Just the type of Salvadoran who should be deported

An immigration judge in Miami has ruled that former Salvadoran defense minister General Jose Guillermo Garcia should be deported from the US back to El Salvador because of his involvement in human rights abuses committed in that country during the 1980s.

The ruling went beyond earlier court decisions and found that General García had played a direct role in some of the most egregious killings and torture in El Salvador at a time when Washington was supporting the Salvadoran military in its battle against leftist insurgents.

Judge Horn found “clear and convincing evidence” that General García “assisted or otherwise participated” in 11 violent episodes that scarred the Central American country, including the 1980 murder of Archbishop Óscar Arnulfo Romero as he was saying Mass in the capital, San Salvador.

The judge also found that General García helped conceal the involvement of soldiers who killed four American churchwomen later that year. He “knew or should have known” that army troops had slaughtered the villagers, including women and children, in the hamlet of El Mozote in December 1981, Judge Horn ruled.

In an unusually expansive and scalding 66-page decision, Judge Horn wrote that “these atrocities formed part of General García’s deliberate military policy as minister of defense.” He added that the general “fostered, and allowed to thrive, an institutional atmosphere in which the Salvadoran armed forces preyed upon defenseless civilians under the guise of fighting a war against communist subversives.”

Some Americans and Salvadorans are obviously concerned with how the FMLN will manage the economic situation in El Salvador as well as whether they will take anything from that made up new left playbook and lead them to consolidate power at the expense of democracy.

One of the issues that I am concerned with is related to how Sanchez Ceren and the FMLN plan to address transitional justice. I've never gotten the impression that the FMLN leadership is set on doing any more than they are already doing - (vague) apologies and symbolic gestures. However, they might not have a choice.

Salvador Sanchez Ceren might have to respond to the forced returns of General Garcia, General Vides Casanova, and Colonel Inocente Montano from the US. Legal maneuverings are still going on in Spain which already led to instability in 2011. The Inter-American Court of Human Rights has been putting pressure on the Salvadoran Government to investigate and provide some sort of remedy to victims and victims' families who suffered during the civil war. There is some movement in El Salvador on El Mozote and other well-known crimes.

This November is the 25th anniversary of the murders of the UCA Jesuits so it might be a particularly testy few months for the new president.

And it is not just transitional justice that former military officials and some ARENA officials fear. Several corruption investigations against ARENA officials are underway and will really test the country's judicial and political system. Combine these investigations with the 2015 legislative and municipal elections and things are sure to be interesting for the next several months.