Lenny Castro | Correspondent in San Francisco
Former colonel of the Salvadoran army, Roberto Antonio Garay Saravia, accused of participating in the El Mozote massacre during the civil war, was arrested by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents.
Garay Saravia, who has lived in the United States since 2014, was a second lieutenant in the Atlácatl Battalion at the time of the massacre in 1981, and according to a press release from the US immigration authorities, he was arrested on Tuesday, April 4, after an investigation carried out by the HSI Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Center (HRVWCC).
During the investigation, they obtained evidence of the ex-military’s participation “in extrajudicial executions”, as well as that he deliberately misrepresented that fact in his immigration application.
“People who have committed atrocities abroad will not find a safe haven in the United States,” said the director of the ICE Enforcement and Deportation Operations field office in Newark, New Jersey, referring to the case of the ex-serviceman.
The massacre carried out in El Mozote, according to the Report of the United Nations Truth Commission in El Salvador in 1993, was perpetrated by the Atlácatl Battalion, between December 10 and 13, 1981, and claimed the lives of more than of 1,700 Salvadorans.
The former military man was also charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity (under the Geneva international agreement) in August 2019 by a Salvadoran judge.
According to ICE, Garay Saravia also participated in other massacres in the Cabañas department, and in La Quesera and El Calabozo, which resulted in the death of hundreds of civilians.