[2] In 1984, four national guardsmen who had once served under Vides Casanova's command – Daniel Canales Ramírez, Carlos Joaquín Contreras Palacios, Francisco Orlando Contreras Recinos and José Roberto Moreno Canjura – were convicted of murdering four American nuns and were sentenced to 30 years in prison.

[3] Some were then released from prison after detailing how Vides and his cousin Col. Óscar Edgardo Casanova Vejar, the local military commander in Zacatecoluca, had planned and orchestrated the executions of the nuns.

[5] Following his retirement, General Vides left El Salvador and moved to Florida in 1989 as a legal permanent resident and lived in Palm Coast.

Vides Casanova was sued in the federal civil court of Miami, Florida in the United States in two precedent-setting cases.

The cases are referred to by the surname of his co-defendant, José Guillermo García: On 6 October 2009 the United States Department of Homeland Security announced that it had initiated deportation proceedings against General Vides Casanova for assisting in the torture of Salvadoran civilians.