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Essays Stories of Civil War in El Salvador
Essays Stories of Civil War in El Salvador
Conflict in el salvador essay
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Calvin Gousman Per. 3 / Theology 3H On November 16, 1989 in El Salvador, six Jesuit Priests and scholars along with their housekeeper and her daughter were murdered. This took place during the Salvadoran Civil War at the campus of the University of Central America. Armed men stormed their place of residency and took them down. This massacre was caused because of the opposition from El Salvadoran political forces to the duties and commitment of the Jesuits. The murder of these people marked a great turn in the El Salvadoran civil War. In 1979, the Revolutionary Government ruled El Salvador. Soon after political violence started to erupt quickly and it became a civil war. Adding to the violence was the Salvador Armed Forces. They took part in …show more content…
The Atlacatl were an elite unit of the Salvadoran Army. They were a response force started in 1980 who were involved in some of the most infamous events of the Salvadoran Civil War. The unit was named after Atlacatl, a person in Salvadoran history known for his defiance to the Spanish conquest in Central America. “The Pastoral Center of Central American University in San Salvador was considered a ‘refuge of subversives’ by the Army. Colonel Juan Orlando Zepeda, accused the University of being the center of operations for ‘FMLN terrorists’”. Colonel Inocente Montano, who was the Vice-Minister for Public Security, stated publicly that the Jesuits were "fully identified with subversive movements". When trying to negotiate a peaceful outcome to the problem, Father Ellacuria played a major role. Many of the armed forces thought that the Jesuit priests worked with the rebels, because of their worry for the Salvadorans who were poor and affected by the war. On the evening of November 15, Colonel Guillermo Moreno met with some officers that he commanded to let them know that the General thought the rebel was "critical". He believed it needed to be dealt with full force, including weapons and armored vehicles. He also said that all "known subversive elements" were to be eradicated. He was commanded to take out Father Ellacuria, leaving no …show more content…
Lieutenant Espinoza commanded them to keep a look out while the rest entered the Jesuit's residence. The military officers tried to force their way into the building, until the priests opened the doors, allowing them to pass. Then they ordered the priests to lie down in the back garden face down while the soldiers searched their residence. After lieutenant Guerra gave the signal to execute the holy men, Fathers Martín-Baró, Ellacuria, and Montes were shot and killed by private Grimaldi, while Fathers Moreno and López were assassinated by Sergeant Antonio Vargas. Afterwards, the officers found Father Joaquín López in the residence and killed him as well. Sergeant Tomás Zarpate Castillo also shot the housekeeper, Julia Elva Ramos, and her young daughter, Celina Ramos. Private José Ascencio then shot them again to "finish them
The people who had the power were the Marxism government, the National Guard of El Salvador and the wealthy people in El Salvador. Since his main purpose being an Archbishop of San Salvador was to take care of anyone who needs it his help, also give the Salvadorians the faith and the believe that they needed. During February of 1977, the people who had the power was many of the Salvadorians were protesting against the government because they wanted “A true election, a free elect...
Hilton, Ronald. “MEXICO: The Murder of Cardinal Juan Jesus Posadas Ocampo (1993).” Webmaster. N.p., 6 June 2003. Web. 15 April 2014.
The first perspective to be noted would be that of Rodrigo Mendoza. His character is played by Robert De Niro. Rodrigo Mendoza ultimately decides to fight for the people. He believes this is the best way to accomplish God's purpose, by fighting with and for the people. In the beginning, Mendoza would capture the Guarani Indians and sell them into plantation slavery. After killing his brother Felipe, his penance is to work in the Jesuit missions in South America. He becomes a Jesuit priest. While working there, he befriends the Guarani people, the same people he once captured. Father Altamirano representing the Vatican was sent to South America to close down the missions. On learning this new information, Rodrigo Mendoza becomes angry and decides to renounce his vows as a priest to Father Gabriel. Father Gabriel encourages him that violence was not the answer but it was ultimately...
Beginning in the late 1970s Liberation Theology, Marxism, and U.S. Cold War policy collided in El Salvador culminating in a civil war that lasted over a decade and ultimately produced democratic political institutions that persist into the 21st century. Despite the prejudices against the church on behalf of government and media organizations in the U.S. and El Salvador, religious actors fought for human rights and the implementation of democratic institutions throughout the period of conflict. The Salvadoran Civil War, which occurred in the context of the Cold War, was one of the bloodiest and longest events in the history of Latin America after the Guatemalan Civil War. The conflict lasted from 1979 to 1992, left approximately 75,000 people dead, and a country in ashes. The conflict started after the fraudulent elections of the Coronel Arturo Armando Molina (1972), who focused his term on repressing the communist political parties that wanted to work for a social reform. This aroused the anger of the popular sectors, which started to organize groups and demonstrations demanding fair election and improvement of social conditions. The government responded to their demands with savage violence, focusing primarily on the oppression of campesinos because they were the ones who supported the revolutionary leftist forces. These actions alienated the Salvadoran population even more and caused many people in the Catholic Church to start denouncing the government’s actions. Thus, as the Civil War started to rise, the church started to radicalize and to and spoke up against the government’s actions. One of its most fervent advocates was Monsignor Oscar Arnulfo Romero, who during his short time as the Archbishop of San Salvador manifested hi...
The Contra War consisted of many parties, although primarily included the Contras, the Sandinistas or FSLN, and the United States Government. The Nicaraguan Revolution spanned from 1970 to 1990, while the Contra War in which the Contras rebelled against the Sandinistas occurred from 1979 to 1990. The Contras rebelled with the support of the United States against the Sandinistas who recently obtained power in Nicaragua. The current state of tension created by the Cold War, having to do with Communist and Democratic disputes, set the stage for the conflict. The Contra War was a highly controversial period of conflict in Nicaraguan history that comprised of many clashing perspectives. The major parties involved in the war included the United States Government that supported the rebelling Contras and strongly opposed the Sandinista authority in Nicaragua. Along with the Contras or counterrevolutionaries that were disaffected by the Sandinista policies and wanted freedom from the Sandinista Government. A final major party involved in the conflict was Sandinistas, who detested the U.S. backed Contras and were fighting for peace in Nicaragua, after a long period of turmoil and insurrection.
Due to the nature of military dictatorship, in 1960, social discontent began to give way to left wing militants made up of the Mayan indigenous people and rural peasantry. This is the match that lit Guatemala’s Civil War, street battles between the two groups tore the country and pressured the autocratic ruler General Miguel Ydigoras Fuentes to fight harder against the civilian insurrection. Similar to the government abductions that took place in Argentina, the military regime began to do the same.... ... middle of paper ... ...
This does not, however, dismiss the reality of torture in Chile nor soften Cavanaugh’s criticisms of “distinction of planes” ecclesiologies. Church paradigms such as Maritain’s New Christendom have led Catholics in Chile and elsewhere to buy into a “devil’s bargain” wherein the Church confines itself to the social, or spiritual, realm and allows the state to dominate in the political, or temporal, realm (196). Such ecclesiologies simultaneously facilitate the Church’s disappearance as a societal body and strip the Church of any tangible ability to counteract the actions of oppressive governments. The Chilean church’s ecclesiology had real, disastrous consequences for Chileans under the Pinochet regime – consequences that perhaps could have been mitigated under a different ecclesiological
‘La Compania’ was the most controversial church ever made in Peru. It all started when the archbishop of Cusco debated that the Jesuit church should not up stage the Cusco Cathedral. To settle the argument Pope Paul III had to intervene. The Pope agreed with the archbishop, but the message did not reach Peru immediately. The delay gave the Jesuits a lot of time to finish their glamorous church.
El Salvador had a small population of about five million. Oscar Romero grew up close to his father. By the time Romeo was thirteen years old his father allowed him to become an apprentice for the position as a carpenter. The apprenticeship would have led him to become a master carpenter but Oscar Romero wanted to take another path. Oscar Romero truly believed that leaving home to enter the seminary to become a Catholic priest was the position that he needed to attain. Oscar Romero studied in El Salvador as well as Rome and he was ordained in the year of 1942. Before Romero was ordained in 1942, dictatorship by the military plagued the country and over thirty thousand lives were lost. Ever since then more and more deaths were added to those thousands that were gone. Oscar Romero knew that this had to come to an end and he would need the help of the Catholic Church for more power during his stand. Later in his career in 1977 he had become the Archbishop of his country. The problem was that he realized that Rome was more concerned with keeping a good relationship with the government than the needs of the citizens of El Salvador. Romero had seen that more than sixty percent of the people in his country were landless. There had to be a place for his people who were suffering so Oscar Romero took a stand to protect the citizens and their needs to survive in El
In my opinion, the whiskey priest needs to stay and help Maria and Brigitta. Although the whiskey priest took the oath to be a priest, he now has a daughter, and he needs to support her. I think the whiskey priest leaving Brigitta and Maria, and continuing his run from the lieutenant was him taking the easy way out. Although things with Maria and the whiskey priest are on not so good terms,
The Mexican Revolutionary War started in 1910 when the people of Mexico had been suffering through an economic recession where many lost their jobs and wanted change. Long term incumbent, President Porfirio Diaz then promised a free election that year. Diaz expected to win the election easily, but it became clear that the people liked Francisco Madero for change and that he would win the election. Diaz then fixed the elections and arrested Madero on made up charges of plotting an armed insurrection. Without Madero running, Diaz won the re-election by default. Madero was convinced that Diaz would never step down, and on November 20, 1910, Madero called for an armed rebellion against Diaz. Emiliano Zapata a peasant leader, Pascual Orozco and
Jorge Videla was the leader of the military-run government. At the time, it was very easy for Videla to seize power because of the highly unstable condition that Argentina was in, and had been in for decades. In September of 1955 all three branches of the military revolted and forced the president, Juan Perón, into exile. Eleven years later, in 1966, a new leader, Juan Carlos Ongania, imposed the military rule again only to have the former president, Perón, return in 1973, and ...
In the end, it is evident that the Roman Catholic religion is an essential piece of Colombia history despite its recent decline. From the beginning Catholicism has been heavily involved in education, establishing some of the first collegiate institutions. Although their current constitution declares the country as having freedom of religion, the Catholic church still maintains an esteemed position in society and the government. Finally, while there has been a recent drop in the number of Catholics in Colombia, it is at a much smaller rate than the decline as Latin America as a whole. Colombia’s roots are deeply intertwined with Catholicism and the country
During the 1960s and 1970s the demand for land reform, work, better wages, and respect for human rights by the rural and urban poor began to rise. The poor conditions of the region were initially created during the colonial period, upon the arrival of Pedro de Alvarado in 1542, however the poverty and repression of the poor was heavily reinforced by the dictatorship of Carlos Humberto Romero Mena that lasted from 1977-1979. Demands for better conditions were met with violent opposition from the rich oligarchy that controlled the military and most of the country’s land and industry, and severe repression was enforced (Lauria-Santiago, Aldo and Binford, Leigh, ch.1). Traditionally, the Catholic Church benefited from close ties to the government who provided protection and wealth. However, the Christian belief that many priests and bishops stood by; a mandate to work for justice and take the side of the poor and to aid them in their struggle, led to the establishment of the Roman Catholic Liberation Theology Movement in the 1960s and 1970s, which is heavily depicted in Romero. Liberation Theology first developed as a moral reaction to the poverty and social injustice in Latin America, in an effort to bring social change and political emancipation of the poor (Celis, Leila, p 72). The Catholic Church responded to the repression and extreme violence, and many priests became advocates for the poor. Consequentially, thousands of Salvadorans, including religious leaders were murdered, jailed, or forced into exile by the government forces or paramilitary death squads. Archbishop Romero was a liberation theologist who spoke out about the poverty, assassinations, injustice and torture he witnessed, and was assassinated because of his influence. The drastic divide in the country between the rich elites and
In September of 1810, Allende, who had military background and Hidalgo who didn't have a military background couldn't control the angry mob that followed right behind them. The rebel army descended upon Guanajuato on September 28 with a seething mass amount of anger and greed, the rebel army captured the granary which had collapsed due to weight. Riano was shot and killed instantly and his second in command ordered the men to run up a white flag of surrender. Attackers moved in and took prisoners; Major Diego Berzabal, countermanded the order to surrender ...