Commotion within the leadership of the FMLN

Robin Maria DeLugan is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Merced, has a good op-ed at NACLA on the recent ruling by the Constitutional Chamber of the Salvadoran Supreme Court of Justice.

The court decision, while heralded by many, is causing a commotion within the leadership of the FMLN, the political party that holds executive power in the government.  Structurally, whereas the military actors on the list are no longer in the government, investigations could instead lead to trials that involve FMLN leaders, for example the President of the Republic, Vice President, Ministers and Deputies. Some elected officials and government functionaries are openly critical about what will happen next, stating they fear “witch hunts” and the reopening of old wounds. Despite reservations from some in government, the Attorney General’s office appears to have the will to undertake investigations.  However, the government lacks resources for the processes, including funds to support the indemnization of the victims who are determined to have suffered “moral damage” (daño moral).   

However, should leaders or government actors ignore the ruling, there will undoubtedly be international criticism and a demand for accountability. Sites and practices of public memory in El Salvador have maintained the nation’s focus on civil war human rights abuses and the need for justice for decades. National and international attention created through these efforts contributed to the historic decision to finally revoke El Salvador’s Amnesty Law.  These audiences will be carefully monitoring the fresh developments to follow. It is difficult to predict the outcomes of this important court decision. What happens next in El Salvador will be a chapter in an important historical process of nation-building, memory and justice that will provide lessons for other societies pursuing similar struggles against state violence, forgetting and impunity.

It's one thing for the FMLN to apologize for what it did and for what the State did. It's quite another for the FMLN to oversee a process that might lead to some of its most high ranking officials stand trial for human rights abuses that they committed during the 1980s. As the party in government, it has a great deal to lose. However, they have much less to lose than the private sector and military that funded and committed the worst atrocities of the war. 

Investigations, and perhaps trials, are not designed to destabilize the country. They are meant to assist the victims in achieving some measure of justice; help the country to recover historical memory; and strengthening existing political and legal institutions.