Trial of ex-El Salvadoran general to resume in May

[Judi Lynn]

Trial of ex-El Salvadoran general to resume in May
(AP) – Apr 22, 2011

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — The deportation trial of a former defense minister of El Salvador has been continued after the judge accepted a defense motion for more time to prepare for cross-examination of a key defense witness.

Eugenio Vides Casanova is charged with condoning the torture and the killings of four American churchwomen and other human rights abuses while he was a general in the El Salvadoran military in the 1980s.

His attorney concluded questioning Edwin Corr, a former U.S. ambassador to El Salvador, on Friday. Corr testified in part that he had never heard criticism of the general for such abuses. It contradicted earlier testimony from Corr's predecessor, Robert White.

The trial will resume May 24 with Corr's cross-examination by the government and then possible testimony by Vides Casanova.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5geb55jiJfwpAS24Lan1t2q_kvEvg?docId=0d428e5e3b954b03bf73d5ddc8c731e0

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_LKypB5UZFN0/StNZ4e_958I/AAAAAAAACnc/GVcjW4NxrvU/s400/Eugenio+Vides+Casanova.jpg
Salvadoran in Florida Faces Deportation for TortureBy 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.

As a sign of the divide in this country over the legacy of the Salvadoran conflict, the government’s lawyers are also expected to call a former ambassador, Robert E. White, a longtime critic of Washington’s role in that war.

More:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/18/us/18deport.html

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http://contrainjerencia.com.nyud.net:8090/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/vides_casanova-300x200.jpg

On the trail of helpless people, like the four nuns.
Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova (b. 1937) was appointed in 1979 to the position of director of the National Guard for a period of four years. Casanova led the department of the Salvadoran security forces responsible for the killing of four U.S. churchwomen in 1980 (see Ford v. Garcia). He replaced General Jose Guillermo García as Minister of Defense in 1984 and held this post until 1988. He immigrated to the United States in 1989, and is currently a legal permanent resident. The U.N. Truth Commission Report on El Salvador found that Vides Casanova knew about the National Guardsmen who had committed the murders, and participated in the cover-up of the facts that obstructed the investigation.

http://www.cja.org/article.php?id=486