SAN SALVADOR: A group of Salvadoran military officers will face trial for a 1981 massacre in which the state launched an attack on leftist guerrillas and killed nearly 1,000 civilians, a victims’ advocacy group said Tuesday.
Soldiers from the Atlacatl Battalion executed 986 people, including 558 children, in northeastern El Mozote and neighboring communities between December 9 and 13, 1981.
The victims were accused of collaborating with the leftist Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN).
Rights group Cristosal reported 13 of the alleged perpetrators will face trial, according to a resolution issued November 26 by the Investigative Court of the city of San Francisco Gotera.
Former Defense Minister Jose Guillermo Garcia and 12 other officers will be tried for charges of murder and rape unless they are able to successfully appeal the trial, according to Cristosal.
The progress in the El Mozote case “has been made possible thanks to the crucial testimonial evidence courageously provided by the survivors of the massacre and forensic investigations,” Cristosal said.
No date has been set in the latest trial, but 92-year-old Garcia and two other former military leaders have already been sentenced to prison for the murder of four Dutch journalists in March 1982.
In that case, the three defendants were sentenced to 60 years but will serve the 30-year maximum legally allowed.
In July, Cristosal suspended operations in El Salvador, citing escalating repression of humanitarian activists under Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, and continued operations from Guatemala.
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Salvadoran military officers face trial for 1981 massacre
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Salvadoran military officers face trial for 1981 massacre
- Rights group Cristosal reported 13 of the alleged perpetrators will face trial
Ukraine faces military aid shortfall as Europe struggles to plug US gap
- The United States contributed, on average, €21.4 billion to the €41.6 billion annual mean for 2022-2024
- France, Germany and the United Kingdom increased their allocations substantially this year
PARIS: Military aid for Ukraine plummeted in the second half of 2025 as falling European contributions failed to make up for the halt in US support, data from the Kiel Institute showed Wednesday.
As US President Donald Trump wound down US contributions at the beginning of the year, Europe stepped up with record pledges of almost €20 billion ($23 billion) between March and June, more than offsetting the overall shortfall.
But Europe was only able to muster fewer than €8 billion between July and October, meaning Ukraine overall received the second-lowest amount for a four-month period since Russia’s 2022 invasion began.
The overall total for the first 10 months of 2025 stands at €32.5 billion, meaning an additional €9.1 billion would be needed by the end of the year to maintain the €41.6 billion annual average from 2022 to 2024.
Ukraine’s allies would need to send another €5.1 billion before the end of the year to avoid the current-record annual low of €37.6 billion, set in 2022.
“Based on the data available through October, Europe has not been able to sustain the momentum of the first half of 2025,” said Professor Christoph Trebesch, head of Kiel’s Ukraine Support Tracker.
“If this slower pace continues in the remaining months, 2025 will become the year with the lowest level of new aid allocations ever for Ukraine since the outbreak of the full-scale invasion in 2022,” he added.
The United States contributed, on average, €21.4 billion to the €41.6 billion annual mean for 2022-2024, highlighting the scale of the task for Europe and other allies in filling the gap.
France, Germany and the United Kingdom increased their allocations substantially this year.
But Europe’s leaders are looking for ways to fund a loan to Kyiv that, under current proposals, would be paid back by any eventual Russian reparations to Ukraine.
The EU on Wednesday laid out a plan to use frozen Russian assets to help fund Ukraine with €90 billion over the next two years.
Belgium, home to international deposit organization Euroclear — which holds most of the Russian assets — has so far rejected the plan because of the potential legal repercussions.
As US President Donald Trump wound down US contributions at the beginning of the year, Europe stepped up with record pledges of almost €20 billion ($23 billion) between March and June, more than offsetting the overall shortfall.
But Europe was only able to muster fewer than €8 billion between July and October, meaning Ukraine overall received the second-lowest amount for a four-month period since Russia’s 2022 invasion began.
The overall total for the first 10 months of 2025 stands at €32.5 billion, meaning an additional €9.1 billion would be needed by the end of the year to maintain the €41.6 billion annual average from 2022 to 2024.
Ukraine’s allies would need to send another €5.1 billion before the end of the year to avoid the current-record annual low of €37.6 billion, set in 2022.
“Based on the data available through October, Europe has not been able to sustain the momentum of the first half of 2025,” said Professor Christoph Trebesch, head of Kiel’s Ukraine Support Tracker.
“If this slower pace continues in the remaining months, 2025 will become the year with the lowest level of new aid allocations ever for Ukraine since the outbreak of the full-scale invasion in 2022,” he added.
The United States contributed, on average, €21.4 billion to the €41.6 billion annual mean for 2022-2024, highlighting the scale of the task for Europe and other allies in filling the gap.
France, Germany and the United Kingdom increased their allocations substantially this year.
But Europe’s leaders are looking for ways to fund a loan to Kyiv that, under current proposals, would be paid back by any eventual Russian reparations to Ukraine.
The EU on Wednesday laid out a plan to use frozen Russian assets to help fund Ukraine with €90 billion over the next two years.
Belgium, home to international deposit organization Euroclear — which holds most of the Russian assets — has so far rejected the plan because of the potential legal repercussions.
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