By CAITLIN ESCH
Nearly 20 years after El Salvador’s 1989 “Jesuit Massacre,” human rights lawyers from the Center for Justice and Accountability filed criminal charges in Spanish National Court to bring the perpetrators to justice. The complaint was filed November 13 in Madrid against then-President of El Salvador, Alfredo Cristiani Burkard, and 14 former members of the Salvadoran military.
That afternoon, the Counsel General of El Salvador was abuzz with activity. Approximately 50 members of San Francisco’s Salvadoran community gathered at 507 Polk Street to protest the murder of six Jesuit priests during the country’s civil war 19 years ago.
The protest—organized by volunteers from Mission District-based Clinica Martin-Baro, a free clinic named for one of the murdered priests—went on for an hour and a half, attracting attention from passersby and honks from commuters.