SPOKANE, Wash. – On Nov. 16, 1989, a group of Salvadoran soldiers trained by the US Military broke into a residence at Central American University (UCA) and murdered eight people. The response from peace activists is ongoing.
UCA, a Jesuit institution that criticized extra-judicial military killings during the Salvadoran Civil War, was targeted by military forces for speaking out against the government’s brutal tactics.
Six priests, their housekeeper and her daughter were killed by the Atlacatl Battalion in the front garden of the UCA residence.
The response from peace activists, particularly Catholics who had seen Archbishop Oscar Romero assassinated in the middle of celebrating Mass in 1980, was swift and sustained.
Both Romero’s murder and the UCA killings were partially funded by the US government.
American national security leaders were concerned that the Salvadoran military, which had ruled the county since a late 1979 coup, would be displaced by a coalition of left-wing guerilla groups allied with local farm workers.
The majority of the soldiers involved in the UCA murders were trained at the US Army School of the Americas, sparking broad condemnation from American Catholic leaders and activists.
Then-president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops Daniel Pilarczyk sent a letter to President George H.W. Bush on the same day of the UCA assassinations calling for an end to death squads supported by the American military.
“We urge our government to use its considerable influence with the Salvadoran government to press for effective respect for human rights, an end to death squad activity,” Archbishop Pilarczyk wrote.
The Salvadoran Civil War ended with a UN-mediated peace treaty that began in 1990 and was finally signed in 1992.
A 1993 amnesty law barred the government from prosecuting anyone involved in political massacres, assuring the men who killed the priests and two laywomen would not face jail time.
Political pressure for a US response continued into the mid-90s. A Maryknoll priest organized vigils calling for the closure of the Georgia Army institution that trained the Atlacatl troops while congressional scrutiny led to a report on the School of the Americas commissioned by the US General Accountability Office.
When the Pentagon released training manuals utilized by the School of the Americas in 1996, the included instructions on unlawful executions, torture and prisoner humiliation.
The Ignatian Family Teach-In for Justice was founded in ‘96 to protest American involvement in the UCA killings and is still an active voice amongst Christian peace advocacy groups.
While the war in El Salvador is over, Amnesty International Americas Director Ana Piquer argues that the current government is repeating the repressive policing tactics of the 1980s.
“A pattern of systematic, extended abuse…primarily affects marginalized and impoverished communities. What we are witnessing in El Salvador is a tragic repetition of history,” Piquer said.
The School of the Americas rebranded as the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation in 2000, and is still an influential force in Latin American politics according to the US Army.
Events to honor the UCA Martyrs take place in El Salvador and around the globe every year. A commemoration event took place at Gonzaga University last week in addition to events at Marquette and Seattle University.
