Subversives in El Salvador

2020 ◽  
pp. 69-100
Author(s):  
Theresa Keeley
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
El Salvador ◽  
The United States ◽  
Religious Community ◽  
Jimmy Carter ◽  
White House ◽  
Faith Based ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Political Implications

This chapter clarifies how the Maryknollers and San Salvador's Archbishop, Óscar Romero, unsuccessfully tried to persuade Jimmy Carter to accentuate human rights in U.S.–El Salvador policy. It recounts El Salvador as a major conflict between the White House and the religious community by 1980. It also discusses the Salvadoran government that accused Maryknoll priests John Halbert and Ron Michaels of being “subversives.” The chapter describes priests, brothers, and nuns in El Salvador and the United States that played a crucial role in aiding Salvadorans' push for societal change. It talks about how Maryknollers approached the situation from a faith-based perspective, but their decision to side with the poor had political implications.

Strategy, Ideology, and Human Rights: Jimmy Carter Confronts the Left in Central America, 1979–1981

2006 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 57-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
John A. Soares
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Latin America ◽  
El Salvador ◽  
Central America ◽  
The United States ◽  
Jimmy Carter

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.

Reflections

2019 ◽  
pp. 66-72
Author(s):  
Williams Guevara Martínez
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
El Salvador ◽  
The United States ◽  
Educational Opportunities ◽  
Legal Representation ◽  
College Credits ◽  
Helping Others ◽  
Legal Relief ◽  
Formal Status

Born in El Salvador, Williams Guevara Martínez left home at seventeen to escape domestic abuse and seek refuge with family members living in the United States. After a hazardous journey and crossing into the United States in a context of heightened migration, he was immediately apprehended, detained in federal custody, and ultimately released to his brother’s care in Maryland. He found excellent legal representation and was granted legal relief in the form of Special Immigrant Juvenile Status. Now with formal status, steady work, and college credits he looks back to chronicle the challenges of youth who enter the country alone and without authorization. Guevara Martínez recounts his life in El Salvador, his harrowing journey, experience in federal custody and after release, including personal attachments, educational opportunities and his commitment “to give back” by helping others like himself. He shares the lessons he learned commenting critically on violence, the migration process, human rights, and his hopes for the future..

scholarly journals Using Social Media to Motivate Anti-migration Sentiments. Political Implications in the United States and Beyond

Tripodos ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 51-69
Author(s):  
Blanca Nicasio Varea ◽  
Marta Pérez Gabaldón ◽  
Manuel Chavez
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Media ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Political ◽  
First Year ◽  
Personal Account ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
White House ◽  
Migrant Communities ◽  
Political Implications

The proliferation of nationalist and nativist movements all over the world has capitalized on the broad impact of social media, especially on Twitter. In the case of the United States, as candidate and then as President, Donald Trump initiated an active use of Twitter to disseminate his views on migration and migrants. This paper analyzes the themes and the political implications of his tweets from Trump’s electoral win to the end of the first year of his presidency. The authors’ assumptions are that Trump’s rhetoric untapped a collective sentiment against migration as well as one which supported views to protect migrant communities. The findings show that some topics were retweeted massively fueling the perceptions that most Americans were against migrant communities and their protectors. We conducted content analysis of the tweets sent by President Trump during his first year in the White House. We used the personal account of Trump in Twitter @realDonaldTrump. Trump has used his personal account as a policy and political media instrument to convey his messages rather than to use the official account that all Presidents have traditionally used @POTUS. Since Trump ran on a nativist platform with strong negative sentiments against migrants and immigration in general, we examined the tweets that relate to these topics.

scholarly journals Experiences of gender-based violence in women asylum seekers from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 46-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kim A. Baranowski ◽  
Eileen Wang ◽  
Megan R. D'Andrea ◽  
Elizabeth K. Singer
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
El Salvador ◽  
Partner Violence ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Psychological Evaluation ◽  
The United States ◽  
Human Rights Violations ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
Gender Based

Introduction: Every year, thousands of women flee gender-based violence in Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala (sometimes collectively referred to as the Northern Triangle) in an attempt to seek asylum in the United States. Once in the United States, their legal teams may refer them for a psychological evaluation as part of their application for asylum. Licensed clinicians conduct in-depth interviews in order to document the psychological impact of the reported human rights violations. Method: Using archival de-identified data from a human rights program, this study gathered the experiences of gender-based violence reported by 70 asylum-seeking women from Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala who participated in pro bono psychological evaluation. Descriptive data were analyzed using a modified consensual qualitative research (CQR-M) method.Results: These asylum seekers reported exposure to systemic violence, including severe intimate partner violence, as well as physical and sexual assaults, and threats of death by organized criminal groups in their communities. Additionally, over a third of women reported experiences of violence during their migration. The majority of asylum seekers endorsed symptoms associated with anxiety (80%) and depression (91%), as well as trauma-and stressor-related symptoms (80%). Discussion: The results of this study elucidate the manyforms of gender-based violence experienced by women in this region, the physical and psychological sequelae of this persecution, and the systemic forces that prevent them from remaining in their countries of origin. The research results also highlight the potential impact of trauma on the women’s ability to testify effectively during asylum legal hearings, elucidate factors that may contribute to their resilience in light of the human rights violations they survived, and suggest implications for clinical practice.

Reagan and the White House’s Maryknoll Nun

2020 ◽  
pp. 131-160
Author(s):  
Theresa Keeley
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Latin America ◽  
El Salvador ◽  
Liberation Theology ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Public Diplomacy ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Public

This chapter explains how Ronald Reagan's public diplomacy campaign reflected conservative Nicaraguan and U.S. Catholic viewpoints and language. It talks about the officials who worked with Catholic allies, including a former Maryknoll sister, that critique the Maryknoll and liberation theology in the United States, Latin America, and Europe. It also recounts Reagan's promotion as defender of the Nicaraguan Catholic Church to win support among conservative Catholics for U.S. policy and his reelection bid. The chapter discusses the White House's attempt to move the public focus from human rights in El Salvador to Nicaragua by alleging that the Sandinista government persecuted religion and was trying to create a fake church. It describes the public diplomacy campaign that involved cooperation with religious conservatives, including its design and execution that reflected conservative Catholic viewpoints and language.

Supporting a “Brother in Christ” in Guatemala

2020 ◽  
pp. 124-150
Author(s):  
Lauren Frances Turek
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Nongovernmental Organizations ◽  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
The United States ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
Mass Killing ◽  
Jimmy Carter ◽  
Military Aid ◽  
Military Campaign

This chapter focuses on Guatemala, where evangelical dictator General José Efraín Ríos Montt seized power in a coup in 1982. It talks about Ríos Montt's religious beliefs and staunch anticommunism that led politically influential evangelical leaders and nongovernmental organizations in the United States to support and promote his regime. It also discusses direct fundraising and evangelical organizations that lobbied Congress to restore military aid to Guatemala, which Jimmy Carter had suspended due to ongoing human rights violations. The chapter investigates why many evangelical groups argued that Ríos Montt's Christian faith would compel him to improve the human rights situation in Guatemala despite mounting evidence that the dictator's military campaign against the “communist insurgency” in his country involved the mass killing of indigenous Mayans. It demonstrates how evangelical engagement with Ríos Montt reshaped society and politics in Guatemala, as well as policymaking in the United States.

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