Letter to President Carter on Aid to Military in El Salvador, February 17, 1980

 Here is the text of the letter written by Archbishop Oscar Romero to then US President Jimmy Carter urging him to cease supporting military and police death squads in El Salvador and to reaffirm his stated commitments to human rights. A month after writing this letter, Oscar Romero was gunned down by agents of the Junta on the 24th of March 1980.

In the last few days, news has appeared in the national press that worries me greatly. According to the reports your government is studying the possibility of economic and military support and assistance to the present junta government.

Because you are a Christian and because you have shown that you want to defend human rights, I venture to set forth for you my pastoral point of view concerning this news and to make a request.

I am very worried by the news that the government of the United States is studying a form of abetting the arming of EI Salvador by sending military teams and advisors to "train three Salvadoran batallions in logistics, communications and intelligence." If this information from the newspapers is correct, the contribution of your government, instead of promoting greater justice and peace in EI Salvador, will without doubt sharpen the injustice and repression against the organizations of the people who repeatedly have been struggling to gain respect for their most fundamental human rights.

The present junta government and above all the armed forces and security forces unfortunately have not demonstrated their capacity to resolve, in political and structural practice, the grave national problems. In general they have only reverted to repressive violence, producing a total of deaths and injuries much greater than in the recent military regimes whose systematic violation of human rights was denounced by the Inter-American Committee on Human Rights.

The brutal form in which the security forces recently attacked and assassinated the occupiers of the headquarters of the Christian Democratic party in spite of what appears to be the lack of authorization for this operation from the junta government and the party is an indication that the junta and the party do not govern the country, but that political power is in the hands of the unscrupulous military who only know how to repress the people and promote the interests of the Salvadoran oligarchy.

"As archbishop of the Archdiocese of San Salvador I have an obligation to see that faith and justice reign in my country, (so) I ask you, if you truly want to defend human rights, to prohibit the giving of this military aid to the Salvadoran government."

If it is true that last November "a group of six Americans were in EI Salvador...providing$200,000 in gasmasks and flak jackets and instructing about their use against demonstrators," you yourself should be informed that it is evident since then that the security forces, with better personal protection and efficiency, have repressed the people even more violently using lethal weapons.

For this reason, given that as a Salvadoran and as archbishop of the Archdiocese of San Salvador I have an obligation to see that faith and justice reign in my country, I ask you, if you truly want to defend human rights, to prohibit the giving of this military aid to the Salvadoran government Guarantee that your government will not intervene directly or indirectly with military, economic, diplomatic or other pressures to determine the destiny of the Salvadoran people.

In these moments we are living through a grave economic and political crisis in our country, but it is certain that it is increasingly the people who are awakening and organizing and have begun to prepare themselves to manage and be responsible for the future of EI Salvador. Only they are capable of overcoming the crisis.

It would be unjust and deplorable if the intrusion of foreign powers were to frustrate the Salvadoran people, were to repress them and block their autonomous decisions about the economic and political path that our country ought to follow. It would violate a right which we Latin American bishops meeting in Puebla publicly recognized when we said: "The legitimate self-determination of our people that permits them to organize according to their own genius and the march of their history and to cooperate in a new international order." I hope that your religious sentiments and your feelings for the defense of human rights will move you to accept my petition, avoiding by this action worse bloodshed in this suffering country.

El Salvador Another Vietnam?

I've discovered a documentary made about 1979-1981 covering the escalating civil war in El Salvador and the growing involvement of the United States military and intelligence services. It covers the Salvadoran economy and society, its poverty, the dominance of a few families, the limited reforms carried out by earlier shaky Junta's etc.

Its an excellent introduction into this period, but because of the nature of the subject it makes for some very grim viewing.

The footage the makers have managed to acquire is extremely shocking and disturbing. The films content includes description of death, torture, mutilation, but they also obtained quite extensive footage of these horrible acts. So I've decided to age restrict the video and put the links at the bottom so you'll have to read this warning first.

Here's just a brief description of some of the more distressing scenes, a number of military police stand over a corpse, one of them takes a rifle and then plants it in the hands of the deceased protestor. Footage of the military raid in June 1980 on the National University, including soldiers firing on two un armed students who are lying down on the floor reciting prayers. One of the students is hit several times and we see him begging for mercy. Several of the interviewees of the documentary including a missionary and members of the Democratic Revolutionary Front were abducted, tortured and murdered before filming finished and the makers included their discovered bodies.

There are also segments dedicated to rebels ambushing soldiers and street battles. Its honestly very haunting, but the makers of the film did an excellent job. Spokespeople for the government have their speeches downplaying violence juxtaposed with shocking brutality. It contains many testimonies from politicians, Christians, rebels, and students.



Video Link https://youtu.be/xh5nobEMuH0

Publication date 1981

This film examines the civil war in El Salvador in light of the Reagan administration's decision to "draw the line" against "Communist interference" in Central America. It offers an overview of U.S. military and economic policy in Central America since 1948, with extensive background to the current crisis. Includes scenes with both government and guerilla forces, and discusses U.S. aid to the Junta. Is this the beginning of a "new Vietnam"? A Blue Ribbon Winner, American Film Festival 1982. Directed by Glen Silber and Tete Vasconellos. 1981

Producers, directors, Glen Silber, Tete Vasconcellos ; editor, Deborah Shaffer ; narration, Claudia Vianello ; narrator, Mike Farrell

Download at https://archive.org/details/elsalvadoranothervietnam/elsalvadoranothervietnamreel2.mov