Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Winter 2006 Salvanet Now Available Online
If you subscribe to Salvanet, the latest edition, “Reconciliation Amidst Impunity,” is on its way to your mailbox now. Look for an article honoring the memory of the late Fr. Jon Cortina, who passed away last December. Cortina was the founder of Pro-Búsqueda, an organization that seeks to reunite families separated by El Salvador's civil war. This issue also includes a reflection on impunity by Rosa Anaya, a former CRISPAZ staffer and the daughter of Herbert Anaya, an interview with University of Central America's Human Rights Institute (IDHUCA) Director Benjamin Cuellar on the institute's controversial decision to collaborate with the International Law Enforcement Academy (ILEA) and give human rights classes, and highlights more recent examples of the struggle against impunity in El Salvador. You can read the online version by clicking here. To subscribe to Salvanet, send your name and address to salvanet@crispaz.org.
New Developments in the Gilberto Soto Case
Rosa Elba de Ortiz, the mother-in-law of Gilberto Soto, a Teamster labor organizer who was killed in November of 2004 during a visit to El Salvador, was released from jail last week and cleared of any involvement in Soto’s death.
The sentencing tribunal for the department of Usulatán freed de Ortiz and two others accused in connection with the killing due to insufficient evidence. El Salvador’s Office of the Attorney General has insisted Soto died at the hands of hitmen hired by de Ortiz because of a domestic dispute. The Teamsters have called for a new investigation into the crime, saying the Attorney General’s conclusion—made just three days after Soto’s death—was not the product of a thorough investigation. They believe Soto was not the victim of a family quarrel, but instead targeted for his union organizing activities in El Salvador.
Read statement from the Teamsters
Read article from NorthJersey.com
Read Diario CoLatino article (in Spanish)
Read article on Soto case by David Bacon (reprinted in Winter 2006 Salvanet)