Salvadorans await justice in civil war killings as one of its first victims sainted

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Guardian


Archbishop Óscar Romero, an advocate for the poor, was one of 75,000 killed by the country’s US-backed military

Anna-Catherine Brigida in San Salvador
Sun 14 Oct 2018 04.00 EDT

When Guadalupe Mejía began searching for her husband – a community leader who had been forcibly disappeared by Salvadoran armed forces in 1977 – it was Óscar Romero who encouraged her to speak out despite the danger.

“Unite and that’s how you’ll be able to find your loved ones,” Mejía, 75, remembers the archbishop of San Salvador telling her and other bereaved women. “He supported us and was always beside us in everything we did.”

Romero earned powerful enemies for speaking out against military death squads and advocating for the rights of the poor – and on 24 March 1980 he was shot dead while celebrating mass, marking the beginning of the country’s 12-year civil war.

But as Salvadorans celebrate his canonization, pride and joy are tempered with anger and pain: 75,000 people were killed during the civil war, the majority at the hands of the US-backed Salvadoran military.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/14/el-salvador-oscar-romero-civil-war-saint-justice

[gopiscrap]

1. Yes death squads trained in the United States

at the School of the America's Fort Benning Georgia

[Judi Lynn]

2. WHO WAS OSCAR ROMERO? POPE CANONIZES LEFT-WING ARCHBISHOP KILLED FOR SUPPORTING DEMOCRACY

WHO WAS OSCAR ROMERO? POPE CANONIZES LEFT-WING ARCHBISHOP KILLED FOR SUPPORTING DEMOCRACY
BY DAN CANCIAN ON 10/14/18 AT 9:04 AM

An archbishop who strongly opposed the military dictatorship in El Salvador has been canonized by Pope Francis on Sunday in Vatican City.

Oscar Romero was shot dead by a sniper while leading mass at the Church of the Divine Providence, a hospital chapel in the country’s capital, San Salvador, on March 24, 1980.

The murder came just a day after Romero had spoken to soldiers, pleading with them to stop the repression that descended into a bloody civil war. His assassination was one of the most shocking developments in the long-running conflict between the U.S.-backed regime, right-wing death squads and left-wing rebels.

Between 1979 and 1992, the Salvadoran Civil War killed almost 75,000 people and saw many Salvadorans fleeing the country. Like many priests, Romero was outspoken in criticizing both sides of the divide, blasting the rebels and the regime for inflicting untold devastation on the country’s most disadvantaged citizens.

More:
https://www.newsweek.com/who-was-oscar-romero-pope-canonizes-left-wing-archbishop-killed-supporting-1168689?piano_t=1