Archbishop Oscar Romero Is a True Salvadoran Patriot
Archbishop Oscar Romero Is a True Salvadoran Patriot
Monday, 01 June 2015 00:00
By Jimmy Franco Sr., Latino POV | Op-Ed
A ceremony attended by 300,000 people was held on May 23, in the city of San Salvador to honor and celebrate the beatification of El Salvador's deceased Archbishop Oscar Romero. Supportive commemorations were also held in Los Angeles and other cities. Pope Francis made the decision to beatify Romero which is a step before sainthood after designating him as a martyr who gave his life in 1980 for the cause of social justice. Prior to his death, the Archbishop had assisted poor communities in El Salvador in order to improve their lives and had been a public and outspoken critic of the brutal Salvadoran military. He had demanded that the army halt the widespread violence and killings being committed against innocent people who were merely attempting to exercise their basic rights. Monsignor Romero wrote a personal letter to President Jimmy Carter in early 1980 pleading with him to end US financial and military support of the Salvadoran armed forces due to its violence and human rights violations being inflicted upon civilians who merely wanted democracy. Carter never directly answered theArchbishop's letter and Romero was murdered shortly after by a member of a right-wing death squad who shot him through the heart as he gave mass in a cathedral. Days after at Romero's funeral service, Salvadoran soldiers opened deadly fire on the huge crowd that came to pay their respects to the martyred Archbishop. The murders by the government of many other Catholic church members were to follow as their peaceful activities to help the poor and pronouncements for an end to the violence had them branded as enemies by the military and their US trainers. These anti-democratic actions by theSalvadoran military and their allied death squads would lead to a violent and deadly 12-year long civil war which tore apart the country's social fabric. Presidents Carter and particularly Reagan openly supported, financed, armed and trained El Salvador's military and its death squads throughout the long war.
The background of the brutal 1980's Salvadoran civil war
The civil war in El Salvador was caused by the repressive Salvadoran government that used violence to block fair elections and the democratic participation of the Salvadoran People and their chosen political parties. Peaceful gatherings were regularly attacked with deadly force as a brutal message was being conveyed by the military government to the civilian population that they should accept injustice and stay in their place. The majority of the people as well as many representatives of the church refused to do so as peaceful protests and public outcries continued to demand that the government respect human rights and cease their attacks upon civilians. These democratic aspirations were met by more violence and deaths on the part of the military. Leaving no other available option, the opposition groups coalesced into the FMLN (Frente Farabundo Marti de Liberacion Nacional) to oppose the US supported military government and civil war broke out. Both Presidents Carter and Reagan praised the repressive right-wing Salvadoran government as a "democratic" ally which opposed the Soviet Union and therefore needed to be given substantial economic and military assistance to crush their 'subversive' critics and opposition. Even the US Ambassador to El Salvador Robert White denounced the human rights abuses being perpetrated upon the population by the military and government supported death squads and for his honesty was removed from his post by Reagan who wanted him silenced. Soon, the dumps on the outskirts of San Salvador became periodically littered with bodies of students and others targeted for death for attempting to exercise their rights. This was followed by the kidnapping, rape and murder of four US churchwomen in El Salvador by government soldiers which was meant as a warning to the religious community to stop their peaceful activities which aided the poor. In 1989, six Jesuit priests at a Salvadoran university who espoused social justice in their teachings were also murdered by government soldiers who also killed their housekeeper and her daughter in order to eliminate any witnesses. In all, over 75,000 people died in 12 years at the hands of the armed forces who were armed and financed by President Reagan and trained at the US 'School of the Americas' at Fort Benning Georgia. During this time, Reagan also supported the repressive military of Guatemala who killed thousands and the brutal Contras rebel group in Nicaragua. This period in history was not a proud episode in US-Central American relations.
More:
http://www.truth-out.org/speakout/item/31105-archbishop-oscar-romero-is-a-true-salvadoran-patriot
