El Salvador Jesuits seek reopening of case in 1989 massacre

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador – The Roman Catholic Jesuit community in El Salvador says it will ask authorities to reopen the case against a group of military officials suspected in the 1989 massacre of six priests and two female employees.

The announcement comes a day after the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for a Salvadoran ex-colonel's extradition to Spain to face charges of allegedly helping plan the attack on the Jesuit priests. Five of them were Spaniards.

Manuel Escalante is a human rights lawyer at the Jesuit-run Jose Simeon Canas Central American University. He tells YSUCA radio that a conviction in Spain would be a big step toward "eliminating historical impunity."

Escalante said Thursday that "we are going to seek justice. We are going to ask for the reopening of the trial."