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A federal jury on Tuesday held two former Salvadoran military commanders responsible for atrocities committed by soldiers during that country's civil war, ordering them to pay $54.6 million to three torture victims.

After a monthlong trial during which the victims recalled nightmarish brutality played out in bloodstained prison cells two decades ago, the verdict was greeted with gasps and tears of joy from the victims' supporters packing a West Palm Beach courtroom.

One of the victims, Neris Gonzalez, wept openly; another, Carlos Mauricio, stared at the floor, wiping his eyes as he struggled to keep his emotions in check. Neither the third victim, Juan Romagoza Arce nor the two former military leaders were in the courtroom for the verdict.

"For 23 years since the torture, I've been waiting for justice," said González. "On this day, we've achieved justice."

The seven-woman, three man jury found former Minister of Defense José Guillermo García and former National Guard Director-General Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova civilly liable under the 1992 Torture Victim Protection Act. Under the law, the victims didn't need to prove the military leaders knew the victims were being tortured, but that García and Vides Casanova allowed a culture in which soldiers could commit human rights abuses against civilians with impunity.

Jury foreman Arnie Esbin said the two military leaders clearly knew their soldiers were committing human rights abuses and did nothing to punish them. The jury deliberated for 19 hours over four days.

"The deciding factor was that they were generals in charge of the national guard and generals in charge of the country" said Esbin, 69, of Boynton Beach. "It was a military dictatorship and they chose to do what they wanted to do."

Testimony by García and Vides Casanova that they didn't know their soldiers were committing atrocities was self-serving and not credible, Espin said.

After the verdict, García continued to maintain he did all he could to halt the violence that engulfed the country. He said he's a scapegoat who has been unfairly accused of condoning human rights abuses that he didn't know were happening.

"For me, the correct thing would be to demonstrate who committed these abuses," García said from his Plantation home. "If we don't know who it was who did this, then we can't say exactly where things went wrong."

Vides Casanova, who lives near Daytona Beach, said the decision surprised him and reiterated that he did the best job he could as a military commander during a chaotic time.

RECALLING THE TERROR

González, a former church leader, recounted how she was kidnapped in 1979 and taken to a National Guard station where she was tortured and raped for two weeks before being discarded for dead.

Eight months pregnant at the time, she said she was taken to a room marked El Matadero -- The Slaughterhouse -- that was littered with body parts and dried blood. The soldiers tortured, mutilated and killed other prisoners before her eyes, she said, and used a variety of torture techniques on her, including electric shocks.

González said the guardsmen would put a metal bed on her abdomen and see-saw it up and down. Her baby died shortly afterbirth, she said. González, now 46, works for an environmental group in Chicago.

Romagoza was a young doctor working at a makeshift clinic for the poor in December 1980 when soldiers pulled up and opened fire with machine guns. Shot in the foot, he said he was taken to El Salvador's National Guard headquarters where he was tortured for more than three weeks.

During that time, taunting soldiers shot him in his left arm and mutilated his hands so he could never be a surgeon again. He said Vides Casanova watched as one of Romagoza's military-connected uncles got him released and carried his 80-pound frame away from the secret interrogation rooms.

Romagoza now runs a health clinic for the poor in Washington, D.C. He was on a plane flying to South Florida when the verdict was announced and could not be reached for comment on Tuesday afternoon.

Mauricio, now 50, was a professor when he was snatched from the streets in June 1983 and shuttled to a secret chamber where he was tortured for eight days. He recalled the buzzing noises of the cattle prods used to shock the prisoners, whose constant wails were inescapable.

Mauricio now is an inner-city high school teacher in San Francisco.

The jury found the two former military leaders should pay $21.5 million in damages to González and $20 million to Romagoza.

Vides Casanova was ordered to pay $13.1 million to Mauricio. When the teacher was tortured, García had already left office and Vides Casanova had become minister of defense, a post he held until 1989.

'WE UNDERSTOOD'

Flanked by her daughter and 9-year-old grandson, she hugged Esbin outside the courthouse and thanked him for the verdict.

"We gave you what we think you deserved," Esbin told González. "We understood what you said and what came out. I'm happy you feel that justice was served."

The torture victims' lawsuit was initiated by the nonprofit Center for Justice and Accountability, a San Francisco-based organization dedicated to stopping human rights abusers from entering the country. The group filed a lawsuit last week on behalf of six alleged torture victims against a former Honduran military leader who has lived in the United States for ! more than a decade.

Beth Van Schaack, one of the lead attorneys for the Salvadoran torture victims, said she hopes Tuesday's verdict satisfies their yearning for justice.

"This verdict is a message to victims everywhere," she said. "You must never give up. It will take blood. It will take sweat. It will take tears. But justice will be done, and justice can't be squelched even if it takes 20 years."

Staff Writers Nancy Othan, Stella M. Chávez and Leon Fooksman and the Orlando Sentinel contributed to this report. Jon Burstein can be reached at jburstein@sunsentinel.com or 561-832-2895.

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