The miracle necessary for sainthood was provided by a Salvadoran man whose wife had slipped into a coma after giving birth. He prayed to Romero, and his wife survived. At the Vatican, tens of thousands of Catholics were on hand to experience the ritual, among them an estimated five thousand who had travelled from El Salvador.
For the ceremony, the Pope wore the bloodstained cincture that Romero had been wearing when he was killed. Nearly four thousand people were murdered last year, in a nation of six million, but less than ten per cent of the killers have been apprehended. In the capital city of San Salvador, giant video screens were set up in the plaza outside the main cathedral, where Romero is interred, to live stream the canonization ceremony.
As tens of thousands of mourners crowded into the square, army snipers and death-squad gunmen stationed on rooftops opened fire. On the day of the funeral, the poet and writer Miguel Huezo Mixco was on the balcony of the cathedral. I first met him in the mountains, when I was covering the war, in Oscar Romero: a voice for poor communities. Oscar Romero as a young boy.
Study When he was 14 years old, Oscar wanted to be a priest so he went to study at junior seminary. Oscar Romero began training for the priesthood aged The young priest Oscar Romero with his mother.
Ordination Romero was ordained a priest and returned to El Salvador. Bishop Oscar Romero Romero was made a bishop on 21 June. Protest Violence increased in El Salvador by the mid s, as the government and army began killing poor people who stood up for their rights. Oscar Romero celebrating Mass. Fr Rutilio Grande, a close friend of Oscar Romero. Romero broadcast his sermon by radio every Sunday.
Archbishop Oscar Romero. This seeming capitulation to rightists contributes to the political polarization that is spawning unprecedented increases both in death squad activities and in the numbers of previously apolitical peasants who join guerilla groups. March Archbishop Oscar A. Romero is assassinated. The crime further polarizes Salvadoran society and presages the all-out war that will soon come. It also convinces many peasants that the Church cannot save them and that their only hope is armed revolution.
Forty-Two are killed and more than are wounded. May As many as Salvadoran peasants are tortured and murdered by government forces near the Sumpul River. Aug A general strike called by FDR a coalition of center-left parties is violently suppressed, leaving labor organizers dead.
Ignacio Ellacuria receives numerous death threats. Ita Ford, MM, Sr. Maura Clarke, MM, Sr. Hundreds are killed on both sides. Jan The US government restores military aid, which had briefly been suspended due to public outrage stemming from the murders of the churchwomen.
March Salvadoran military stages land and air-based attacks on thousands of displaced peasants trying to flee across the Lempa River to Honduras. An additional refugees, including 44 children, are slaughtered October at the same river. Christian Legal Aid reports that displaced peasants, whose existence embarrasses the government, have become the targets of choice for both the military and the death squads.
Dec: Approximately 1, villagers are massacred by the Salvadoran Army in and around the village of El Mozote. Both the Salvadoran and US governments deny that the massacre occurred, but later admit their attempts to cover it up. Dec: Christian Legal Aid reports 12, confirmed fatalities during The organization cannot even estimate how many thousands of deaths were not reported or could not be proven.
President Reagan certifies that El Salvador is complying with human rights conditions for receiving US aid. March Some 5, peasants are fired upon by military helicopters as they fled from war-torn San Esteban Catarina. March Four Dutch journalists are killed. March A new assembly is elected and the assembly chooses Alvaro Magana as president. May: Military troops kill hundreds of civilians, burn houses, and destroy crops of peasant farmers in the province of Chalatenango.
May The bodies of more than men, women, and children are dumped at Puerta del Diablo, a clandestine site favored by the death squads. Aug CONADES reports there are , internally displaced persons wandering the roads of El Salvador and an additional , - , displaced persons living in exile in other countries. President Duarte strenuously denounces the rightists, holding them responsible for the murders of hundreds of Christian Democrats. Once again, these are only the deaths that could be conclusively confirmed.
In a large-scale action, FMLN occupies Berlin, a city of 35,, for three days, destroying the police and National Guard headquarters. The government responds with a large-scale counter-offensive. Monsignor Rivera y Damas reports that the rebels attack the military and the military attacks civilians. Feb Uniformed soldiers kidnapp, torture, and kill approximately 70 peasants from a cooperative at Las Hojas, Sonsonate.
May Col. Albert Schaufelberger is shot by rebels, becoming the first US military adviser to die in the war. Sept The FMLN attacks army positions in Tenancingo; the military responds with aerial bombings that kill civilians. The Brigada Anticomunista claims responsibility. Nov 1: Gen. Nov: Death squad activities increase sharply in October and November, as they had in May, in an effort to disrupt the continuing, albeit limited, dialogue between the government and the guerillas.
Most of those murdered by death squads were leaders of the political opposition or were trade unionists, educators, journalists, or clergy. Dec 9: Vice President George Bush visits San Salvador and warns that death squads must disappear because they threaten the viability of the government.
He also demands the removal of certain military personnel and security officers who are guilty of human rights violations.
There was a significant, albeit temporary decrease in activities of the squads. Dec A new constitution is approved, after 20 months of debate. It strengthens individual rights, establishes safeguards against excessive detention and unreasonable searches, a pluralistic republican form of government, strengthens the legislative branch, and enhances judicial autonomy. It also codifies the rights of laborers, especially agricultural workers. It is a very impressive document on paper, but there are no provisions to enforce it.
FMLN begins using land mines on a large scale, causing many civilian deaths. Hostage taking and murders of mayors and government officials become frequent. The government continues its policy of aerial bombing, artillery attack, and massive infantry campaigns against civilian populations in an effort to deprive guerillas of all means of survival causes increasing numbers of civilian casualties and displaced persons.
The United Nations reports that , Salvadorans are displaced and homeless and an additional , are in exile abroad. Approximately 4, were killed by the military and 1, were military or security forces. When Duarte takes office on June 1 he becomes the first civilian elected to the presidency in 50 years.
April: Legal Protection reports that death squad activities decreased markedly during the first months of the year, and increased significantly in April.
The meetings fail to make substantial progress due to sharp differences about incorporation of FMLN into the political structure, but each side credits the other with negotiating in good faith. Fascist death squad activity continues, but seems to be directed at government and rebel leaders almost equally. Legal Protection documents murders by death squads in FMLN continues to use land mines. Legal Protection reports 31 deaths; the Human Rights Commission of El Salvador governmental reports 46 killed and injured by mines in For the first time in the s, the military does not commit any large- scale massacres.
However, intensive aerial bombings kill and displace many innocent bystanders. Christian Legal Aid attributes 1, civilian non-combatant deaths to government forces. The year-long military operation fails to drive out the guerilla forces, but it displaces huge numbers of rural people driving them from their homes. The resettlement movement is supported by the Church.
San Salvador. In the bright morning sunlight of March 24 , a car stopped outside the Church of the Divine Providence. A lone gunman stepped out, unhurried. Resting his rifle on the car door, he aimed carefully down the long aisle to where El Salvador's archbishop, Oscar Arnulfo Romero, was saying mass.
A single shot rang out. Romero staggered and fell. The blood pumped from his heart, soaking the little white disks of scattered host. Romero's murder was to become one of the most notorious unsolved crimes of the cold war. The motive was clear. He was the most outspoken voice against the death squad slaughter gathering steam in the US backyard. The ranks of El Salvador's leftwing rebels were being swelled by priests who preached that the poor should seek justice in this world, not wait for the next.
Romero was the "voice of those without voice", telling soldiers not to kill. The US vowed to make punishment of the archbishop's killers a priority. It could hardly do otherwise as President Reagan launched the largest US war effort since Vietnam to defeat the rebels. He needed support in Washington, which meant showing that crimes like shooting archbishops and nuns would not be tolerated. The ordering of the murder was blamed on the bogeyman of the story, a military intelligence officer called Major Roberto D'Aubuisson who had, conveniently for Washington, recently left the army.
In the weeks before the murder, he was repeatedly on television using military intelligence files to denounce "guerrillas". Those he accused were often murdered. Romero was near the top of the list. But US promises to bring justice came to nothing.
With no trigger-man, gun or witnesses, officials claimed lack of evidence. D'Aubuisson went on to become one of El Salvador's most successful politicians before throat cancer killed him at the end of the civil war 12 years later - the revenge of God, many concluded.
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