QUEZALTEPEQUE, El Salvador (AP) — Still professing innocence, a third national guardsman convicted of raping and killing four American churchwomen walked free from prison Wednesday as church leaders worried that the truth in the case might never be known.
In a prison patio surrounded by mango trees, Daniel Canales told reporters that he would help further investigations of the crime. Church leaders worried, however, that it may never be known who ordered the killings.
Despite church fears that the releases mean he and his former fellow guardsmen cannot be compelled to testify more, Canales promised to help reveal who ordered the killings.
Canales said the low-ranking guardsmen who committed the 1980 murders “were executing orders of superiors.”
After the news conference, he went to a parish church in Quezaltepeque, where he gave thanks for his release.
Five national guardsmen were convicted of kidnapping, raping and killing Roman Catholic nuns Ita Ford, Maura Clark and Dorothy Kazel and layworker Jean Donovan on Dec. 2, 1980. The women were suspected of sympathizing with leftist rebels in the 1980-1992 civil war.