Ex-Salvadoran generals cleared in Americans' rape-slayings

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Two former Salvadoran generals living comfortably in retirement in Florida were cleared of responsibility by a jury Friday for the deaths of four American church women who were raped and killed by soldiers in El Salvador in 1980.

The women's families had sued the former military men for at least $100 million, hoping to disrupt their retirement and perhaps persuade the U.S. government to deport them to the Central American country.

But the federal jury in the wrongful-death case said it was unclear the two were responsible for the slayings, even though the men admitted knowing that thousands of innocent people were being killed by death squads and others during the country's 12-year civil war.

''We didn't have the smoking gun,'' said Robert Montgomery, a lawyer for the women's families. ''We didn't have an order from the generals ... We didn't have anything but circumstantial evidence.''

Former Salvadoran Defense Minister Jose Guillermo Garcia and Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova, former head of the Salvadoran National Guard, were not in the courtroom for the verdict.

''I am satisfied,'' Garcia, 67, said by telephone from his Plantation home. ''The U.S. judicial system does function well. This was why we responded and I think we had enough valor to present ourselves to respond for everything that was thrown at us.''

Vides Casanova, 62, said he has great respect for the families and feels tremendous pain for the loved ones they lost. But he said both men did everything they could do amid the overall violence.

''We tried to show that we did everything we could to bring to justice those who murdered those nuns,'' Vides Casanova said from his Palm Coast home.

Lawyers for the families said they would seek a new trial. And next May, the former generals are to stand trial for the kidnapping and torture of four Salvadorans who now live in the United States.

After the jury left the courtroom, the generals' lawyer, Kurt Klaus, solemnly shook hands with Bill Ford, brother of slain nun Ita Ford.

''He just said he was sorry for what happened,'' Ford said later. ''I thought the evidence was overwhelming.''

Ita Ford, nuns Maura Clarke and Dorothy Kazel and lay missionary Jean Donovan were killed on Dec. 2, 1980, apparently because military-backed death squads suspected them of sympathizing with leftist guerrillas.

The crime outraged many in United States, in part because the U.S. government strongly supported the Salvadoran government during the 1980-92 civil war. Five Salvadoran National Guard members were convicted of the killings and sentenced to 30 years in Salvadoran prison; three have been released and two remain in jail.

Michael Posner, executive director of the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights in Washington D.C., which helped bring the lawsuit, called the jury decision was ''wrong.''

''We need to establish a firm precedent globally that military commanders bear personal responsibility for the actions of their troops,'' Posner said.

Garcia and Vides Casanova retired to Florida in 1989 and were granted U.S. residency because they had never been convicted of a crime. One has a satellite dish in his back yard, the other a pool.

They lived quietly in middle-class neighborhoods until families of the slain women learned of their whereabouts from a reporter. The families failed in efforts to have the two tried in criminal court in their homeland, so they turned instead to the U.S. courts.

While the families sought $100 million in compensatory damages and unspecified punitive damages, some relatives said they would be happy to see the generals go back to El Salvador. They also hoped the outcome of the trial would give U.S. immigration officials grounds to deport the men.

Lawyers for the families showed jurors declassified documents to illustrate the generals' failure to stop their soldiers from killing thousands of Salvadorans, including the country's Roman Catholic archbishop, six Jesuit priests, doctors and peasants.

Garcia and Vides Casanova said there was little they could do to stop the atrocities and denied knowing anything about the four Americans before they were killed.

Their attorney showed military-produced videotapes of Garcia asking soldiers to respect the human rights of fellow Salvadorans, and noted that both men were cited for their efforts to promote Salvadoran democracy.

Jury foreman Bruce Schnirel said the 10 jurors did not believe the former generals had enough control over their troops to be held responsible.

''It was presented to us as such a chaotic time,'' said Schnirel, a 50-year-old postal worker.

Sister Madeline Dorsey, who was in El Salvador when her friends were killed, said the trial served a purpose despite the verdict.

''The truth is out now,'' she said of the civilian massacres in El Salvador during the long civil war. ''We knew the truth at the beginning, and now the American people know the truth.''

The office of Salvadoran President Francisco Flores referred requests for comment Friday to the defense secretariat, which did not return a telephone call. Many officials were on vacation for Day of the Dead celebrations, a centuries-old custom of contacting the dead with prayer, song and offerings of food and flowers.