May 1, 2007

ICE deports former Salvadoran army lieutenant linked to massacre of priests

LOS ANGELES - U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced today that a former Salvadoran army lieutenant convicted of participating in the Salvadoran military's 1989 massacre of six Jesuit priests has been removed from the United States.

Gonzalo Guevara-Cerritos, 43, was returned to El Salvador yesterday on board a flight operated by the Justice Prisoner and Alien Transportation System. Guevara was arrested by ICE at a motel near the UCLA campus in October 2006 after the agency received a tip about his possible whereabouts. Guevara illegally entered the United States in January 2005.

Public records describe Guevara's involvement in carrying out the murders of the six priests at the University of Central America in San Salvador, as well as the murders of the priests' housekeeper and her teenage daughter. Guevara was ultimately convicted of conspiring to commit acts of terrorism by the Salvadoran courts and placed under house arrest for almost two years. He was pardoned by the Salvadoran government as part of the General Amnesty Law of l993.

The murders occurred during the final stages of the armed conflict that raged in El Salvador during the 1980s and early 1990s. During the conflict, the Catholic Church was a prominent voice in calling for a peaceful settlement, prompting a wave of attacks by the military aimed at Jesuit priests.

"We will not allow the United States to be a place of refuge for aliens seeking to escape a violent criminal past," said Jim Hayes, ICE field office director in Los Angeles. "Removing human rights violators and other persecutors from the United States is one of ICE's top enforcement priorities."

To achieve this goal, ICE created the Human Rights Violators and Public Safety Unit (HRVPSU) as well as the Human Rights Law Division (HRLD). The HRVPSU has the specific mandate to deny safe haven to human rights violators by bringing to bear a full range of investigative techniques and legal authorities to locate, investigate, and remove these individuals from the United States. The HRLD was created to provide legal and litigation support to the effort to prosecute and to remove human rights violators.

ICE encourages the public to come forward with any information they may have regarding human rights abusers residing in the United States. Nationwide, anonymous tips may be reported at 1-866-DHS-2ICE.

-- ICE --

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was established in March 2003 as the largest investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security. ICE is comprised of five integrated divisions that form a 21st century law enforcement agency with broad responsibilities for a number of key homeland security priorities.

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