El Salvador denies receiving extradition request in Jesuit massacre case

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http://www.elpais.com/articulo/english/Salvador/denies/receiving/extradition/request/in/Jesuit/massacre/case/elpepueng/20110810elpeng_11/Ten

The government of El Salvador said on Wednesday that it has not received any formal extradition request from the Spain for the 20 former military officers wanted by the High Court for the 1989 massacre of five Spanish Jesuit priests during the civil war that tore apart the Central American nation.

Salvadoran Foreign Minister Hugo Martínez acknowledged that Lyon-based Interpol has issued capture-orders for the 20 men at the request of High Court Judge Eloy Velasco who is investigating the so-called "Jesuit case." The Salvadoran Supreme Court met to discuss the extraditions but has not arrived at any decision and would take up the case at its next session on Thursday, said Chief Justice Belamino Jaime.

The men are charged with planning and participating in the November 16, 1989 massacre where military officers entered the Universidad Centroamericana (UCA) and shot dead the rector Ignacio Ellacuría; fellow priests Amando López, Juan Ramón Moreno, Segundo Montes and Ignacio Martín Baró, as well as the Salvadoran Joaquín López y López, and the cook Elba Julia Ramos and her 16-year-old daughter Celina.

Meanwhile, lawmakers and civil rights activists in El Salvador are divided over whether to extradite the former army officers.