[Announce] The letter from Archbishop Romero to President Carter

[Robert Waldrop]

Below is the English text of the letter sent to
President Carter by Archbishop Romero.  Many
people believe that this letter precipitated the
decision by the government of El Salvador to
murder Romero.  In it he clearly connects the
actions of the US government in El Salvador with
the repression of the Salvadoran people.

Robert Waldrop
Oscar Romero Catholic Worker House, OKC



FULL TEXT OF LETTER OF ARCHBISHOP ROMERO TO
PRESIDENT CARTER
http://espanol.groups.yahoo.com/group/sanromero/message/1923

Mr. President:

In these last days there has appeared in the
national press a report
that troubles me deeply.  According to it, your
government is
studying the possibility of supporting and aiding
economically and
militarily the government junta [of El Salvador].

Because you are a Christian and because you
manifested that you wish
to defend human rights, I dare to expose my
pastoral point of view
regarding this news and make a concrete petition
to you.

I am deeply troubled by the news that the
government of the United
States should be studying the way to favor the
militarist path of El
Salvador by sending military equipment and
advisors to "train three
Salvadoran battallions in logistics,
communications and
intelligence."  In the event that this
journalistic information is
true, your government's contribution, rather than
favoring greater
justice and peace in El Salvador will make
injustice and repression
against the organization of the people, who have
been struggling for
the respect of their most fundamental rights, even
more accute.

The current ruling Junta, and above all the armed
forces and security
forces, have unfortunately not demonstrated their
capacity to resolve
the grave national problems through political
practice and structural
means.  In general, they have only resorted to
repressive violence,
producing a volume of dead and wounded that is
greater than that of
recent military regimes whose systematic violation
of human rights
was condemned by the Interamerican Commission on
Human Rights.

The brutal way in which the security forces
recently evicted and
assassinated the occupants of the headquarters of
the Christian
Democratic Party despite that the Junta and the
government (it would
appear) did not authorize that operation is
evidence that the Junta
and the Christian Democrats do not govern the
country, but rather,
the political power is in the hands of military
men without scruples,
who only know how to oppress the people and favor
the interests of
the Salvadoran oligarchy.

If it is true that this past November, "a group of
six Americans
spent time in El Salvador supplying two hundred
thousand dollars
worth of gas masks and bullet proof vests and
instructing on their
use against demonstrators, you yourself must know
that clearly since
then the security forces, acting with greater
personal protection and
effectiveness, have repressed the people even more
violently, using
deadly weapons.

As such, given the fact that as a Salvadoran, and
as Archbishop of
the Archdiocese of San Salvador, I have the
obligation to watch so
that faith and justice reign in my country, I ask
that if you truly
want to defend human rights:

- You prohibit this military aid to the Salvadoran
government.

- You guarantee that your government not intervene
directly or
indirectlyl with military, economic and diplomatic
pressure.

At this time, we are living through a grave
economic and political
crisis in our country, but it is doubtless that
each time the people
have increased their conscience and their
organization and have
empowered themselves to become the driving force
which is responsible
for the future of El Salvador, and the only one
capable of overcoming
this crisis.

It would be unjust and deplorable that by the
interference of foreign
powers the Salvadoran people were frustrated, they
were repressed,
and impeded in deciding with autonomy over the
economic and political
trajectory that our country should follow.

It would supose violating a right that the Latin
American bishops
gathered in Puebla publicly acknowledged when we
said: "The
legitimate self-determination of our countries
that permits them to
organize according to their own disposition and
history, and to
cooperate in a new international order..." (Puebla
Synod, 505.)

I hope that your religious convictions and your
sensibilities in pro
defense of human rights will compel you to accept
my petition,
avoiding with it a major spilling of blood in my
long-suffered
country.

Yours truly,

Oscar A. Romero (Archbishop)