Salvadoran in Florida Faces Deportation for Torture

[Judi Lynn]

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.

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

[Judi Lynn]

1. 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