[Peace-discuss] CRUCIFIXION OF THE SALVADORAN PEOPLE

Mon Mar 16 11:17:22 CDT 2009

FYI,

Though this to be appropriate to share at this time.

Just received this report from a friend and colleague who traveled with the
Humanitarian Delegation to El Salvador in the Summer of 2007.

Giraldo Rosales
Champaign County Board member
District 6
618 W. Hill St.
Champaign, Illinois 61820
telephone (217) 766-6109
email grosales at nitrogendesign.com

 ------------------------------

*From:* Mary Holbrock [mailto:maryholbrock at gmail.com]
*Sent:* Monday, March 16, 2009 10:14 AM
*To:* St. Mary Church
*Cc:* Cindy Magsamen; Lennie Baisa; Kathy Fries; Alice Penrose; Rosales,
Giraldo; Tito Gonzalez; Amasha22 at aol.com; cassiopea_1 at hotmail.com
*Subject:* Re: From Tom Royer

The election news in El Salvador is so exciting!!!!!!!!!!!!  I bet Amanda is
having a great experience down there!!

On Thu, Sep 20, 2007 at 5:18 PM, St. Mary Church <stmary at stmary-cu.org>
wrote:
Father Tom Royer
St. Mary Church
 612 East Park Street
Champaign, IL 61820
(217)352-8364
 e-mail: stmary at stmary-cu.org

Hola members of the summer delegation 2007,

Eleven weeks ago we were hiking the footpaths of the mountains of northern
Morazan and meeting the people of the five settlements.  It was a successful
delegation thanks to a team effort.  I expect that the experience will be a
special memory for you.   I am sending you Rufina Amaya’s testimony about El
Mozote, as I had promised to do.  But first, a few words of thanks.

Kathy put in lots of effort for her iodine demonstrations for the students.
 Every year she has provided exciting lessons for the students.  Her
partnership with the schools has been a singular success because she loves
the students and she loves to teach.
Alice, Lennie and Cindy provided their healing skills to hundreds of our
friends.   They were assisted by our translators, Giraldo, Tito and Mary.
I know that the people will gratefully remember the ministry of the clinics.
 Giraldo and Tito were great companions as well as translators on my
pastoral visits to the shut-ins.

Thanks to Amanda and Cassi for joining us and contributing to the success of
the clinics.  Cassi, the glasses clinic has never been handled so well.
 More happy customers were sent home with glasses than ever before.  I am
grateful to Amanda for helping me at the Mass at Monseñor Romero’s tomb.
Thanks to Kathy, Cindy and Giraldo for the excellent photos that you shared
with everyone.   Lennie, I still have some of your supplies that came back
in one of the suitcases.  Tell me how to get these things to you.

I suggest that we try to have some kind of a local delegation reunion soon.
 Usually it is difficult to get people together midweek.  Perhaps Sunday
mid-day is a time that would work.  It could be a simple brunch in our
Romero Center (coffee and donuts, etc) or perhaps you’d prefer to have lunch
at some restaurant.  Let me know what you’d like: time and place.

Amanda, is it true that you are back in El Salvador and working for CEBES?
 If so, are you translating for CEBES?  Accordingly, can I send messages to
CEBES in English?  Armando wants my latest report translated into Spanish.
 Is that something you could help with? Please let me know.

Here is Rufina’s testimony about El Mozote taken from the book Cry of the
People (printed 1990 by EPICA):

MOZOTE: CRUCIFIXION OF THE SALVADORAN PEOPLE
More than 1,000 men, women and children were killed on December 12 and 13,
1981 in the massacre of Mozote, in the Department of Morazan.  The massacre
was committed by the Atlacatl Battalion, an elite Army unit trained in
counterinsurgency by the U.S. government.  The following is the testimony of
a 41-year-old woman, Rufina, the only witness to the massacre.

I believe I am the only survivor of the Mozote massacre.  The village was
filled with children because the people in the surrounding area had fled
their homes to take refuge there.  That is why the Army was able to kill so
many people.
The soldiers from the Atlacatl Battalion came at seven in the morning.  They
said they had orders to kill everyone.  Nobody was to remain alive.  They
locked the women in houses and the men in the church.  There were 1,100 of
us in all.  The children were with the women.  They kept us locked up all
morning.
At ten o’clock the soldiers began to kill the men who were in the church.
 First they machine-gunned them and then they slit their throats.
By two o’clock the soldiers had finished killing the men and they came for
the women.  They left the children locked up.  They separated me from my
eight-month-old daughter and my oldest son.  They took us away to kill
us.
“My God!” I prayed.  “Almighty God, do let us die here!  You know that we
have committed no sin.”
 As we came to the place where they were going to kill us, I was able to
slip away and hide under a small bush, covering myself with the branches.  I
watched the soldiers line up twenty women and machine-gun them.  Then they
brought another group.  And another.
 The women screamed and pleaded: “Don’t kill us!”
       “We haven’t done anything!”
       “Why are you going to kill us?”
The soldiers replied, “Stop crying!  Don’t scream, or the devil will come
and take you away!”  They continued to kill.  I was right there at their
feet, hiding.
When the soldiers finished killing the people, they sat down and talked.  I
heard them say that they had been sent to kill us because we were
guerrillas.  I watched as they burned all the bodies.  When a baby cried out
from the midst of the flames, one of the soldiers said to another, “You
didn’t finish killing him.”  So the other soldier shot the baby and the
crying stopped.  When the flames died down, another soldier said, “They’re
all dead now.  Let’s go and kill the children.”
They killed four of my children, my nine-year-old, my six-year-old, my
three-year-old and my eight-month-old daughter.  My husband was killed too.
 Only my parents and two of my daughters who lived further away are alive.
I spent seven days and nights alone in the hills with nothing to eat or
drink.  I couldn’t find anyone else; the soldiers had killed everyone.
It has to be God’s will that I am still alive.  God allowed me to live so
that I can testify how the Army killed the me and women and burned their
bodies.  I didn’t see them kill the children, but I heard the children’s
screams.   (April 1987)

       NOTE:  During the war (1980-1992) over 75,000 Salvadoran were killed.
 The U.S. government supported the Salvadoran military with an average of
about $10 million each week.  President Reagan denied that the El Mozote
massacre ever happened.  Vice-president Dick Cheney has publicly said “The
U.S. brought democracy to El Salvador.”  This same claim was recently
repeated by Duncan Hunter, in a Republican presidential candidates’ debate.
 Many believe them.

-----Original Message-----
From: peace-discuss-bounces at lists.chambana.net [mailto:
peace-discuss-bounces at lists.chambana.net] On Behalf Of Robert Naiman
Sent: Monday, March 16, 2009 7:00 AM
To: John W.
Cc: Peace-discuss List
Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] FMLN DECLARES VICTORY!

It's official.

Salvadoran ex-rebels win presidency for first time

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090316/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_el_salvador_elections

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador – A leftist television journalist has won El

Salvador's presidential election, bringing a party of former

guerrillas to power for the first time since a bloody civil war and

ending two decades of conservative rule.

Mauricio Funes, a moderate plucked from outside the ranks of the

rebel-group-turned-political-party Farabundo Marti National Liberation

Front, became the latest leftist to rise to power in Latin America at

a time of uncertainty over how President Barack Obama will approach

the region.

With 90 percent of the vote counted late Sunday, Funes had 51 percent

compared to 49 percent for Rodrigo Avila of the ruling conservative

Arena party, said Walter Araujo, president of the Supreme Electoral

Tribunal.

Avila, accompanied by current President Tony Saca, conceded defeat and

wished Funes luck.

Funes reported on the 12-year war that ended 17 years ago with 75,000

people dead, and he later hosted a popular interview show. He promised

to unite the country after one of the most polarizing campaigns since

the conflict.

"This is the happiest night of my life, and I want it to be the night

of El Salvador's greatest hope," Funes said. "I want to thank all the

people who voted for me and chose that path of hope and change."

Jubilant, red-clad Funes supporters poured into the streets of San

Salvador, whooping, clapping, blowing whistles and waving large party

flags. Colorful fireworks shot up into the night sky.

Funes, 49, rode a wave of discontent with two decades of Arena party

rule that have brought economic growth but done little to redress

social inequalities. Fuel and food prices have soared, while powerful

gangs extort businesses and fight for drug-dealing turf, resulting in

one of Latin America's highest homicides rates.

Funes promised to crack down on big businesses which he says exploit

government complacency to evade taxes.

"The time has come for the excluded, the opportunity has arrived for

genuine democrats, for men and women who believe in social justice and

solidarity," he told a rally of roaring supporters early Monday.

Avila, 44, a former police chief, had warned that an FMLN victory

would send El Salvador down a communist path and threaten the

country's warm relations with the United States. He vowed Sunday to

lead "a vigilant opposition that would ensure that the country does

not lose its liberties."

Close U.S. ties saw El Salvador keep troops in Iraq longer than any

other Latin American country and become a hub of regional cooperation

with Washington against drug trafficking. The country's economy

depends on billions of dollars sent home by 2.5 million Salvadorans

who live in the U.S.

The Obama government has assured Salvadorans it would work with any

leader elected — a marked departure from the Bush administration,

which in 2004 suggested that an FMLN victory would hurt ties.

On Mon, Mar 16, 2009 at 4:58 AM, John W. <jbw292002 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Looks like you may have won a small but significant wager, Bob.  Though it

> looks like it's not quite official yet....

>

>

>

> On Sun, Mar 15, 2009 at 10:34 PM, Robert Naiman <naiman.uiuc at gmail.com>

> wrote:

>

>> from the cispes election blog:

>> http://cispes.org/09electionsblog/

>>

>> FMLN DECLARES VICTORY!

>> March 15th, 2009 (14 minutes ago)

>>

>> The FMLN has declared victory! Mauricio Funes is giving his victory

>> speech as these words are being typed. ¡El Cambio es Hoy!

>>

>>

>> Second round of resutlts from TSE/ Segunda ronda de resultados del TSE

>> March 15th, 2009 (51 minutes ago)

>>

>> With 73.80% of votes counted / Con 73.80% de actas contadas:

>>

>> ARENA - 944,633 votes/votos - 48.40%

>>

>> FMLN-1,007,287 votes/votos - 51.6%

>>

>> FMLN with slight lead in early official results

>> March 15th, 2009 (1 hour ago)

>>

>> >From Supreme Electoral Tribunal press conference:

>>

>> With 33% of the vote counted:

>> FMLN: 51.28%

>> ARENA: 48.78%

>>

>>

>> --

>> Robert Naiman

>> Just Foreign Policy

>> www.justforeignpolicy.org

>> naiman at justforeignpolicy.org

>

-- 

Robert Naiman

Just Foreign Policy

www.justforeignpolicy.org

naiman at justforeignpolicy.org

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