Impunity and universal jurisdiction in post-conflict. the appeal to spanish justice in the salvadoran transition

Abstract

The inaction by the Salvadoran State to prosecute crimes committed in its territory has impeded the fight against impunity. The application of the principle of Universal Jurisdiction becomes an alternative mechanism to try all those individuals accused of committing serious crimes typified in International Law perpetrated in Salvadoran territory. The intervention of International Criminal Law in this case has been carried out, either from international courts, the Inter-American Court in the case of the Mozote Massacres, or from national courts in the universal extraterritorial exercise of their powers, as has been the case of the Spanish justice with the sentence referring to the murder of the Jesuit Ignacio Ellacuría. Two relatively recent rulings, which indicate that the international route, even with many limitations, can become the most direct way to end impunity in El Salvador, and start the path of progress based on justice and reconciliation.