Thursday Oct. 25th, 2018
Amy Goodman



A painting of St Oscar Romero at the Cathedral of San Salvador (Getty)

On Sunday, Pope Francis sainted Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero. The pope was wearing Romero's bloodstained rope belt, the one Romero wore when he was assassinated on March 24, 1980. The day before he was killed, the archbishop gave a sermon that commanded El Salvador's soldiers to disobey the orders of their superiors:

"I would like to make a special appeal to the men of the army, and specifically to the ranks of the National Guard, the police and the military. Brothers, you come from our own people. You are killing your own brother peasants when any human order to kill must be subordinate to the law of God which says, 'Thou shalt not kill.'" He went on, "In the name of God, in the name of this suffering people whose cries rise to heaven more loudly each day, I implore you, I beg you, I order you in the name of God: Stop the repression."

Matt Eisenbrandt, human-rights lawyer and the author of "Assassination of a Saint: The Plot to Murder Oscar Romero and the Quest to Bring His Killers to Justice," described that sermon on the "Democracy Now!" news hour: "You can hear on the audiotapes of the radio broadcast the way that that applause built as he led up to that line saying, 'Stop the repression.' That then echoed throughout the radios around the country into every corner of El Salvador."

A day later, at a hospital chapel, a gunman shot Romero once in the heart, killing him.
Archbishop Oscar Romero gave that sermon as the U.S.-backed military violence against civilians that ravaged Central America in the 1980s and early 1990s was growing in intensity and brutality. Death squads allied with the right-wing Salvadoran junta dumped bodies on city streets nightly. Romero's assassination shocked the world and helped galvanize a global solidarity movement.

In 1980, one year after the revolutionary Sandinistas overthrew the U.S.-backed dictator in nearby Nicaragua, the Pentagon and the CIA intensified clandestine support for violent right-wing governments, arming and training their militaries and paramilitaries. Sadly, with the support of President Ronald Reagan, a reign of terror and mass slaughter swept the region, from Guatemala to Honduras to El Salvador, with hundreds of thousands of civilians tortured and killed, and countless villages razed.

More:
https://duluthreader.com/articles/2018/10/26/111626-the-final-sermon-of-st-oscar-romero-resonates

Violence at the funeral of Archbishop Romero

AP Archive
Nov 16, 2016
(30 Mar 1980) STORY

San Ssalvador. cathedral & crowd gathered in the plaza, Romero's coffin on the steps of cathedral as violence erupts, the crowd panicks, people lying down, explosions, people running for cover injured trying to get to safety, dead lying on the ground, youth w / gun & aiming. dead people on the ground, people rounded up & taken away, wounded in hospital & var shots of hysterical people, firemen near burning bldg burning cars, woman crying & walking away w / child.

I highly recommend it if you're interested in Romero, or if you like Raul Julia.

(4:01)

I remember hearing learning Raul Julia's last film was this one. Had seen articles before the film was made concerning how much it meant to him that he had been chosen for this role.

Thank you for sharing the trailer.

May they both rest in peace.

On edit:

Just finished watching the trailer, Mr. Julia was deeply involved in his work on it, wasn't he? Wonderful. Tears in my eyes before the trailer ended.

Had to run immediately to Google to see if there was any chance at all the film is available online. So glad to find it on YouTube, free even!

After such a strong reaction to the trailer, I know seeing the whole film tonight would completely flatten me!

I need total quiet and peace in order to watch this film right away, when everything is really calm.

It's so very hard knowing so much of this is still happening using different charges and accusations against the suffering poor and helpless who are so desperate to find shelter from the predators.

Here's the FREE LOOK at the film ONLINE for anyone who missed it, also:

Dozens of poor El Salvadorans were killed during the bishop’s funeral thirty five years ago.

Greg Grandin


Yesterday, March 24, was the thirty-fifth anniversary of the 1980 execution of Salvadoran Bishop Oscar Romero by CIA-backed and funded assassins. The details of Romero, recently declared a martyr by Pope Francis, are well known: shot in the heart while saying mass, his blood spilled over the altar and, some say, into the communion wine, soaking the bits of white sacramental bread on the floor. His murder took place the day after he urged Salvadoran soldiers to disobey their superiors:

Brothers, you come from our own people. You are killing your own brother peasants when any human order to kill must be subordinate to the law of God which says ‘Thou shalt not kill’. No soldier is obliged to obey an order contrary to the law of God. No one has to obey an immoral law. It is high time you recovered your consciences and obeyed your consciences rather than a sinful order. The church, the defender of the rights of God, of human dignity, of the person, cannot remain silent before such an abomination…. In the name of God, in the name of this suffering people whose cries rise to heaven more loudly each day, I implore you, I beg you, I order you in the name of God: stop the repression.

The repression, of course, didn’t stop. Ronald Reagan, soon to enter the White House, and then George HW Bush, would spend nearly $2 million a day to keep it going for more than a decade, claiming many tens of thousands of lives.

Romero’s sacrifice is well known, his name soon to be inscribed in the Book of Saints. Less remembered is that between thirty and thirty-five poor Salvadorans, largely anonymous, at least as far as public recognition is concerned, were killed at his funeral, which took place on March 30. Here’s a video of the chaos outside San Salvador’s cathedral. And here’s a description from Father James Connor, who was helping to celebrate Romero’s funeral mass inside.
The repression, of course, didn’t stop. Ronald Reagan, soon to enter the White House, and then George HW Bush, would spend nearly $2 million a day to keep it going for more than a decade, claiming many tens of thousands of lives.

Romero’s sacrifice is well known, his name soon to be inscribed in the Book of Saints. Less remembered is that between thirty and thirty-five poor Salvadorans, largely anonymous, at least as far as public recognition is concerned, were killed at his funeral, which took place on March 30. Here’s a video of the chaos outside San Salvador’s cathedral. And here’s a description from Father James Connor, who was helping to celebrate Romero’s funeral mass inside.

The funeral ceremonies started calmly on a beautiful, but hot day. A procession of some thirty bishops (from England, Ireland, Spain, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela, Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Panama, Costa Rica and the United States) and more than 200 priests wound its way through eight or ten blocks of the city from the church where we had vested to the cathedral. Hundreds of people lined the sidewalks, many of them listening to a radio broadcast of the event on their transistor radios. We had been assured that the day would be peaceful and free of “events.” The Popular Front, including the far left, had covenanted to observe nonviolence in honor of the archbishop, and it seemed unthinkable that the hard-line right would desecrate this moment unless first provoked.

More:
https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/remembering-those-murdered-oscar-romeros-funeral/

March 23, 1980

Let no one be offended because we use the Divine words read at our mass to shed light on the social, political and economic situation of our people. Not to do so would be un-Christian. Christ desires to unite himself with humanity, so that the light he brings from God might become life for nations and individuals.

I know many are shocked by this preaching and want to accuse us of forsaking the Gospel for Politics. But I reject this accusation. I am trying to bring to life the message of the Second Vatican Council and the meetings at Medellin and Puebla. The documents from these meetings should not just be studied theoretically. They should be brought to life and translated into the real struggle to preach the Gospel as it should be for our people. Each week I go about the country listening to the cries of the people, their pain from so much crime, and the ignominy of so much violence. Each week I ask the Lord to give me the right words to console, to denounce, to call for repentance. And even though I may be a voice crying in the desert, I know that the church is making the effort to fulfill its mission….

Every country lives its own “Exodus”; today El Salvador is living its own Exodus. Today we are passing to our liberation through a desert strewn with bodies and where anguish and pain are devastating us. Many suffer the temptation of those who walked with Moses and wanted to turn back and did not work together. It is the same old story. God, however, wants to save the people by making a new history….

History will not fail; God sustains it. That is why I say that insofar as historical projects attempt to reflect the eternal plan of God, to that extent they reflect the kingdom of God. This attempt is the work of the Church. Because of this, the Church, the people of God in history, is not attached to any one social system, to any political organization, to any party. The Church does not identify herself with any of those forces because she is the eternal pilgrim of history and is indicating at every historical moment what reflects the Kingdom of God and what does not reflect the Kingdom of God. She is the servant of the Kingdom of God.

. . .

Amnesty International issued a press release in which it described the repression of the peasants, especially in the area of Chalatenango. The week’s events confirm this report in spite of the fact the government denies it. As I entered the church, I was given a cable that says, “Amnesty International confirmed today [that was yesterday] that in El Salvador human rights are violated to extremes that have not been seen in other countries.” That is what Patricio Fuentes (spokesman for the urgent action section for Central America in Swedish Amnesty International) said at a press conference in Managua, Nicaragua.

Fuentes confirmed that, during two weeks of investigations he carried out in El Salvador, he was able to establish that there had been eighty-three political assassinations between 10 and 14 March. He pointed out that Amnesty International recently condemned the government of El Salvador, alleging that it was responsible for six hundred political assassinations. The Salvadorean government defended itself against the charges, arguing that Amnesty International based its condemnation on unproved assumptions.

Fuentes said that Amnesty had established that in El Salvador human rights are violated to a worse degree than the repression in Chile after the coupe d’etat. The Salvadorian government also said that the six hundred dead were the result of armed confrontations between army troops and guerrillas. Fuentes said that during his stay in El Salvador, he could see that the victims had been tortured before their deaths and mutilated afterward.

The spokesman of Amnesty International said that the victims’ bodies characteristically appeared with the thumbs tied behind their backs. Corrosive liquids had been applied to the corpses to prevent identification of the victims by their relatives and to prevent international condemnation, the spokesman added. Nevertheless, the bodies were exhumed and the dead have been identified. Fuentes said that the repression carried out by the Salvadorian army was aimed at breaking the popular organizations through the assassination of their leaders in both town and country.

More:
https://camdencivilrightsproject.com/2015/11/22/the-last-sermon-of-archbishop-oscar-romero/

from Wikipedia:


United States
Public reaction

The United States public's reaction
Archbishop Romero's death was symbolized through the "martyrdom of Romero" as an inspiration to end US military aid to El Salvador. In December 1980 the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union refused to deliver military equipment destined for the Salvadoran government. The leader of the union, Jim Herman, was known as a supporter of Romero and denounced his death.[68] On 24 March 1984 a protest was held in Los Angeles, California where around 3,000 people, organized by 20 November Coalition, protested US intervention in El Salvador, using the anniversary of the Archbishop's death and his face as a symbol.[69] On 24 March 1990, 10,000 people marched in front of the White House to denounce the military aid that was still flowing from the United States to the Salvadoran government. Protestors carried a bust of the archbishop and quoted some of his speeches, in addition to the event being held on the anniversary of his death. Noted figures Ed Asner and Jennifer Casolo participated in the event.[70]

Government response
On 25 March 1980, US Secretary of State Cyrus Vance revealed that the White House would continue to fund the Salvadoran government and provide it military aid, in spite of the pleas of Romero and his death immediately prior to this announcement.[71] On 31 March 1983, Roberto D'Aubuisson was allowed entry to the United States by the State Department after deeming him not barred from entry any longer. When asked about D'Aubuisson's association with the assassination of Romero, the Department of State responded that "the allegations have not been substantiated."[72] In November 1993, documents by the Department of State, Department of Defense, and the Central Intelligence Agency were released after pressure by Congress increased. The 12,000 documents revealed that the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush knew of the assassinations conducted by D'Aubuisson, including that of Romero, yet still worked with him despite this.[73]

Investigations into the assassination
No one has ever been prosecuted for the assassination or confessed to it to police. Immediately following the assassination, José Napoleón Duarte, the newly appointed foreign minister of El Salvador, actively promulgated a "blame on both sides" propaganda trope in order to provide cover for the lack of official inquiry into the assassination plot.[74]

Subsequent investigations by the United Nations and other international bodies have established that the four assassins were members of a death squad led by D'Aubuisson.[75] Revelations of the D'Aubuisson plot came to light in 1984 when US ambassador Robert White testified before the United States Congress that "there was sufficient evidence" to convict D'Aubuisson of planning and ordering Romero's assassination.[76] In 1993, an official United Nations report identified D'Aubuisson as the man who ordered the killing.[60] D'Aubuisson had strong connections to the Nicaraguan National Guard and to its offshoot the Fifteenth of September Legion[77] and had also planned to overthrow the government in a coup. Later, he founded the political party Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) and organized death squads that systematically carried out politically motivated assassinations and other human rights abuses in El Salvador. Álvaro Rafael Saravia, a former captain in the Salvadoran Air Force, was chief of security for D'Aubuisson and an active member of these death squads. In 2003 a United States human rights organization, the Center for Justice and Accountability, filed a civil action against Saravia. In 2004, he was found liable by a US District Court under the Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA) (28 U.S.C. § 1350) for aiding, conspiring, and participating in the assassination of Romero. Saravia was ordered to pay $10 million for extrajudicial killing and crimes against humanity pursuant to the ATCA;[78] he has since gone into hiding.[79] On 24 March 2010–the thirtieth anniversary of Romero's death–Salvadoran President Mauricio Funes offered an official state apology for Romero's assassination. Speaking before Romero's family, representatives of the Catholic Church, diplomats, and government officials, Funes said those involved in the assassination "unfortunately acted with the protection, collaboration, or participation of state agents."[80]

A 2000 article by Tom Gibb, then a correspondent with The Guardian and later with the BBC, attributes the murder to a detective of the Salvadoran National Police named Óscar Pérez Linares, acting on the orders of D'Aubuisson. The article cites an anonymous former death squad member who claimed he had been assigned to guard a house in San Salvador used by a unit of three counter-guerrilla operatives directed by D'Aubuisson. The guard, whom Gibb identified as "Jorge," purported to have witnessed Linares fraternizing with the group, which was nicknamed the "Little Angels," and to have heard them praise Linares for the killing. The article furthermore attributes full knowledge of the assassination to the CIA as far back as 1983.[81][75] The article reports that both Linares and the Little Angels commander, who Jorge identified as "El Negro Mario," were killed by a CIA-trained Salvadoran special police unit in 1986; the unit had been assigned to investigate the murders. In 1983, U.S. Lt. Col. Oliver North, an aide to then-Vice President George H.W. Bush, is alleged to have personally requested the Salvadoran military to "remove" Linares and several others from their service. Three years later they were pursued and extrajudicially killed – Linares after being found in neighbouring Guatemala. The article cites another source in the Salvadoran military as saying "they knew far too much to live".[82]

In a 2010 article for the Salvadoran online newspaper El Faro,[83] Saravia was interviewed from a mountain hideout.[83] He named D'Aubuisson as giving the assassination order to him over the phone,[83][84] and said that he and his cohorts drove the assassin to the chapel and paid him 1,000 Salvadoran colónes after the event.[83]

In April 2017, however, in the wake of the overruling of a civil war amnesty law the previous year, a judge in El Salvador, Rigoberto Chicas, allowed the case against the escaped Saravia's alleged role in the murder of Romero to be reopened. On 23 October 2018, days after Romero's canonization, Judge Chicas issued a new arrest warrant for him, and Interpol and the National Police are charged with finding his hideout and apprehending him.[85][86] As both D'Aubuisson and Linares had already died, they could not be prosecuted.

More:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%93scar_Romero

~ ~ ~

The death squad leader considered the "mastermind" of the assassination, and a million other monstrous crimes against humanity. You might find his entire Wikipedia worth scanning. One of his nicknames was "Blowtorch Bob" which appealed to him due to his affection for using blowtorches during torture sessions with political prisoners.

His son, living today, same name, is a very active right-wing politician in El Salvador, apparently very popular with the country's right-wing, not shunned at all because of Blowtorch Bob.

Here's his Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roberto_Jos%C3%A9_d%27Aubuisson_Mungu%C3%ADa

Here is "Blowtorch Bob's" Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roberto_D%27Aubuisson








Roberto D'Aubuisson