Reply to Judi Lynn (Original post)

Wed Apr 8, 2015, 04:41 PM

Apr 2015

After a 16-year legal battle, a former defense minister of El Salvador once embraced by Washington as a close ally during the civil war there in the 1980s, was deported on Wednesday after immigration courts found that he had participated in torture and killings by troops under his command.

The officer, Gen. Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova, is the highest-ranking foreign official to be deported under laws enacted in 2004 to prevent human rights violators from seeking haven in this country. The expulsion culminates persistent efforts by rights advocates to hold General Vides accountable for his role in the 1980 murders of four American churchwomen, one of the most notorious crimes by the Salvadoran armed forces in that era.

<snip>
The deportation “sends an enormously important message to El Salvador and the rest of the world that we are not going to harbor people who committed these violations even when at the time they appeared to be supporting U.S. policy,” said R. Scott Greathead, a lawyer who represented William Ford, the brother of Sister Ita Ford, one of the murdered churchwomen. Mr. Ford died in 2008.
<snip>
His removal was a remarkable turnabout in United States policy toward Central America since the Cold War confrontations with leftist rebels in the 1980s. Even after National Guard soldiers under General Vides had been identified as the churchwomen’s killers, American officials pushed for his promotion to defense minister, saying he was committed to improving the military’s dismal rights record.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/09/us/us-deports-salvadoran-general-accused-in-80s-killings.html?_r=0

These two actions happening with the changes with regards to Cuba are a huge change in American policy. LONG OVER DUE! The Summit in Panama which Obama and Secretary Kerry are attending should be interesting.

Obama's foreign policy got a lot more interesting this year -- Iran, Cuba and the climate pact with China.

vlakitti

(401 posts)

2. Good for Spain!

Reply to Judi Lynn (Original post)

Wed Apr 8, 2015, 04:44 PM

Apr 2015

I remember the incident. This murderous jackass needs to spend the rest of his life in prison.

Part of the legacy of the Reagan era.

project_bluebook

(411 posts)

3. Didn't the murderers of the 4 nuns end up living in the US?

Reply to vlakitti (Reply #2)

Wed Apr 8, 2015, 05:05 PM

Apr 2015

I remember they were members/officers in the army, the same army the US backed. They raped and murdered 4 US nuns that were on their way back from the airport. The US suspended arms shipments for a whole 2 weeks in protest. I think one of the officers was living in Florida.

karynnj

(59,507 posts)

4. Good for Spain in indicting him, good for the US in extradicting him

Reply to vlakitti (Reply #2)

Wed Apr 8, 2015, 05:06 PM

Apr 2015

One of my daughters who went to Holy Cross which has a place that memorialized these priests. There is a good description of what happened. One thing I hadn't known was that Congressman McGovern who represents Worcester, MA helped lead the investigation.

There was a 25 year anniversary last year.
http://news.holycross.edu/blog/2014/10/17/holy-cross-marks-25th-anniversary-of-el-salvador-murders-with-series-of-events/

PeoViejo

(2,178 posts)

5. So, when does Bush Gang get shipped to the Hague?

Reply to Judi Lynn (Original post)

Wed Apr 8, 2015, 05:11 PM

Apr 2015

Jus' askin'

Beacool

(30,253 posts)

6. Bravo, Spain!!

Reply to Judi Lynn (Original post)

Wed Apr 8, 2015, 05:43 PM

Apr 2015

This guy is anything but "inocente".

Zorra

(27,670 posts)

7. Morales is a School of the Americas (SOA) graduate.

Reply to Judi Lynn (Original post)

Wed Apr 8, 2015, 05:46 PM

Apr 2015

Salvadoran Colonel and SOA-graduate Inocente Orlando Montano Morales Implicated in Jesuit Killings Pleads Not Guilty to Fraud, Perjury

A notorious graduate of the U.S. Army's School of the Americas -- a Salvadoran colonel implicated in the 1989 assassinations of six Jesuit priests -- is fighting criminal charges for allegedly lying on immigration papers that have allowed him to live quietly in the United States for the last 10 years.

http://www.soaw.org/about-the-soawhinsec/soawhinsec-grads/grads-in-the-news

Zorra

(27,670 posts)

8. ^

Reply to Judi Lynn (Original post)

Wed Apr 8, 2015, 08:39 PM

Apr 2015

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