Chavez v. Carranza, 1949 August 12-2012, bulk 1961-2009

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Access note. Collection contains fragile audiovisual formats that may need to be reformatted before use. Contact Research Services for access.

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Physical description:

5 boxes

Scope and content:

The CJA collection contains filed case materials, including discovery and exhibits. Due to awarded damages, the collection also contains materials related to asset discovery and requests for the production of documents in aid of execution. Research materials include copies of declassified cables and documents accessed through the National Security Archives.

Materials in this collection may include violent acts, including firsthand accounts and descriptions of torture and violent deaths.

Biographical / historical:

Colonel Nicolas Carranza, the Vice Minister of Defense of El Salvador during the Salvadoran Civil War, and his military forces led violent campaigns of torture, executions, and other human rights crimes against Salvadoran civilians during the 1970s and 1980s. The Center for Justice and Accountability (CJA) filed a civil suit against Carranza in 2005 on behalf of five survivors, including Ana Patricia Chavez. A Tennessee court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, awarding them $6 millions in damages. This ruling was the first that found human rights crimes committed by Salvadoran military forces during the civil war period.

Parts of the Historical Note were adapted from the CJA's website: "Campaign of Violence against Salvadoran Citizens: Chavez v. Carranza https://cja.org/what-we-do/litigation/chavez-v-carranza/ (accessed April 14, 2022).

Processing information:

Due to the presence of personally identifiable information, a number of tax forms and financial statements were removed from this case file.

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