Romero

This afternoon I visited 2 museums commemorating Oscar Romero, the renowned archbishop of this country who was killed in 1980 for his defense of the rights of the poor, and the 6 Jesuit priests and 2 assistants who were massacred by the army at the Universidad Centroamericana in 1989. Both of the museums were on the sites where the killings occurred (Romero was gunned down while performing mass at the church on the grounds of the hospital where he lived). Those events felt especially real and haunting at the university after I was shown some very graphic photos of the murdered and mutilated bodies in the living quarters I had just visited. The army responsible for these killings and for other massacres of entire villages of up to 1000 people - men, women and children - was secretly backed by the US government. In fact, several officials indicted in the "Iran Contra Affair" were subsequently appointed to high-ranking positions by the current administration, but few people in our country have learned about this.

written by  cjones on August 21, 2008 from San Salvador, El Salvador
from the travel blog: so-journ
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