Historic Trial to Take Place in Fresno

T h e C e n t e r f o r J u s t i c e & A c c o u n t a b i l i t y

When:

9 a.m. to noon and 1:30 to 4 p.m. each day

Where: United States District Court for the Eastern District of California

Courtroom 2 (Judge Oliver W. Wanger)

1130 “O” Street

Fresno, California 93721

Tel. (559) 498-7483

Contacts:

Center for Justice & Accountability

Matthew Eisenbrandt, Litigation Director: (415) 544-0444, x 304; cell: (415) 225-0028

Sandra Coliver, Executive Director: (415) 544-0444, x 305; cell: (202) 422-4837

Almudena Bernabeu, International Attorney, 544-0444, x 306; cell: (415) 305-2097

Heller Ehrman White & McAuliffe LLP

Nicholas W. van Aelstyn, Partner: (415) 772-6566; cell: (415) 519-1661

John Buchanan, Communications: (415) 772-6715

San Francisco, August 16, 2004.

The hearing is the culmination of a lawsuit brought against Modesto resident Alvaro Rafael Saravia for his role in organizing the March 1980 assassination. Saravia, a former Captain in the Salvadoran military, was the right-hand man to reputed Salvadoran death squad leader Roberto D’Aubuisson.

New evidence will be presented at the hearing to establish Saravia’s liability for the assassination, as well as to determine the amount of damages Saravia should be ordered to pay. The judge is expected to set that amount to reflect the profound impact of this notorious crime. Saravia has gone underground and is not expected to participate in the hearing. However, we hope that evidence produced at the trial may lead to his eventual arrest by the immigration service.

Juan Carlos Cristales, Executive Director of El Rescate in Los Angeles, one of the leading organizations in the U.S. that defends the rights of Central Americans, commented: “The assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero was one of the most shocking atrocities in our recent history. If that crime is allowed to go unpunished, then any crime is conceivable. It is particularly offensive to Salvadorans that men who were responsible for those crimes are allowed to live openly and with impunity in the United States, when so many genuine refugees were kicked out. The failure to bring to justice those most responsible for the crime has weakened the whole structure of our rule of law.”

The Hearing

Witnesses will testify at the hearing about Saravia’s responsibility for the killing, the role that Archbishop Romero played in defending the rights of poor Salvadorans, and the impact of his assassination. New evidence about those most responsible for the assassination will be presented.

Witnesses include Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, a founder of Pax Christi who has written and spoken widely about Archbishop Romero; the Rev. John Fife, one of the founders of the Sanctuary Movement; and Maria Julia Hernandez, head of the Human Rights Office of the Archdiocese of San Salvador. Robert White, U.S. Ambassador to El Salvador at the time of the assassination, will testify via a videotaped deposition. Members of Congress and other leaders from around the world, including three Nobel Peace Prize laureates, have submitted written declarations, which will be offered in court and made available thereafter to the media.

A complete list of witnesses and dates when they are expected to testify can be obtained from CJA.

Impact and Importance of the Case

The current Archbishop of San Salvador, Monsignor Fernando Saenz Lacalle, welcomed the case when it was filed on the ground that it could uncover facts surrounding Romero’s murder that could help to establish his martyrdom.

“The assassination of Archbishop Romero was one of the most outrageous single crimes of the last quarter of the twentieth century,” said Nico van Aelstyn, a partner with Heller Ehrman White & McAuliffe LLP in San Francisco and co-counsel for the plaintiff. “Given that one of the killers has lived in the U.S. for 17 years, we in the United States have an obligation to bring him to justice. We hope this lawsuit will encourage additional witnesses to come forward with evidence that will enable the courts to bring those most responsible for the murder to justice.”

“The United States should not be a safe haven for those responsible for this heinous crime,” said Matthew Eisenbrandt, Litigation Director of the Center for Justice & Accountability (CJA), which launched the case and serves as co-counsel.

Saravia has lived in the United States since at least 1987 when he was jailed for 14 months on immigration and extradition charges. Since his release, he and his family have been able to enjoy all of the benefits of life in America.

“This lawsuit has unquestionably disrupted Saravia’s life,” Eisenbrandt continued, “and it ensures that he cannot live openly in the United States, for fear that his victims could seize his assets and that he could be arrested and prosecuted for immigration violations.”

An amnesty law passed in 1993, when El Salvador’s Legislative Assembly was still dominated by the political party of the death squads, prevents those who suffered during the military’s reign of terror from obtaining justice in the Salvadoran courts.

“This lawsuit demonstrates that the courts of the United States can play an important role in the world-wide struggle against impunity,” said Patty Blum, a Boalt Hall law professor, emeritus, who has advised the legal team. “Even though this Administration has pulled the United States out of the International Criminal Court, fortunately, we have laws upheld recently by the U.S. Supreme Court that make it possible for foreigners to join with U.S. citizens in holding human rights abusers responsible.”

Background Facts

Archbishop Romero was a giant in the struggle for human rights during an intensifying anti-insurgency campaign in El Salvador in the late 1970s. From that time through the end of the civil war in 1992, the military and right-wing death squads killed as many as 75,000 civilians, according to the United Nations Commission on the Truth for El Salvador and other reliable reports. The Archbishop became the leading voice for victims and the poor through his weekly radio homilies, broadcast throughout the country, which captivated Salvadoran audiences and called for an end to military repression. Romero regularly denounced human rights abuses being committed by the Salvadoran armed forces and death squads and was viewed by the Salvadoran far right as a threat to its political agenda.

The night before his assassination, Romero addressed his homily to government soldiers and pleaded: “In the name of God, in the name of these suffering people whose cries rise to heaven more loudly each day, I implore you, I beg you, I order you: Stop the repression.” Romero was fatally shot the next day, March 24, 1980, by a single sniper’s bullet while performing mass in the Chapel of Divine Providence in El Salvador’s capital San Salvador. Romero has since been nominated for recognition by the Vatican as a saint. The move reportedly is supported by Pope John Paul II.

The U.N. Truth Commission and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights both concluded, after separate investigations, that Saravia was actively involved in planning and carrying out the assassination. Saravia was detained in the United States in 1987 when Salvadoran prosecutors sought his extradition for his role in the Romero assassination. The Salvadoran Supreme Court later withdrew the extradition request in a decision denounced as dubious and politically motivated by the U.N. Truth Commission, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and many human rights organizations. Saravia was released from federal prison on bond in 1988 following the Salvadoran Court’s decision and has since lived in California and Florida. Amnesty International and other groups have denounced Saravia’s presence here.

The case is being brought under two federal statutes, the 1789 Alien Tort Claims Act, and the more recent Torture Victim Protection Act of 1991, which allow suits against foreign nationals in the United States for summary killings and torture committed abroad.

The Center for Justice & Accountability is a San Francisco nonprofit organization that empowers survivors of torture and other atrocities by helping them bring legal actions against perpetrators responsible for human rights abuses. CJA was founded in 1998 with the support of Amnesty International USA and the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture, and is an independent non-profit organization. Information about CJA is available at

Heller Ehrman White and McAuliffe LLP. is a Charter Signatory to the American Bar Association's (ABA) Pro Bono Challenge, which calls on the nation's large law firms to adopt goals for pro bono legal services. Heller Ehrman has received numerous awards for its pro bono work, including the American Bar Association Pro Bono Publico Award; the Law Firm Award of Merit from the Legal Aid Association of California; the California State Bar President's Pro Bono Service Award for Northern California; the Outstanding Law Firm in Public Service award from the Bar Association of San Francisco, and an award from CARECEN in recognition of its Los Angeles office's work on behalf of the rights of Central American immigrants in the United States.