Press Release
En Español
Condemnation of the Assassination of Héctor Antonio Ventura, Former Political Prisoner in the “Suchitoto Case”
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We manifest the following before Salvadoran society and the international community:
We vigorously condemn the murder of the young man named Héctor Antonio Ventura Vásquez , 19 years of age, who passed away on May 2, 2008. He was killed in the middle of the night in the Valle Verde neighborhood of Suchitoto, in the department of Cuscatlán.
Ventura was killed using a blunt weapon (cutting or piercing) and received at least one mortal wound to the heart; another victim survived the attack with injuries.
We remind the reader that the victim was one of the 14 people who faced politically motivated charges after participating in a legal protest against water privatization in the municipality of Suchitoto on July 2, 2007.
In addition, his murder took place just a few weeks after all of those accused were definitively cleared of all charges. This made evident the false accusations brought against these activists for more than nine months by the Attorney General and the Government.
We highlight the fact that there were at least two direct attackers, according to preliminary information. These men entered the room in the back of the house where the victims were sleeping (in which they always stayed) and committed the crime. They must have had to go through at least three doors to get to that room.
We note that, according to the criterion for factual analysis established by the Unified Group for the Investigation of Armed Illegal Groups with Political Motivation in El Salvador (1994), there are three elements to qualify violent acts as politically motivated. They are: a victim with a profile as a political opponent; the modus operandi directed toward elimination, denoting planning and operating capacity; and posterior impunity that is facilitated by the State. According to the Unified Group, political violence can take place through contract killing.
We, the organizations that denounce this atrocious act, express our profound concern about the potential impunity that could ensue. There has been a pattern of similar cases which have affected diverse social leaders and political activists over the past two years and have been deficiently investigated by police and prosecutorial authorities.
In these cases, the aforementioned authorities tend to dismiss or hide a priori the potential political motive behind the murders and fail to investigate the possible intellectual authors, despite existing indicators that point to a hired assassin.
This pattern of murders of political opponents has been demonstrated in many cases, here we will cite some of the following people as tragic examples (note that three of the following homicides also took place in the municipality of Suchitoto): Eligio Ramírez, Local FMLN Leader (Cuscatancingo, March, 2006); Husband and Wife Francisco Manzanares y Juana de Manzanares (Suchitoto, July, 2006, by the death squads); Husband and Wife Alex Wilgberto Flores y Lidia Peñate de Flores, former FMLN Militants (Coatepeque, August, 2006); Gerson Roberto Alvayero, Member of the FMLN and the Movement Against Dams (Santa Ana, January, 2007); a young man named Alejandro Franco, Member of an FMLN Youth Group (Cuscatancingo, May, 2007); Investigative Reporter Salvador Sánchez (Soyapango, September, 2007); Omar Huezo, Member of the National Civil Police ( PNC) and Security Staff for Congressman Gerson Martínez, killed along with a young man named Henry Navarrete (San Pablo Tacachico, April, 2008); and Alejandro Portillo, Member of the Neighborhood Watch for Chauiton (Suchitoto, April, 2008).
As a result,
The Foundation for the Study and Application of the Law (FESPAD);
The Coalition for Peace, Dignity, and Social Justice;
The Committee of Family Members of Political Prisoners of El Salvador;
and the Group of Former Political Prisoners in the “Suchitoto Case”
DEMAND:
- That the Attorney General of the Republic and the Director of the National Civil Police (PNC) conduct an exhaustive investigation of this condemnable act, the results of which should be made known to the public due to their social and international importance.
- On the same token, that the aforementioned authorities abstain from disregarding a priori a possible political motivation in the assassination of Héctor Antonio Ventura. Thus, they must proceed to seriously investigate the possible participation of intellectual authors, who could have hired contract killers to consummate this crime.
- That the Human Rights Ombudsman would immediately take action to protect the lives and integrity of the witnesses who survived the attack against Héctor Antonio Ventura. That he also thoroughly oversee the actions of the Attorney General’s Office and the National Civil Police in their investigation, in order to avoid possible oversights or omissions that could affect due process and prevent clear understanding of the truth about this crime.
- That the national and international community pay attention to the new forms of contract killing that are currently targeting social activists, human rights defenders, and all those who oppose policies that go against the best interest of the majority.
San Salvador , May 6, 2008
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