IACHR takes to Inter-American Court case concerning El Salvador about the arbitrary arrest of Guatemalan citizens and their handover to a third State

September 26, 2025

Washington, DC—The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) filed on August 14, 2025, an application before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in Case 13,337, with regard to El Salvador. This case concerns the arbitrary arrest of Guatemalan citizens Álvaro Agustín Mejía, Juan del Cid Morales, and Erik Donaire Constanza Bran, as well as subsequent violations of their rights to judicial guarantees and freedom of movement and residence.

This petition, filed on October 17, 2008, says that Álvaro Agustín Mejía, Juan del Cid Morales, and Erik Donaire Constanza Bran travelled from Guatemala to San Salvador for a meeting in September 2006. While they were in San Salvador, they were held up by around 30 officers of the National Police. El Salvador’s National Police arrested the three men without a court warrant and took them to a parking lot where an agent of the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) gave instructions. The three men were then taken, in unidentified vehicles, to an airport that looked like a military base. That same day, the victims were put on a DEA plane and taken to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. During the trip to the airport, the three men allegedly suffered threats and ill-treatment, and they were denied the right to contact either their families or the Guatemalan Embassy.

Documents issued by the United States District Court for the District of Columbia confirmed that the DEA had coordinated this operation with the Salvadoran police. The US court noted that the handover of the three men complied with the extradition treaty between El Salvador and the United States. However, the State of El Salvador said that it had no police or court records of these arrests, and the complaint filed in September 2006 by Silvia Marina Juárez de Del Cid for an unlawful deprivation of liberty received no response.

In Admissibility and Merits Report 148/23, the IACHR said that the victims’ arrest and their handover to the United States had been confirmed by the case file, US judicial records, the complaint that had been filed in El Salvador, and various media reports. Based on this verification, the IACHR found that the three men had been arrested without a court warrant although they had not been caught in the act, and that there were no official records of the procedure. The IACHR further found that the State of El Salvador had violated the three men’s rights by not informing them of the reasons for their arrest nor giving them a chance to contact consular staff although they were foreign nationals.

The IACHR noted that the victims had not been allowed to contact a lawyer or their families, which had left them defenseless. The IACHR also noted that the complaint that was filed in 2006 concerning these events was never diligently addressed or investigated. The lack of procedural progress and of a definitive decision in this case so many years later also entails violations of State duties to ensure timely justice and to investigate allegations.

Finally, the IACHR found that the victims’ handover to the DEA and their immediate transfer to the United States did not reflect lawful extradition procedure, since they did not follow an appropriate, duly motivated court ruling or judicial proceedings reflecting minimal due process guarantees. The victims did not have the chance to defend themselves or to appeal to a higher court.

The IACHR found that the State of El Salvador was liable for violations of the rights to personal liberty, judicial guarantees, freedom of movement and residence, and judicial protection held in Articles 7.1, 7.2, 7.4, 8.1, 8.2., 22.6, and 25.1 of the American Convention, in keeping with the obligations held in Article 1.1 of the same instrument, to the detriment of Álvaro Agustín Mejía, Juan del Cid Morales, and Erik Donaire Constanza Bran.

The IACHR therefore asked the Inter-American Court of Human Rights to demand that the State take the following measures:

1. Provide comprehensive reparations—including financial compensation and other measures—for these rights violations
2. Provide any physical and mental healthcare necessary for the rehabilitation of the victims who request it, in agreement with those victims
3. Launch or reopen the relevant criminal investigation and conduct it in a diligent and timely manner, with a view to shedding light on these events and identifying and punishing anyone responsible for them
4. Provide training to authorities and State employees concerning due process, judicial guarantees, and judicial protection in extradition proceedings, in keeping with the applicable international human rights standards

The IACHR is a principal and autonomous body of the Organization of American States (OAS), whose mandate stems from the OAS Charter and the American Convention on Human Rights. The Inter-American Commission has the mandate to promote the observance and defense of human rights in the region and acts as an advisory body to the OAS on the matter. The IACHR is made up of seven independent members who are elected by the OAS General Assembly in their personal capacity, and do not represent their countries of origin or residence.

No. 197/25

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