A presentation by SHARE El Salvador, Tutela Legal María Julia Hernandez, and the Pro-Historical Memory Commission

Wednesday, March 26, 2014 4:30 p.m.

Scheuer Room, Kohlberg Hall

Swarthmore College (map)

Twenty-two years after the Peace Accords and U.N. Truth Commission Report, Salvadorans struggle to build true peace in a society steeped in violence and impunity. While victims of human rights violations have worked tirelessly for truth, justice, and reparations, accompanied by the Pro-Historical Memory Commission, the struggle has been uphill all the way.

The last six months have brought an ongoing series of chilling and exciting surprises for the Salvadoran human rights movement. In September, the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court admitted a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the 1993 Amnesty Law, which could open the door to justice for human rights violations committed during the Salvadoran civil war. Just two weeks later, the Archbishop of San Salvador suddenly closed Tutela Legal, the Archdiocese´s human rights legal aid office.

Join Latin American Studies for presentations by Wilfredo Medrano, a lawyer with Tutela Legal for over 20 years who accompanied the victims of the El Mozote massacre and many other cases of human rights violations; and Bethany Loberg, a native of Salem, Oregon, has lived and worked in El Salvador for over four years and currently accompanies SHARE’s human rights work.

Sponsored by Latin American Studies.