From Exodus to Exitus Causes of post-war violence in El ... - eDoc

30 Heidrun Zinecker
crime (Alamanni de Carrillo 2007). There is a large group of police officers who cooperate
with organized crime. “Taxes” extorted by the maras find their way even into the upper
echelons of the police chain of command (Alamanni de Carrillo 2007). As even their
commissioner acknowledges, the police have been infiltrated by the maras (Ávila 2006).
The Ombudswoman has an anecdote from her own personal experience to add to the lack
of any political will to address its own criminality on the part of supreme police command:
when it came to light that for over two years one of the police officers who was
guarding her was head of a criminal organization and she complained about this to the
police commissioner, the latter greeted her agitation with a lack of sympathy; after all, this
person had also worked in his office for a considerable length of time (Alamanni de
Carrillo 2007).
Militarization: As they are unable to get violence under control, the police are supported
by the army in realizing their task of ensuring domestic security, although constitutionally
speaking the army is only responsible for external security. In any event, the
constitution gives the president the possibility of seeking assistance from the armed forces
in the event of a threat to domestic security, and the latter are under police command in
joint patrols (Grupos de Tareas Conjuntas).
Judiciary
In contrast to the police, there was no “purging” 12
of human rights abusers in the judiciary,
it is true, but in the course of transition progress can be noted here too: the number
of courts has been doubled, more judges than before are being appointed, and judges to
the Supreme Court are no longer directly elected by parliament (and therefore essentially
by the executive) as they were during the dictatorship, but instead proposed 50 % by the
Consejo Nacional de Judicatura and 50 % by lawyers as a body. Only then can parliament
elect members of the Supreme Court from the list compiled in this way, with a two-thirds
majority. The Supreme Court more or less reflects a balance between judges who are sympathetic
to the FMLN and to ARENA, but this is repeatedly called into question by
ARENA. Schools specializing in further education for law were also founded, which all
judges have to attend. Within criminal law, there was a transformation from the principle
of inquisition to that of accusation – more acceptable under the rule of law. However this
has since begun to exhibit characteristics of the principle of inquisition more strongly
once again. 13 In the case of the judiciary, the combination of poor performance and a lack
of law and order, along with tolerance of repressive behaviour, which results in exemption
from punishment to a high degree, can be shown in three ways:
Little independence: The judiciary is manipulated for political gain and is anything but
independent (Ortíz Ruíz 2006; Santos Mejía de Escobar 2007). The executive repeatedly
12 In Spanish: depuración; in German „Säuberung“
13 The principle of accusation means that criminal prosecution in court only happens if a charge is successfully
brought. The conduct giving rise to the accusation must be described sufficiently clearly in an indictment
or equivalent ruling. In the case of the principle of inquisition, on the other hand, the judge can
initiate proceedings based on a report or any other kind of suspicion and conduct the case themselves until
a ruling is reached.