El Salvador court orders arrest of former president for cover-up of massacre

A local court in El Salvador has ordered the arrest of former President Alfredo Cristiani for the alleged cover-up of the 1981 El Mozote massacre during the Central American country's civil war that lasted twelve years. In the document, issued by a court in San Francisco Gotera on Friday, Cristiani, 76, is named as one of 10 people who promoted a general amnesty law that was approved in 1993 and exonerates those accused of war crimes. Calling the El Mozote massacre a "crime against humanity," the document orders the capture of the former president and four other defendants who later were part of the country's congress.