28th anniversary of Romero assassination



Today is the 28th anniversary of the slaying of Archbishop Oscar Romero. After 28 years, the murder remains a glaring example of impunity -- the failure to hold those responsible accountable for a heinous crime. It was clear from the beginning that the government had no interest in prosecuting this crime:

In statements made in 1982, Judge Ramírez Amaya--the first of four judges to sit in the case--referred to "premeditated omissions on the part of the officials in charge of justice" aimed at "covering up the assassination from the beginning." The Judge stated, in this regard:

Monsignor Oscar Arnulfo Romero was assassinated the afternoon of Monday, March 24, by one shot. I do not believe that the crime will be resolved under the current circumstances. Above all, I believe that no one will be indicted as a result of the work currently being done.

The Criminal Investigations Section of the National Police intervenes in all cases of violent death, even obvious cases of suicide. They always arrive before the judicial authorities. Nonetheless, in the assassination of Monsignor Romero they arrived almost four days after the crime, and did not provide the court any information or evidence of an investigation into the crime. On the 28th I noted this failure to carry out their obligations as criminal justice officers; I directed these observations to the police experts who came around noon, almost four days after the assassination, to ask whether "they could help with anything." The same happened with the office of the Public Prosecutor of the Republic; the special prosecutor came the 28th, also with instructions to be present in the proceedings. These premeditated omissions on the part of criminal justice officers leaves no doubt that there was some kind of conspiracy to cover up the assassination from the beginning.

From report of the Inter-Amercian Commission of Human Rights, Case no. 11-481, April 13, 2000, para. 89.

Comments

Anonymous said…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcI5XofrTN0&feature=related
Tim said…
I watched the video. Archbishop Romero would never have approved. Read the words on the photo. The founder of ARENA may have ordered his murder, but Romero would still preach the necessity of loving one's enemy as the only path to true change.
Anonymous said…
Tim, thanks for keeping the precious memory alive. I was in Cordoba, Argentina, for the 24th, and I was so, so, so surprised how feeble this conscience or consciousness is. In lands like Argentina and Chile, where their own searing experiences under military dictatorship and oppression in the 70s is still so fresh, there seemed to be little awareness of the plight of El Salvador. In fact, most people I spoke to barely knew what or where El Salvador was. Someone at one point asked me after hearing the name of my country, "And to what country does that territory belong?" Conciousness, my friend, a precious commodity!

-- Polycarpio
Anonymous said…
When is the Vatican letting him become a SAINT?

keep us up to date.
Carlos X. said…
Anonymous 10:26,

As I wrote earlier in my Blog, the formal canonization process will idle until after the Salvadoran election, but, in a broader sense, the canonization of Monseñor Romero makes strides every day. In Church terms, the word "canon" means law, and canonization in this sense means "legalization" or "legitimization." The institutionalization advances every day. Last year, the Pope invoked Romero twice. This year, he called him an example of the "love of God" in El Salvador and Italian Church sources are reporting that the Pope will pay tribute to Romero at a shrine for uncanonized 20th Cent. martyrs on the Tiber River, where Romero holds a central place. This canonization is well under way, and the formal process will probably culminate within the next five years. Msgr. Rosa has already announced that it will be in San Salvador, which means that it's so close that he can see it.

-- Carlos