IE 11 is not supported. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser.

ICE Deports General Linked to El Salvador Human Rights Abuses

Immigration and Customs Enforcement has deported former El Salvador defense minister from the U.S. for his role in human rights abuses several decades ago.
Human rights activists and relatives of
Human rights activists and relatives of people disappeared during the civil war protest in San Salvador, on Aug. 17, 2011 demanding the extradition to Spain of nine retired military officers who are in jail after they surrendered to the military justice. Spanish judge Eloy Velasco ordered on May 30 the arrest of twenty former members of the Salvadorean Army for their alleged participation in the murder of six Jesuit priests and two female assistants on Nov. 15, 1989 during the civil war.AFP - Getty Images file

MIAMI — Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a part of the Department of Homeland Security, has deported former El Salvador defense minister from the U.S. for his role in human rights abuses several decades ago.

ICE spokesman Nestor Yglesias said Friday former Gen. Jose Guillermo Garcia-Merino was flown on a charter plane from the U.S. to San Salvador, El Salvador. Garcia-Merino was arrested last month in Florida.

The removal of the 82-year-old Garcia-Merino came after an immigration appeals panel on Dec. 8 upheld a previous 2014 deportation order. An immigration judge then found Garcia-Merino assisted or participated in numerous acts of torture and extrajudicial killings in El Salvador while he was in command.

Garcia-Merino was El Salvador defense minister from 1979 to 1983 during a civil war that killed an estimated 70,000 civilians.

Follow NBC News Latino on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.