Romero case closed—sacked official

Press, 30 December 1988, Page 8

Romero case closed—sacked official

NZPA-ReuterSan Salvador Efforts to solve the 1980 murder of Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero, the most widely publicised of El Salvador’s death-squad killings, haye collapsed because of Right-wing pressure, the former attorney-general said yesterday. “The case is lost,” Roberto Giron Flores, who last week was removed from his job by El Salva-

dor’s Rightist-controlled National Assembly, told a press conference. Mr Giron Flores accused the Rightist Nationalist Republican Alliance (Arena) of sabotaging the case because a breakthrough was near that would implicate senior party members, notably its founder, Roberto D’Aubuisson. Mr Giron Flores,, who said he will appeal his

sacking, said a key suspect had been due to be extradited from the United States in early January. A United States Embassy spokesman confirmed the extradition request had been withdrawn. Archbishop Romero, an outspoken defender of the poor, was shot dead on March 24, 1980, as he said Mass in a chapel.

Archbishop Romero’s case was exempted from an amnesty decreed by President Jose Napoleon Duarte in November, Shortly afterwards the Government announced that a man claiming to be the driver of the get-away car used in the murder was willing to testify. Moves were begun to extradite a Captain Alvaro Saravia, who was arrested

But last week the Salvadoran Supreme Court ruled there was not enough evidence to pursue to extradition. It said several years after the killing, the witness’s memory was not reliable.

The Arena-controlled National Assembly then voted to remove Mr Giron Flores, accusing him of incompetence and corruption. 5 t