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This month began at the Spanish National Court the trial for the murder of the five Jesuits who were Spanish citizens, in El Salvador in 1989, the case of the UCA martyrs. The trial is the result of the efforts of several families of murdered Jesuits, the Association for Human Rights of Spain, and the Center for Justice & Accountability of the United States. The provincial of Spain, Antonio España SJ, welcomed the beginning of this trial, pointing out that although "it would have been preferable that the trial be held in El Salvador", given the impossibility of that happening, it is positive that it takes place in Spain. The Society of Jesus itself in Central America hopes that universal justice "will contribute to the functioning of the Salvadoran justice system".

The trial could be followed online from the Basque television website: https://www.eitb.eus/es/. The first session served to exonerate Lieutenant René Yusshy Mendoza, one of the members of the battalion that perpetrated the crime, from criminal responsibility due to the statute of limitations on the crime of which he was accused. His defense asked for it, and the accusations supported it. Mendoza is one of only two people in El Salvador who were convicted of the case before the amnesty law. He will thus go from defendant to witness, which may prove decisive for the trial. His statement will be heard on 8th July.

In the second session, the awaited statement from former Colonel Inocencio Orlando Montano arrived. He did so for barely an hour and answering only his lawyer's questions. If the Central American Province of the Society of Jesus had encouraged Montano to "take advantage of this great opportunity" to contribute to the clarification of the truth "by making known all that he knows about said crime," it soon became clear that this would not be the case. Montano denied the charges against him. He recalled that in 1989 he served as Deputy Minister of Public Security, a position that placed the police forces under his command, but not the military; his functions were "merely administrative”. He acknowledged that in the days prior to the massacre, information had come in that the rebels were storing weapons at the UCA and so sent the Atlacatl battalion to carry out searches at the university - these searches, in which no weapons were found, were the prelude to the crime - but "militarily there was never any intention of harming him [Ellacuría], the Church or the university”. Montano said he always thought the crime was committed by the rebels, not the military.

The prosecution, on the other hand, claims that the decision to kill Ellacuría and the rest of the Jesuits was taken by an elite group of officials to which Montano belonged, and is asking for 150 years in prison for participating in "the decision, design or execution" of those five murders - the trial only refers to the five Spaniards killed in the massacre.

Finally, the first witnesses testified. The members of two delegations sent by the Spanish Congress of Deputies to El Salvador in November 1990 and September 1991 testified.

The next session will be on July 8, beginning with the statement of Rene Yusshy Mendoza at 10:00. The process in the Audiencia Nacional, which is scheduled to conclude on July 16, is a new occasion to remember that episode that marked an entire generation. Its victims are remembered today, more than three decades later, as an example of commitment and sacrifice for justice. In the Spanish media we have been able to hear testimonies from various Jesuits these days.

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s2smodern