Presente! The US churchwomen murdered in El Salvador

Thirty-five years ago, a unit of the Salvadoran National Guard abducted, raped and murdered four US churchwomen as they were returning from the airport. The three nuns and one lay missionary had been working with the poor in Nicaragua and El Salvador. Those activities were considered subversive in the 1970s. While Salvadorans, Nicaraguans, and Guatemalans were killed for working among the poor, the rapes and murders of US religious was unusual.

President Jimmy Carter was outraged at their murders, enough so that he cut off some US assistance to El Salvador for a few weeks. However, Carter pressured the US Embassy in El Salvador to say that progress was being made in the investigation into their deaths. Carter feared "losing" another country to anti-US forces ("pro-US" governments in Iran and Nicaragua had fallen and the Soviets had invaded Afghanistan that year). Aid was "successfully" restored prior to the 1981 FMLN offensive and Ronald Reagan's inauguration.

The Salvadorans learned that US support for human rights had its limitations. If the US wasn't going to be serious about cutting off the Salvadoran security forces after they raped and murdered four US churchwomen, what would it take?

Reagan and his advisors, were not that concerned with the murders of the churchwomen except for the fact that their murders would make it more difficult for his to get the support from the US Congress that he so desired. Those gun-toting nuns just made life difficult for President Reagan. The inhumanity of Reagan's advisors gets me every time.

Here is how Secretary of State Alexander Haig responded to questioning concerning the tragic events

“Perhaps the vehicle that the nuns were riding in may have tried to run a roadblock — or may have accidentally been perceived to have been doing so — and there may have been an exchange of fire,” said Alexander Haig, the secretary of state under President Reagan.

It was the gun toting nuns' fault.

US Ambassador to the United Nations and another reason to kick Georgetown, Jeanne Kirkpatrick, made her feelings known.

"I don't think the government (of El Salvador) was responsible. The nuns were not just nuns; the nuns were political activists. We ought to be a little more clear-cut about this than we usually are. They were political activists on behalf of the Frente and somebody who is using violence to oppose the Frente killed them"

Sr. Maura Clarke was from my hometown in Rockaway Beach, New York. While a few decades separated us, we went to the same grammar school.

In case you are in Scranton tomorrow, Education for Justice is hosting Maryknoll Sister Patricia Murray to reflect upon the lives of her friends who were killed thirty-five years ago. Sister Pat also spent several years serving the poor in Nicaragua and other parts of Central America. (See attached flyer.)

Here are some other reflections from around the web.

Thirty-five years after deaths of Cleveland churchwomen in El Salvador, U.S. policy still devalues human rights: Theresa Keeley

1980-2015: Memory of El Salvador's church martyrs lives on

US women religious look back on El Salvador martyrs, ahead to delegation to mark 35th anniversary

On 35th Anniversary, Seeking a New Inquiry Into 1980 Deaths in El Salvador