The Central American Resource Centre - Los Angeles (CARECEN-LA), a human rights organization that provides legal and social services to the immigrant community in Los Angeles, California, provided the following information. In 30 October 2002 correspondence, the Legal Director of CARECEN-LA stated:

The fundamental law of the judicial branch in El Salvador provides for the protection of judicial officials:

...

"The law of the Judicial profession, at Article 21, establishes the following rights pertain[ing] to members of the profession:

d) To receive immediate protection from State authorities whenever there is a danger to life or personal integrity, by reason of the [judicial] function."

However, to date, there has been no published regulation whose aim is to implement this principle of protection, nor has there been any judicial decision in a specific case which would compel the State to meet its obligations in this regard.

An official of the Procuraduria para la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos (Special Prosecutor for the Defense of Human Rights) [PDDH], requesting anonymity, states that the resources of the National Civil Police [PNC] and the Division for the Protection of Important Persons [PPI] offer protection only to judicial functionaries of the highest level (eg. Members of the Supreme Court of Justice) only in case of need, and that this service is not generally offered to any other judges in the country, though it is frequently requested by judges whose cases involve crimes and politically delicate matters.

A highly placed official within the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) confirms the presence of members of the PNC from the PPI division who offer virtual round the clock protection to the Judges of the CSJ, but notes that the quality of this protection is less than ideal for two reasons. First of all, many police officials assigned to protection take extensive breaks to attend to personal business, leaving the protectee vulnerable at random moments, or are otherwise inattentive to their duties. Secondly, persistent distrust of the PNC reduces the confidence of the protectees. This distrust is related to either real or perceived ideological differences related to the former civil conflict, or the recurring suspicion of corruption at various levels in the police structure. This corruption might be of either a political or criminal nature. In at least one case known to CARECEN, a protected judicial officer has declined police protection and sought private security from a trusted source.

In April, 1999 CARECEN employees investigating a particularly sensitive political asylum case involving police misconduct were followed to their hotel by a dark colored SUV with polarized windows, following a meeting with an important witness. An official of the PDDH later warned CARECEN of possible PNC involvement in the incident.

Sources in the National Civil Police (PNC) confirm that concerns continue about the infiltration of corrupt recruits at the level of the police academy, as well as ongoing human rights abuses by some rogue elements of the PNC.

CARECEN files related to asylum investigations indicate 26 individual reports of torture, corruption, or impunity on the part of the National Civil Police. Of those, 19 were judged to be credible reports. Most of the fact patterns related to torture of suspects, followed by intimidation of witnesses. Witness intimidation was equally split between a motive in furtherance of organized crime (usually drug trafficking) or intimidation for a motive related to criminal acts by a family or friend of the police officer.

CONCLUSIONS

State protection for judicial officials appears to be legally mandated by Salvadoran law, however the extent of this protection, as a matter of law, is unknown due to the ambiguous nature of the text, and the absence of interpretive regulation or precedent. Furthermore, as a matter of fact, this protection is in practice limited to only a few highly placed officials. To date, the government has not requested funding for this kind of service from the National Assembly.

In the few cases where such protection has been provided by the National Civil Police, CARECEN remains concerned about the quality of such protection, and its ability to really accomplish its stated goal.

Reports of corruption in the PNC (the State organ which provides protection) are deemed credible but non-systemic at the present time. Overall reports of human rights violations by government authorities continue at dramatically lower levels than during the civil conflict. However, vigilance is warranted since credible reports do exist of police abuse in specific cases and with specific populations. At the present time, more reports of abuse are correlated with organized crime than with political motive. Nevertheless, there is a continuing nexus between crime, politics, and impunity: those who have money and power seek to defend that money and power without reference to the judicial system. This situation points to a still weak sense of constitutionality, and a crisis of faith in the judicial process.

CARECEN is concerned that fear of violence has influenced the outcome of both civil and criminal cases in El Salvador, and thereby undermined popular faith in the democratic and constitutional process. Though not yet a crisis, failure to correct this situation will severely undermine the achievements of the peace process.

Therefore, the foregoing discussion compels the conclusion that the majority of judges, and virtually all employees and workers in the justice system are without any protection in the face of threats to life or liberty. Furthermore, the government of El Salvador appears both unable and unwilling to protect such individuals despite an apparent legal mandate to do so.

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. Please find below the list of additional sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

Reference

Central American Resource Centre (CARECEN), Los Angeles. 30 October 2002. Correspondence with Legal Director.

Additional Sources Consulted

A representative of the International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Program (ICITAP) was unable to respond within time constraints.

IRB databases

Two unsuccessful attempts to contact the Consejo Nacional de la Judicatura (CNJ)

World News Connection (WNC)

Internet sites

Consejo Nacional de la Judicatura (CNJ)

Corte Supremo de Justicia (CSJ)

International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Program (ICITAP)

Procuraduria para la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos (PDDH)

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