By Marianne Armshaw, Reuters, 7/25/02
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (Reuters) - A Florida jury found two retired Salvadoran generals liable for the torture of three civilians by their troops during the Central American nation's civil war and ordered them to pay $54.6 million in damages. The three Salvadoran torture victims, now living in the United States, sued the generals in West Palm Beach federal court, asking the jury to hold the military leaders responsible for the abuse they suffered.
They sought damages from Gen. Jose Guillermo Garcia, who was defense minister from 1979 to 1983, and Gen. Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova, who was director of the National Guard before succeeding Garcia in the top military slot in the U.S.-backed government. Both have lived in Florida since 1989. The case hinged on whether they knew or should have known of kidnappings, rape and torture attributed to troops under their command, and failed to prevent or punish the abuse.
The generals repeatedly denied wrongdoing and said they could not control rogue troops in the chaos of war against an armed leftist insurgency. Plaintiffs Carlos Mauricio, Neris Gonzalez and Dr. Juan Romagoza sued under U.S. and international law allowing courts to assess damages against perpetrators of human rights abuses committed abroad. Plaintiffs' attorney James Green told jurors during closing arguments Thursday that the generals pursued "a deliberate strategy of state-sponsored terror to drain the sea of anyone who objected to the military's stranglehold on power."
Before peace accords ended the violence in 1992, the civil war displaced a half-million Salvadorans and left 75,000 dead, most of them unarmed civilians, according to the United Nation's Truth Commission. In a similar lawsuit two years ago, the two generals were found not liable for the 1980 torture, rape and murder of four U.S. Catholic missionaries. An appeals court upheld that verdict earlier this year.
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