Community organizations in Los Angeles, including Clínica Monseñor Oscar A. Romero, have launched a post-card and letter-writing campaign urging the government of El Salvador to re-open a criminal investigation regarding the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero in 1980.

They also are calling on the government to repeal a sweeping 1993 Amnesty Law, following El Salvador's civil war, which currently bars human rights abuse cases from being heard in judicial courts.

The organizations are seeking to support Tutela Legal, the human rights office of the Archdiocese of San Salvador which has been calling for both actions following the September ruling in a Fresno, Calif. federal court that held Alvaro Rafael Saravia liable for organizing the assassination of Archbishop Romero.

A former captain in the Salvadoran military, Saravia served Salvadoran right-wing death squad leader Roberto D'Aubuisson. Members of the Salvadoran community said they want to use the Fresno civil case to pressure the Salvadoran government to pursue criminal trials.

"We want to take advantage of the moment after [this ruling]. We want to make our voices heard," said Nuvia Magaña of Clínica Romero. Magaña's brother survived torture at the hands of the Salvadoran national police.

Churches in Los Angeles and El Salvador recently observed the 15th anniversary of the assassinations of six Jesuit priests and two women at the University of Central America in San Salvador. While widely known that members of the armed forces were responsible for the deaths of the priests, all current judicial avenues were exhausted last year when the Salvadoran Supreme Court ruled that the amnesty law applied to those who perpetrated the crimes.

The Salvadoran amnesty law allows those responsible for the human rights violations, massacres and assassinations that led to some 75,000 civilian deaths during El Salvador's civil war to live freely in El Salvador. Many also have sought a safe haven in the United States. D'Aubuisson died of cancer in 1992.

The suit against Saravia was investigated and brought to court by the San-Francisco based Center for Justice and Accountability (CJA). In existence since 1998, the non-profit organization represents survivors of torture in legal suits against their persecutors now living in the U.S. In the case against Saravia, the organization represented a member of the Romero family and partnered with the law firm of Heller Ehrman White & McAuliffe to bring the case to court.

The purpose of the cases against human rights abusers, said attorney Nicholas van Aelstyn of Heller Ehrman is to "counter impunity with accountability" and to "seek truth and restore the moral balance."

Matt Eisenbrandt, CJA litigation director, said the next Salvadoran case CJA brings to court will be against Nicolas Carranza, a former Salvadoran vice minister of defense now living in Memphis. Plaintiffs are torture survivors and family members of those killed by security forces acting under his command. Carranza has denied any wrongdoing.

Eisenbrandt said CJA hopes to raise $150,000 to bring the case to court. The organization made presentations in Los Angeles last week at All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, Immanuel Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles and the Center for Religion and Civic Culture at USC.

For more information about the letter writing campaign, call Nuvia Magaña of Clínica Msgr. Romero at (213) 201-1780. For information about the Center for Justice and Accountability or to make a donation, see www.cja.org.