Salvadoran in Florida Faces Deportation for Torture

[Judi Lynn]

Source: New York Times

Salvadoran in Florida Faces Deportation for Torture
By JULIA PRESTON
Published: April 17, 2011

ORLANDO, Fla. — During the civil war in El Salvador three decades ago, Gen. Eugenio Vides Casanova was that nation’s top military officer, a close ally valued by the United States for his implacable battle against Marxist guerrillas, in spite of notorious human rights violations by his forces.

On Monday, in a case that represents an about-face in American policy, Obama administration lawyers will charge in immigration court here that General Vides participated in torture when he commanded the Salvadoran armed forces and will seek to have him deported.

The case against General Vides is hailed by human rights advocates as the first time a special human rights office at the Department of Homeland Security has brought immigration charges against a top-ranking foreign military commander.

The government’s immigration charges are a stark reversal of fortune for General Vides, who has been living as a legal permanent resident in South Florida since he retired honorably in 1989, after serving six years as El Salvador’s defense minister. He has denied any role in torture. Among witnesses on his behalf he plans to call a former United States ambassador to El Salvador, Edwin G. Corr.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/18/us/18deport.html?ref=americas

[EFerrari]

1. Sounds like his lawyer is threatening to name American names.

The Vides family is part of the oligarchy. Don't know if it's the same Vides family but it probably is.

[Judi Lynn]

3. I checked Wiki. It looks very likely you're right, he would be a member of the oligarchy, no doubt.

Concerning his second wife:

After his first wife died, Vides married Lourdes Llach, daughter of coffee baron, amateur astronomer, and former Salvadoran ambassador to the Holy See<3> (1977–1991)<4> Prudencio Llach Schonenberg.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Eugenio_Vides_Casanova

You'd think she could have done better.

From a show on Democracy Now which ran several years ago, a comment from one of his former victims, Carlos Mauricio:

March 02, 2005
U.S. Court Reverses $54M Verdict Against Salvadoran Generals Convicted of Torture

~snip~
•Carlos Mauricio, one of the plaintiffs in the case. He was a professor at the University of El Salvador when he was detained in June 1983 and tortured for nearly two weeks at the National Police Headquarters. After coming to the United States, he obtained two Master"s degrees, in Molecular Genetics and Adult Education, from San Francisco State University, and a teaching credential. He teaches biology at Balboa High School in San Francisco.

~snip~
CARLOS MAURICIO: Well, what happened to me in 1983, that I was kidnapped in front of my classroom. A special unit of the army, a death squad came for me in the evening of June 1983. They beat me up when I was in my classroom, took me away. I was blindfolded and handcuffed, and took me to a place that I didn’t know, where I was kept for about three weeks. I was tortured in that place. I was blindfolded, so I didn’t know who tortured me. But later the Generals Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova and Guillermo Garcia were found responsible for what happened to me, and I believe, I truly believe that they were responsible. A jury made by seven women and three men found them responsible. It was in 2002 in Florida in West Palm Beach. It was a federal court. The jurors believed that they were responsible, and we agreed with them. We agreed—everybody agreed that they were responsible, and the jury found them responsible. That is very important, because now I have been told that in their appeal, the judges has turned down that situation, but what is important right now is that this is not the final decision, of course. We have the right to appeal, and we’re going to do it. We have 21 days to do it, and we’re going to make first a revision of the decision. This is not a final decision. But what is important right now is that we proved—we did it, that those generals, they are responsible for the torture of thousands of people in El Salvador and also responsible for the genocide carried out against the Salvadoran population. That’s very important. I believe that in the new appeal that we’re going to make soon, the case will be on our side again. We are going to win in that case but, sorry for repeating myself, what is important right now is that we prove that those—a jury found them responsible, and the appeal that they made is based in the technical situation that doesn’t have anything to do with the fact that they were found responsible for North American jury in 2002.

More:
http://www.democracynow.org/2005/3/2/u_s_court_reverses_54m_verdict

[Angry Dragon]

2. Can we get bush deported at least??

[Judi Lynn]

4. Trial begins for ex-El Salvadoran defense minister accused of condoning torture, killings

Trial begins for ex-El Salvadoran defense minister accused of condoning torture, killings
By Associated Press, Monday, April 18, 8:38 PM

ORLANDO, Fla. — The deportation trial for former a defense minister of El Salvador began Monday in Florida, 30 years after prosecutors said he condoned torture and the killings of four American churchwomen.

Gen. Eugenio Vides Casanova was a close ally of the U.S. when he was El Salvador’s top military official during the 1980s as the country fought Marxist guerrillas. He moved to South Florida when he left his post and has been living here ever since.

~snip~
Vides Casanova’s attorney, Diego Handel, noted that his client was given a Legion of Merit award for outstanding service by the U.S. government. Vides Casanova was focused on the spread of communism in the region, Handel said.Vides Casanova served as El Salvador’s minister of defense from 1983-1989.

The Center for Justice and Accountability previously sued Vides Casanova, accusing him of torturing three Salvadoran citizens. In 2002, a West Palm Beach, Fla., jury returned at $54.6 million judgment against him and General José Guillermo García in the torture case.

More:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/trial_begins_for_ex_el_salvadoran_defense_minister_accused_of_condoning_torture_killings/2011/04/18/AFZPCk1D_story.html?wprss=rss_national