José Guillermo García (born 25 June 1933) is a former general of the military of

El Salvador El Salvador, officially the Republic of El Salvador, is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south by the Pacific Ocean. El Salvador's capital and largest city is S ...

and was

minister of defense A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and military forces, found in states where the government is divid ...

of the

Revolutionary Government Junta of El Salvador The Revolutionary Government Junta (, JRG) was the name of three consecutive joint civilian-military dictatorships that ruled El Salvador between 15 October 1979 and 2 May 1982. The first junta, from 1979 to 1980, consisted of two colonels, Ado ...

between the years 1979 and 1983.

Emigration to United States

He emigrated to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

in 1989, where he lived until January 2016 until he was deported to

Lawsuit cases

He was sued, along with Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova, in the

United States district court The United States district courts are the trial courts of the United States federal judiciary, U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each United States federal judicial district, federal judicial district. Each district cov ...

West Palm Beach West Palm Beach is a city in and the county seat of Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. It is located immediately to the west of the adjacent Palm Beach, Florida, Palm Beach, which is situated on a barrier island across the Lake Worth Lag ...

in two precedent-setting legal actions: * '' Ford v. Garcia'', a lawsuit by the families of four Catholic churchwomen, including two Maryknoll Sisters of St. Dominic, who were murdered by a Salvadoran military

death squad A death squad is an armed group whose primary activity is carrying out extrajudicial killings, massacres, or enforced disappearances as part of political repression, genocide, ethnic cleansing, or revolutionary terror. Except in rare cases in w ...

on 2 December 1980. García's defense won the case, and the families appealed. Their appeal was denied, and in 2003, the

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that turn on question ...

refused to hear further proceedings. * ''Ramagoza v. Garcia'', a lawsuit filed by the Center for Justice and Accountability on behalf of survivors of torture during the

Salvadoran Civil War The Salvadoran Civil War () was a twelve-year civil war in El Salvador that was fought between the government of El Salvador, backed by the United States, and the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), a coalition of left-wing guer ...

. García lost, and a judgment of over $54 million (U.S.) was entered against him and his co-defendant, and upheld on appeal.

Deportation to El Salvador

Guillermo García and General Vides Casanova had been undergoing a deportation process since 1999. The Department of Homeland Security later charged García in 2009 with participating or assisting in torture and extrajudicial killings during his tenure as Minister of Defense. His attorne
Alina Cruz
argued that he could not be deported on those grounds because he was already exonerated of those charges in the landmark case Ford vs. Garcia when a jury found that he was not in control of his troops. It was determined in 1998 that García's co-defendant General Vides Casanova and Casanova's cousin Col. Oscar Edgardo Casanova Vejar, the local military commander in Zacatecoluca, had planned and orchestrated the executions of the four North American churchwomen. On 12 April 2014, an immigration court judge ruled against García and called for his deportation. On 16 December 2015, it was announced that an immigration appeals court upheld the decision to deport Garcia. Garcia's attorney afterwards said they both plan to appeal the decision to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, Georgia. On 8 January 2016, American immigration officials deported General García back to El Salvador. On 3 June 2025, Garcia was convicted by a jury in Chalatenango for the

Santa Rita massacre Santa Claus (also known as Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, Father Christmas, Kris Kringle or Santa) is a legendary figure originating in Western Christian culture who is said to bring gifts during the late evening and overnight hours on Christm ...

in 1982 and sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Garcia, Jose Guillermo 1933 births Living people People from San Vicente, El Salvador Defence ministers of El Salvador Salvadoran military personnel Salvadoran war criminals People of the Salvadoran Civil War People deported from the United States 1980 murders of U.S. missionaries in El Salvador Torturers

Emigration to United States

Lawsuit cases

Deportation to El Salvador

See also

References