The Death of the Jesuit Martyrs

The following is an excerpt from an article by a Jesuit priest:

The first hours of November 16th, 1989, the full moon shed all its milky light on what was happening
behind the Jesuits residence on the campus of the University of Central America (UCA) in San Salvador.

The highest echelons of the military hierarchy had decided the day before that UCAs president Fr. Ignacio Ellacuría, SJ, was to be killed and that they would "leave no witnesses!" With Ellacuría, five other Jesuits and two women also died that night. I knew them personally, all except Celina, the fifteen-year-old daughter of Julia Elba, the community cook.

"Nacho" Martín-Baró and I both studied at the University of Chicago; I met Amando López for the first time in Nicaragua in 1978 and often thereafter; Segundo Montes was a valued colleague in the work for human rights and refugees; Juan Ramón Moreno, a theologian of great spirituality; the popular educator Joaquín López y López, affectionately known as "Lolo"; and Ellacuría whom I respected enormously as a moral and intellectual leader.

The legal investigation began immediately but dragged on for nearly two years. American Jesuits put
sustained pressure on the U.S. government, which did everything to obfuscate the issue and to protect the Salvadoran army and government while at the same time certifying human rights and continuing to grant high levels of military assistance.
Eventually, three army officers and six enlisted men were tried on charges of murder and terrorism.

September 1991 saw the jury trial. For each of the nine defendants, the court recounted in unmitigated
detailbased on the soldiers confessionsthe narrative of the cold cruel murders. It was like listening to the Passion proclaimed on nine Good Fridays in a row.
The jury found the commanding officer (not present at the scene) guilty on eight counts of murder and
convicted his deputy (who never fired his weapon) of Celinas murder. Both received the maximum 30-year sentence for murder. Never before or since have serious human rights crimes in El Salvador been so vigorously punished. And yet both men were amnestied in 1993.

The jury acquitted the soldiers who originally confessed to the killings, presumably because they were
ordered to kill and so should not be held accountable, although "only obeying" orders is no legitimate defense even in Salvadoran law. The entire confusing verdict was not likely the result of a judicial system functioning according to established institutional procedures but the product of a darker and more political "deal."

A wealth of circumstantial evidence emerged during the investigation, suggesting that the commanding
officer had "received the green light" and could not possibly have acted on his own authority or
initiative. The 1993 report of the Truth Commission confirmed that the killing of Ellacuría had been
proposed at a meeting on November 15th by a general known as a close CIA collaborator and
endorsed by the chief-of-staff (who was later minister of defense), the
vice-minister of defense, and the colonel who headed the infamous First Brigade.
But still unknown in all of this is the degree of U.S. foreknowledge, connivance, training, advice, and
communications support.

Unfortunately the Truth Commission did not touch upon the involvement of U.S. advisors before and during the operation and of the U.S. Embassy in the subsequent cover-up.

The 1992 peace accords were the martyrs dream come true, but neither the Salvadoran nor the
American government showed the courage and resolve to implement them fully. The formerly potent
armed forces have been weakened, elections continue to take place on
schedule, but the hoped-for justice and social peace still elude El Salvador.
With fewer than six million inhabitants, El Salvador has the highest population density in Latin
America. Nearly 40 percent of the people live in dire poverty. The economy, battered by globalization
and weighed down by external debt, is fueled mainly by over $1 billion in remittances sent home by over a million Salvadorans who work in the United States more than the total revenue from all exports.
There is economic growth but also high unemployment, and the benefits of growth do not reach the majority of the population. In consequence, the social tragedy continues, beginning with a high rate of infant mortality. Over a third of the people lack safe drinking water and adequate housing. Sixty percent of Salvadorans do not have access to health services. Substandard education leaves over 30 percent of the population illiterate. A fatal legacy of the half-implemented accords is a mass of weapons, many in the hands of soldiers and guerrillas who have been demobilized but are without work. The country is plagued by corruption, runaway crime, indiscriminate violence, and a murder rate among the highest in Latin America. The police seem incapable of protecting citizens, and the justice system fails to hold accountable those responsible for crime.

When the Berlin Wall was coming down, news of the Jesuit murders shook the world "at a moment in history which is witnessing unprecedented changes in world social structures," in the words of the
Jesuit general, Fr. Peter-Hans Kolvenbach.
Those at UCA who survived and those who came after the martyrs have
made an enormous effort to adapt to a "new world." The UCAs mission is to
help Salvadorans, preferentially the vast majority who are poor, to solve their
problems and build themselves the kind of society they want and deserve.
But the legacy of untruth about the civil warthe murders, tortures, and
disappearances that remain hidden in impunityis a major obstacle to
national reconciliation and reconstruction. The Jesuits and UCA continue to
seek the truth.

The order "Leave no witnesses!" was obeyed with a vengeance. But
with the full folly of the Cross, like so many other Salvadorans who remain
nameless, Ellacuría and his companions have risen. For martyr and witness
are the same word, and these martyrs witnessing to the death and
resurrection of Christ in our world point convincingly toward the kingdom of
justice, reconciliation, and peace that we hope for, pray for, and work for.