“A historic decision”. This was how the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) described the ruling by El Salvador’s constitutional chamber (SC) of the supreme court (CSJ) which found unconstitutional some aspects of the country’s 1993 amnesty law. The law shields the military, paramilitary groups, and guerrilla fighters from prosecution for abuses committed during the 1980-1992 civil war that left a toll of 75,000 dead and 8,000 disappeared, mainly civilians. The SC’s ruling is highly controversial: it has implications for both the main right-wing opposition Alianza Republicana Nacionalista (Arena), whose founder, the late Roberto D’Aubuisson Sr, led an ultra-right-wing death squad during the civil war, as well as the left-wing Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional (FMLN) government led by President Salvador Sánchez Cerén, a former guerrilla. End of preview - This article contains approximately 1289 words.
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