Sen. Dodd Presses Salvador on Slayers of Priests

After meeting with El Salvador’s top military leaders, a key U.S. senator lauded progress in the investigation into the slaying of six Jesuit priests but warned that the Salvadoran government must push forward to prosecute the killers.

Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.), head of the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, also indicated at a news conference that Congress is seeking prosecution of the so-called intellectual authors of the Nov. 16 massacre of the priests, their cook and her 15-year-old daughter.

“It is extremely positive news that the investigation of the deaths . . . finally appears to be coming to a conclusion,” Dodd said. “However, it is important to remember that we’ve seen investigations before with a lot of notoriety fade and disappear and prosecutions never occur.”

He added: “That can’t happen in this case, and it won’t do if you just arrest a couple soldiers. The case has to be completed with a full investigation and prosecutions.”

The United States supports El Salvador’s right-wing government with about $1.4 million a day in military and economic aid, and some in Congress have threatened a cutoff if the Jesuit case is not resolved. Dodd said he does not expect a vote on Salvadoran aid before spring.

Dodd and Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.) spoke to reporters before leaving for a dinner with Salvadoran President Alfredo Cristiani, who announced earlier this week that members of the military were responsible for the assassinations at Central American University.

On Wednesday, Cristiani confirmed reports that 45 soldiers and two lieutenants from the elite Atlacatl Battalion have been confined to barracks and are being investigated in connection with the case.

He refused to comment on reports by sources close to the military and to the investigation that Col. Guillermo Alfredo Benavides, who heads the Gen. Gerardo Barrios Military School in San Salvador, also has been grounded. On the night the priests were killed, Benavides was the commander in charge of the zone that includes the university

A source close to the case who declined to be identified said the grounded members of the Atlacatl Battalion had been assigned to the military school on the night of the murders as a reserve force to be used against a rebel offensive. But, he said, ballistics tests have matched shells found on campus to some weapons belonging to members of the Atlacatl.

The military has stated that no members of its leadership or high command were involved in the killings.