Rep McGovern calls on US to take responsibility for its role in Central American upheaval

Congressman Jim McGovern reflects on he and Congressman Joe Moakley's work on El Salvador in the Huffington Post with El Salvador Still Deserves Justice. Moakley was the US Congressman who was tasked with conducting the US Congress' investigation into the murders at the UCA in 1989 and the subsequent cover-up. McGovern was his congressional aide who then staffed the investigation into the murders.

The U.S. has never acknowledged any responsibility for the many assassinations, massacres, disappearances and repression perpetrated by the Salvadoran military and security forces against an innocent and unarmed civilian population. With the "re-branded" WHINSEC, the Pentagon pretends that the past doesn't exist. But even the WHINSEC can't escape the past, having invited Salvadoran military officers to be guest instructors even though they were named in the U.N. Truth Commission Report as responsible for murders and other human rights abuses. The WHINSEC began to classify the names of all its students and foreign faculty members in 2006 so as to avoid any further embarrassment. The House voted twice to restore the names to public domain, and this requirement was signed into law. But the Pentagon refuses, citing national security concerns. The matter is being settled in the courts.

Those who lost family and loved ones at the hands of U.S.-trained militaries have not forgotten the role the U.S., the SOA, and even the WHINSEC has played. At the time of the 20th anniversary of the Jesuit murders, the Government of El Salvador awarded its highest honors posthumously to the six Jesuits and two women. Then-President Mauricio Funes publicly apologized for the role of the State in the murders and asked forgiveness of the priests' and women's surviving family members. It was an extraordinary act of accountability and reconciliation.

Throughout Latin America -- in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, El Salvador and elsewhere -- nations are struggling to document the truth of their turbulent and violent past and promote reconciliation. I await the day when the United States will recognize its own responsibility for the suffering and sorrow of so many families throughout Latin America, including El Salvador, ask forgiveness, and as an act of reconciliation, close the WHINSEC.

I met McGovern and Moakley in El Salvador in 1997. Moakley had been invited by the Central American University (UCA) to come receive an award for his work on behalf of the people of El Salvador. I don't remember much of the event except that he received a standing ovation - that's really all I need to remember. Father Kevin Burke of Santa Clara University (editor or co-editor of Ignacio Ellacuría: Essays on History, Liberation, and Salvation (2013), Love that Produces Hope: The Thought of Ignacio Ellacuría (2006), Pedro Arrupe: Essential Writings (2004) and The Ground Beneath the Cross: The Theology of Ignacio Ellacuría (2000)) was also there that night but I didn't meet him personally until last month's event at Marquette.

As far as I know, the closest the US has come to recognizing its responsibility for much of the violence came in 1999 when President Bill Clinton visited the region. Most of the that coverage was on his "non-apology" in Guatemala where he said that

"United States... support for military forces or intelligence units which engaged in violent and widespread repression... was wrong."

He did so shortly after the UN's Commission for Historical Clarification released its findings. However, Bill Clinton also spoke earlier that day in San Salvador where he addressed the country's legislatures.

Earlier today, in El Salvador, the President told regional legislative leaders that it was time to put the bitter ideological struggles of the past behind them and begin to address their gaping social and economic inequalities.

In an address to the National Assembly of El Salvador today, Mr. Clinton obliquely acknowledged the United States' role in the wars that bloodied the region. But in that address, he stopped short of apologizing for American support for murderous military regimes that fostered long reigns of repression.

American backing for right-wing Governments in Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua and covert actions against leftist guerrillas created ''bitter divisions'' in the United States, Mr. Clinton said. But with every nation in Central America now under democratic rule, he said, the United States will try provide the financial and moral assistance to enhance political and economic development.

''We are determined to remember the past,'' Mr. Clinton said, ''but never repeat it.''

In the US, President Clinton was condemned by the right for making any apology whatsoever while he was also condemned by the left for not really apologizing at all. The same held true on the right in Central America. I would assume on the left as well but I don't remember having read any coverage of their response.

I think President Clinton's statements were an important step in recognizing the US recognizing its complicity in the violence (perhaps the arrests of war criminals in the US could be read as another). However, President Mauricio Funes' apology on behalf of the Salvadoran State, it would be more meaningful if it came directly from those who were in office at the time of the violence (see here).

Justice Deferred: Rule of Law in Central America

I have a new report on Justice Deferred: Rule of Law in Central America for the World Politics Review where I take more of an historical overview of developments in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.

After more than two decades of work by national and international actors, the rule of law in Central America remains weak. While there seems to have been progress in prosecuting high-profile cases, most crimes go unpunished. The rule of law is stronger in the capitals and urban areas than in rural areas, and rarely extends to women, the indigenous and the poor. There is a commitment to free and fair elections in theory, but not so much in practice. Twenty-five years after the end of the Cold War and Central America’s movement toward civilian government, the rule of law remains elusive.

The end to the civil wars in Guatemala and El Salvador as well as the civilian transition in Honduras provided an opportunity for the transformation of the political, social, and economic conditions in each country. Competitive elections began in the 1980s and continued into the 1990s with the transitions of the FMLN and URNG to political parties. There were some successful efforts by civilian leaders to regain control over the military in the 1990s / 2000s in each country and to move the security institutions in the direction of what one would expect of such institutions in democratic states.

However, while we can point to a number of successful rule of law initiatives over the last twenty-five years, there is little evidence of any systematic transformation.

You can go read the longer form piece here (~3,500 words).

In Memory of the Martyrs of the University of Central America

Prayer vigil at the UCA (1997)

Re-enactment of the martyrs deaths at the UCA (1997)

The President of the University of Scranton Father Kevin Quinn wrote some reflections on what the martyrs of El Salvador mean to him and how the University plans to commemorate the November 16th anniversary of their deaths.

To me, the martyrs—my Jesuit brothers and their companions—provide motivation for the distinctive education that Catholic and Jesuit universities in North America bring to the students we serve in the 21st century.

What all universities claim to teach their students—specifically, to think critically, reason analytically, solve problems and communicate clearly—is necessary, but not sufficient, for Catholic and Jesuit universities. A Catholic and Jesuit university should ask more of its students by educating and forming them to become men and women of faith and of service to their communities.

Jesuit education, animated by the vision of St. Ignatius Loyola and his first companions, applies insights born of St. Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises. The insights include: “a personal calling that frees us to embrace our truest passions in following Christ and in service of others; the redemptive possibility of self-giving love that invites us to attend to the cries of those who suffer; the experience of enduring goodness that gives hope for a world in which the Spirit always labors.”

One of the key phrases capturing the charism of Ignatian spirituality is “to love and serve in all things.” Here lies the key to Jesuit higher education in the 21st century. For a Jesuit university should ask more of its students by challenging them to make Ignatius’ charge—his notion of service—their own. Jesuit educators can do this by shaping not just what students know, but who they become: men and women of adult faith, of competence, for and with others. This is the Jesuit difference.

But there is a catch here, a shift in educational philosophy: It is not just serving others and learning about people, but learning with and from people who are often excluded from participation in economic, social and political life. And further, the Jesuit difference integrates academic inquiry, creative imagination and reflection on experience that inspires fashioning a more just and humane society. In sum, the 21st century Jesuit university should encourage profound engagement with the real and so commit itself to a pedagogy of active, collaborative, transformative learning about social justice, as an integral part of a liberal education.

To deliver a transformative education in the Jesuit tradition requires the integration of academic, moral and spiritual learning—the union of mind, heart and soul.

I love teaching at a Jesuit university where people are committed to these ideals and are striving to make them a reality. The sense of community is really something special. I'm not sure we are there yet but maybe that's just the magis in me.

Today marks the anniversary of the launch of the FMLN's (second) final offensive in El Salvador. The offensive was spectacular but would ultimately fail causing a series of events, including the murders at the UCA, that would ultimately lead to the end of the war and the signing of peace accords two years later.

Tomorrow, I head to Fairfield University, my alma mater, in order to participate in a panel discussion on “Celebrating Life and Culture in El Salvador.”