Salvadoran Supreme Court Votes to Extradite Martinez

C O N F I D E N T I A L SAN SALVADOR 001111 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 2019/12/22 TAGS: PGOV PREL KCRM KJUS ES SUBJECT: Salvadoran Supreme Court Votes to Extradite Martinez REF: 08 SAN SALVADOR 259 AND PREVIOUS; 08 SAN SALVADOR 755 CLASSIFIED BY: BlauRobert, CDA, State, Embassy San Salvador; REASON: 1.4(B),(D) ¶1. (SBU) After multiple tie votes over the course of two years, the Salvadoran Supreme Court voted 10-5 in an extraordinary session December 22 to find Jose Marvin Martinez extraditable to the U.S. on charges of statutory rape. Martinez has been in Salvadoran custody for over two years. He fled the U.S. after sentencing in Texas. The Supreme Court's written opinion must be finalized within twenty working days and the GOES will then be able to proceed with Martinez' surrender to the U.S. When carried out, this will be the first extradition from El Salvador of a Salvadoran national to the U.S. under the 1911 bilateral extradition treaty and opens the way for future extraditions. ¶2. (C) At present, the GOES has no internal procedural guidelines to govern extraditions. JudAtt will coordinate closely with MFA and Presidency legal advisors to shepherd Martinez' surrender through the bureaucracy. ¶3. (C) Comment: This decision is the product of two years of constant Embassy and USG pressure, accompanied by a broad media strategy, designed to encourage the Salvadoran Supreme Court to get past its extreme reticence to approve any extradition of Salvadoran nationals based on (ill-founded) fears of foreign prosecution and extradition for Civil War-era crimes. Salvadoran justice and politics being what they are, we will not rest until Martinez is safely in custody in the U.S., but the Court's vote today is a watershed moment. BLAU