“He
can come to Chalatenango to ask for our vote, but he cannot
come up here to ask for forgiveness,” one mother of
a disappeared child said. “This is mocking all of the
family members with disappeared children taken from their
arms in the war years.”
On
March 1, 2005, with the help of Pro-Búsqueda and the
Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL), the Serrano
Cruz family won a ruling in the Inter-American Court on Human
Rights against the Salvadoran state in the case of the disappearance
of Ernestina and Erlinda Serrano Cruz. The two sisters were
disappeared at the hands of the Salvadoran Army during the
"Guinda de Mayo," a military raid in Chalatenango
in May of 1982. Although the court initially ruled it did
not have the authority for crimes committed before June 6,
1995, the date El Salvador accepted jurisdiction of the court,
a second ruling determined that the state of El Salvador had
violated the human rights of Ernestina and Erlinda and their
family by failing to carry out an effective and timely investigation
of the girls' disappearance. Among other directives, the sentence
ordered top state officials to publicly ask forgiveness of
the Serrano Cruz family.
In
a letter sent yesterday to supporters, Pro-Búsqueda
wrote: “For years, the government has denied that disappearances
of children took place during the armed conflict. For this
reason, we urge you to join our petition that the President
of the Republic, Elías Antonio Saca, ask forgiveness
from the Serrano Cruz family.”
The
family of the Serrano Cruz sisters was not included in the
Ministry of Foreign Relations’ official program. At
the conclusion of the event, the microphones were turned off
and the government officials exited to conduct interviews
with the media. Nevertheless, the girls' brother, Fernando
Serrano Cruz, using a megaphone, told the crowd, "As
a family, we are not satisfied. They have not complied with
the court ruling." He added, "We wanted to hear
the state say that the young girls from the Serrano Cruz family
have to be found and we are going to give them all of the
resources just as in other cases of disappeared children.”
Since
shortly after the 1992 Peace Accords, members of the Serrano
Cruz family have sought answers from the Salvadoran government
regarding Ernestina and Erlinda’s whereabouts. At the
time of their disappearance, they were 7 and 3 years old,
respectively. Pro-Búsqueda believes it is highly likely
the girls are still alive. During the armed conflict, many
disappeared children were sold into adoption.
The
human rights court sentence also ordered the creation of a
government commission to search for disappeared children.
Today’s event, conducted by the Ministry of Foreign
Relations, was more about fanfare surrounding the first successful
reencounter carried out by the commission than a sincere apology.
Teresa
Hernández, who was reunited with her father last Saturday
after 24 years of separation and awarded a new house by the
Salvadoran government, was first to address the crowd. Fighting
back tears, Hernández thanked “everyone who made
it possible for me to be reunited with my father, and with
all my family.”
“I
know there are others who are in the same situation, who would
like to have answers now. But I want to tell them that the
one who has the answers is the Lord above… I have had
to wait 24 years, and it’s been a long time. And I ask
those of you here to please have patience. They are not responsible
for what has happened to us.” Hernández also
thanked Pro-Búsqueda for the role they played.
Chancellor
Laínez dedicated this first reencounter to Fr. Jon
Cortina, and spoke with admiration of Cortina’s work
with Pro-Búsqueda.
Margarita
Zamora of Pro-Búsqueda says that while her organization
is pleased by news of the reencounter achieved by the government
commission, “one case is very little with all the resources
the government has. In the same time period, we have had eleven
reencounters with much fewer resources.”
Laínez
received boos from the crowd when he said the reencounter
of the Hernández family underscores that “the
Salvadoran state is respectful of international law”
and particularly of the Inter-American Court. On more than
one occasion he referred to the disappeared children as extraviados,
or lost, to which the crowd shouted robados, meaning
robbed. |
