Published at: 26/03/2025 08:00 PM

(The National March 25, 1980)

• In the middle of mass, on March 24, 1980, Saint Oscar Arnulfo Romero was killed by a sniper. His murder was carried out by a member of the Death Squads. This was a group organized and led by the military Roberto D'Aubisson of the Salvadoran ultra-right party ARENA (Nationalist Revolutionary Action).
• Before his assassination, other priests, nuns and catechists had already been killed “because their work with the poor “bothered”. Since they could not censor the continuing allegations of government repression, they chose to assassinate them.
• This occurred during the Reagan era. The CIA, in combination with Christian Democracy, financed operations of this type throughout Central America.
• During the funerals of Monsignor Romero, there were 40 dead and 200 injured. Just as the Gospels were read, gunshots and explosions erupted around the cathedral, causing a human avalanche against the cathedral's fences and many fleeing were crushed or stabbed to death.
• Nine months later, four young missionaries from the Maryknoll Congregation, who stood guard of honor before Romero's coffin, were tortured, raped and massacred by these same Roberto D'Aubisson squads.
• The organization and funding of the Death Squads in El Salvador had the direct support of the Venezuelan Ambassador to that country, Leopoldo Castillo, and his right hand in coordinating these activities was the second on board that diplomatic headquarters, Edmundo González.
• In 1989, in this line of massacres against priests and nuns committed to Liberation Theology and the option for the poor, six Jesuit priests were murdered in El Salvador together with their two assistants. All strongholds of a church of the people, pacifist and committed to the under-resourced sectors of Latin America.

Mazo News Team