Saint Óscar Romero, Liberation Theology, and Human Rights in El Salvador

Author(s):  
Michael Cangemi

Saint Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez (b. Ciudad Barrios, San Miguel, El Salvador, August 15, 1915; d. San Salvador, El Salvador, March 24, 1980) was the seventh Archbishop of San Salvador. During his episcopate (February 22, 1977–March 24, 1980), Romero gained international renown for his human rights activism, advocacy for the poor, and denunciation of El Salvador’s political repression and violence. Romero was one of Latin America’s most influential political and social voices and routinely drew thousands of people to San Salvador’s Metropolitan Cathedral, while his homilies were broadcast across Central America on shortwave radio. In 1978, members of Britain’s Parliament, the United States Congress, and the US press supported Romero’s nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of his efforts to halt the economic, political, and social violence that plagued El Salvador and, more broadly, Central America, during the late 1970s. In his final homily, delivered on March 23, 1980, Romero directly addressed members of the Salvadoran military and police forces, “in the name of this suffering people whose cries rise to heaven more loudly each day, I implore you, I beg you, I order you in the name of God: stop the repression.” The following day, Romero was murdered by Salvadoran government forces while he celebrated Mass at the Church of Divine Providence in San Salvador. His assassination sent shockwaves through Central America, and over one hundred thousand people attended his funeral. In May 2015, Pope Francis beatified Romero and elevated him to sainthood on October 14, 2018.

2006 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 57-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
John A. Soares

This article discusses the Carter administration's policies toward Nicaragua and El Salvador after the Sandinistas took power in Nicaragua in July 1979. These policies were influenced by the widespread perception at the time that Marxist revolutionary forces were in the ascendance and the United States was in retreat. Jimmy Carter was trying to move away from traditional American “interventionism” in Latin America, but he was also motivated by strategic concerns about the perception of growing Soviet and Cuban strength, ideological concerns about the spread of Marxism-Leninism, and political-humanitarian concerns about Marxist-Leninist regimes' systematic violations of human rights.


2020 ◽  
pp. 159-199
Author(s):  
Thierry Maire

La Marcha del Orgullo en El Salvador, la más antigua del istmo centroamericano, tiene su narrativa anclada en un hecho histórico nacional, estrechamente ligado a la guerra civil que abrumó al país durante los años 80. El concepto de las marchas deriva de los acontecimientos de EE. UU. Entonces, ¿por qué la marcha salvadoreña se presenta como una manifestación de conmemoración de un hecho nacional más que en relación con su antecesora estadounidense, particularmente en un país tan dependiente del gigante del Norte? Para responder a ese cuestionamiento, investigué qué tanto los miembros de la diversidad sexual en San Salvador conocen sobre la historia de su marcha, de su relación con ese hecho nacional y de la Gay Pride (Orgullo Gay) neoyorkina. Agregué a ese análisis cuantitativo llevado a cabo a través de una encuesta en línea, una investigación biográfica alrededor de los fundadores de la marcha. Los vínculos directos, aunque desvanecidos y a veces negados, que los ligan con EE. UU., bien podrían explicar cómo se ideó realmente la Marcha del Orgullo. La narrativa actual procede, entonces, de una re(construcción histórica de la marcha, parcialmente por razones estratégicas, en respuesta al discurso opositor de la derecha conservadora del país. The ‘Marcha del Orgullo’ in El Salvador: (Re)Building Memory, from the Founding Myth to the Historic Reality Abstract: The ‘Marcha del Orgullo’ in El Salvador, the oldest in Central America, is supposed to have been founded in tribute to trans people kidnapped and slaughtered during the Civil War in the 80’s. Nonetheless the mere concept of Gay Prides marches took its origin in those realized in the US. Why is it then that El Salvador one should be more autonomous in its foundation? That is especially nagging when one considers the closeness of El Salvador to the US. To solve this enigma, I first undertook an online survey among members of the lgbtiq community in San Salvador, to look at what they knew about the historical narration of their national Pride. I then investigated more into the personalities of the founders of the event. I discovered some very direct relations between them and US-related activists and NGO, which could explain the foundation of the Salvadorian Pride, but I also came to understand why the narrative of the event is framed in order to suppress this US influence due to the opposite stance of far-right conservatives activists. Keywords: El Salvador, Pride parade, human rights, LGBT, sexual diversity.


2004 ◽  
Vol 61 (2) ◽  
pp. 217-244 ◽  
Author(s):  
Svenja Blanke

El Salvador, the smallest but most densely populated country of Central America, experienced one of Latin America's bloodiest civil wars, accompanied by widespread human rights violations. State repression was especially brutal against opposition groups such as peasant associations, unions, students, and religious people. Twenty-five church people were murdered and many religious workers were persecuted, expelled, or tortured. Several U.S. missionaries were among those murdered or expelled victims. Although the number of religious victims is relatively small in comparison to the tens of thousands of people who were killed in the three civil wars of El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Guatemala, the murders of religious personnel had a profound impact on the religious community in Central America, and particularly in El Salvador. This impact also reached religious groups in the United States. Given the traditional alliance between the Catholic Church and the political and economic elites throughout most of Salvadoran history, the murders of religious leaders by government or government-linked forces symbolized a remarkable shift.


2018 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 130-134

This section, updated regularly on the blog Palestine Square, covers popular conversations related to the Palestinians and the Arab-Israeli conflict during the quarter 16 November 2017 to 15 February 2018: #JerusalemIstheCapitalofPalestine went viral after U.S. president Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and announced his intention to move the U.S. embassy there from Tel Aviv. The arrest of Palestinian teenager Ahed Tamimi for slapping an Israeli soldier also prompted a viral campaign under the hashtag #FreeAhed. A smaller campaign protested the exclusion of Palestinian human rights from the agenda of the annual Creating Change conference organized by the US-based National LGBTQ Task Force in Washington. And, UNRWA publicized its emergency funding appeal, following the decision of the United States to slash funding to the organization, with the hashtag #DignityIsPriceless.


Author(s):  
Nik Theodore

For decades El Salvador has been reliant on migration, mainly to the US, to provide remittances and an outlet for widespread underemployment. The deportation of tens of thousands of migrants annually by the United States, however, threatens to exacerbate problems of joblessness, poverty, and informality in local economies, calling into question the suitability of prevailing economic development strategies. This study proposes an alternative approach—labor force-based development—that was initially proposed to assist US cities confronting widespread job losses following deindustrialization. Through a survey of 198 Salvadorans who were apprehended by US immigration authorities and deported, this article documents deportees’ employment experiences in El Salvador and the US, tenure in their primary occupation, education and training obtained, and the localities to which they will return. It also provides recommendations for improving the employment outcomes of deportees. Given that a substantial proportion of deportees have worked in the construction industry, opportunities exist for designing workforce development programs that meet the needs of jobseekers as well as local communities facing housing shortages.


1971 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 151-172 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth J. Grieb

The militarycoup d'étatwhich installed General Maximiliano Hernández Martínez as President of El Salvador during December 1931 created a crisis involving the 1923 Washington Treaties. By the terms of these accords, the Central American nadons had pledged to withhold recognition from governments seizing power through force in any of the isthmian republics. Although not a signatory of the treaty, the United States based its recognition policy on this principle. Through this means the State Department had attempted to impose some stability in Central America, by discouraging revolts. With the co-operation of the isthmian governments, United States diplomats endeavored to bring pressure to bear on the leaders of any uprising, to deny them the fruits of their victory, and thus reduce the constant series ofcoupsandcounter-coupsthat normally characterized Central American politics.


Author(s):  
Christoph Bezemek

This chapter assesses public insult, looking at the closely related question of ‘fighting words’ and the Supreme Court of the United States’ decision in Chaplinsky v New Hampshire. While Chaplinsky’s ‘fighting words’ exception has withered in the United States, it had found a home in Europe where insult laws are widely accepted both by the European Court of Human Rights and in domestic jurisdictions. However, the approach of the European Court is structurally different, turning not on a narrowly defined categorical exception but upon case-by-case proportionality analysis of a kind that the US Supreme Court would eschew. Considering the question of insult to public officials, the chapter focuses again on structural differences in doctrine. Expanding the focus to include the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR) and the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACtHPR), it shows that each proceeds on a rather different conception of ‘public figure’.


Author(s):  
Diomaris E.S. Jurecska ◽  
Chloe E. Lee ◽  
Kelly B.T. Chang ◽  
Elizabeth Sequeira

Abstract The purpose of this article is to examine the relationship between intelligence (IQ) and self-efficacy in children and adolescents living in the United States and Nicaragua. The sample consisted of 90 (46 male, 44 female) students (mean age=11.57 years, SD=3.0 years) referred by school administrators and faculty. United States (US) participants (n=27) resided in rural counties in the Northwest. The other group consisted of 63 students from Central America. A comparison between groups revealed that in the US, sample higher grades and IQ scores are typically associated with higher levels of self-efficacy. However in the Nicaraguan sample, both IQ scores and grades were not associated with self-efficacy, although age was correlated with self-efficacy. Results suggest that the construct of self-efficacy might change depending on whether one belongs to an individualistic or collectivistic society. Additionally, the effects of socioeconomic factors might influence perceived ability even more than intellectual abilities.


2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (84) ◽  
Author(s):  

A Technical Assistance (TA) Mission from the Regional Technical Assistance Center for Central America, Panama, and the Dominican Republic, visited the city of San Salvador, El Salvador, on August 13–24, 2018, to provide TA to the Central Reserve Bank of El Salvador (BCRES) on compiling annual accounts by institutional sectors (AAIS) from 2014 onwards, as part of the data series from the base year of 2005. In March 2018, the BCRES published a dataset of quarterly and annual national accounts series by economic activity; a monthly volume indicator; backcasted series from 1990–2014; and Supply and Use Tables (SUT) from 2005 and 2014, with a base year of 2005. As part of the dataset to be prepared and disseminated in the new 2005 base year, the authorities requested TA to compile annual accounts focusing on institutional sectors starting in 2014.


Author(s):  
Olena Skrypnyk

In this article to analyzes the policy of the European Union’s «Eastern Partnership». Determined US relation to the initiative of the EU. Characterized four summits the EU «Eastern Partnership» and followed the US response to these summits. The attention to Ukraine’s participation in the summit of the EU and the US position on this issue. Determined that the United States strongly supports the EU initiative «Eastern Partnership», especially in order to spread in the countries of the «Eastern Partnership» democracy, ensure human rights and freedoms, and to improve the socio-economic situation of these countries.


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