Clients

Testimony in the removal trial of former Salvadoran General Jose García began with a moving opening statement by U.S. Department of Homeland Security trial counsel Loren Coy. Mr. Coy explained how El Salvador was dominated by military governments that supported the aims of the oligarchs – El Salvador’s “14 families” who controlled most of the land.

On December 26, 1979 , National Guard soldiers seized Neris from an outdoor market near San Nicolas Lempa. She was taken to the basement of the National Guard Post where she was held captive, tortured and raped. Neris survived the abuse but the trauma of what she had endured haunted her. In 1997 she sought political asylum in the US and began receiving treatment for the wounds inflicted by torture. Subsequently, she directed an organization in Chicago that teaches ecological awareness and sustainable agricultural methods. She is currently working at an environmental non-profit organization in Washington D.C. She plans to move to El Salvador to continue to work on human rights issues.

In 1980, Juan Romagoza Arce was working as a country doctor for the rural poor in El Salvador when he was detained and tortured for 22 days at the National Guard Headquarters. He served as the director of La Clinica del Pueblo, a public health clinic in Adams Morgan in Washington D.C. He recently returned to El Salvador, where he founded a community health clinic in Usultán as well as El Centro Romero, a home for impoverished persons living with HIV. In the fall of 2009, he was appointed Coordinator of the Basic Integral Health System of the Department of Usulután.