20th Anniversary of the Murder of Archbishop Oscar Romero

"I must tell you, as a Christian, I do not believe in death without resurrection.
If I am killed, I shall arise in the Salvadoran people."

(Oscar Romero)

On March 24, 1980 at 6:25 PM, Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador was celebrating mass in the chapel of the hospital in which he lived, when a shot from the back of the church struck him in the chest, killing him instantly. Romero died; but his words, his deeds, and his actions on behalf of the poor in El Salvador continue to vibrate with passion.

In 1977, when Romero was appointed Archbishop, El Salvador—like so many Latin American countries—was ruled by a military junta that was accountable to no one. Citizens were powerless against the junta’s tyranny and oppression. In a country ravaged by poverty and injustice, Archbishop Romero became a beacon of hope, and the voice and conscience of El Salvador, and the junta’s opponents.

When he was first appointed archbishop, Romero was considered a moderate—and even, by some, a social conservative. But when his close friend Father Rutillo Grande, a Jesuit priest, was murdered by members of a military death squad, Romero began denouncing the oppression of the junta and the ruling oligarchy. As more and more people disappeared or were found murdered, the church in El Salvador began documenting the government’s abuse of human rights. In 1979, Archbishop Romero visited the Pope and presented him with seven dossiers filled with reports about injustices in El Salvador.

Archbishop Romero renewed his commitment to the defenseless as the injustices and the war on the civilian population escalated. Working for peace in El Salvador, he nevertheless continued to denounce the junta’s tyranny and the assassinations and atrocities carried out by its death squads.

Romero’s outspokenness angered the military junta and created a growing concern within conservative church circles. The ruling oligarchy in El Salvador considered the Archbishop to be dangerous and subversive. His assassination ignited the hearts of the opposition and strengthened their determination to rid El Salvador of the junta. The country’s exhausting civil war came to a formal end, only on December 31, 1992. At the present time, the current government in El Salvador has not brought to justice the junta leaders who plotted and implemented the murder of Archbishop Romero.

According to the 1993 UN Truth Commission, at least 75,000 people were killed during El Salvador’s Civil War: The Commission also disclosed that it was Major Roberto D’Aubuisson, the junta’s leader, who had ordered Romero’s assassination. The Commission indicted three other people for their active participation: Fernando Sagrera, Army Captain Eduardo Avila, and former Army Captain Alvaro Saravia.

From among the 60 other officers accused of the worst atrocities, 40 were graduates of the School of the Americas (SOA), operated by the U.S. Army and located at Fort Benning in Columbus, GA. (The SOA is the Army’s Spanish-language training facility for Latin American military personnel. Its annual operating budget—paid for by U.S. taxpayers—is $ 4 million.) Graduates of the SOA include such notorious individuals as Manuel Noriega, ex-Panamanian dictator and international drug dealer; Hugo Banzer, former Bolivian dictator; and 10 of the 12 Salvadoran officials responsible for the El Mozote massacre on December 11, 1981, which left almost one thousand peasants dead. The commander of the Atlacatl Battalion responsible for the slaughter, Lieutenant Colonel Domingo Monterrosa, was also trained at SOA (at that time located in Panama).

Over the past 10 years, efforts have been underway by peace activists, church leaders, and human rights advocates to close down the infamous School of the Americas. Prominent among the organizers is a Maryknoll priest named Father Roy Bourgeois, who has spent the better part of the last six years in prison for acts of civil disobedience.

Viktoria Hertling