Salvadoran torture survivor finds closure in American court

[Judi Lynn]

Salvadoran torture survivor finds closure in American court
By Juliana Barbassa
ASSOCIATED PRESS

9:15 a.m. February 25, 2007

SAN FRANCISCO – The acrid smell of disinfectant, sweat and fear filled Carlos Mauricio's nostrils. In the darkness behind his blindfold, he heard the moaning of other political prisoners inside the headquarters of El Salvador's national police.

There were screams and shouted questions, the hollow thump of blows, and a sound he recognized from his days working with cattle: the sizzling zap of an electrical prod, followed by guttural protests and involuntary thrashing.

“I realized I was in a chamber of torture,” he said. “At that moment, I accepted my death.”

It was 1983, and El Salvador was in the midst of a 12-year civil war that claimed some 75,000 lives. Mauricio, an agronomy professor at the University of El Salvador, had been kidnapped from his classroom by men with guns.

Standing in the dark, handcuffed to a pipe, he felt mounting panic.

“I knew I was next,” he said.

Mauricio survived 15 days of captivity and torture, but he left behind his belief in justice.
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http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/state/20070225-0915-torturetort.html