The Jesuits today remember their martyred colleagues and friends with the observation: ‘The Gospel is dangerous: now as much as ever.’
The story of the Jesuit murders is essential to understanding U.S. policy in the Western Hemisphere: It is hazardous to the people’s health.
The Jesuit priests were scholars, defenders of the poor, and peacemakers. Led by the Spanish-born rector of the University of Central America, Ignacio Ellacuria, they were killed because they represented a threat to the CIA-trained High Command of the Salvadoran military.
The assassins had allies in the U.S. government because they had been trained by the U.S. government.
The Salvadoran security forces didn’t carry out these horrors alone. They were armed, trained, funded, and advised by the United States. The attack at the UCA was carried out by members of the Atlacatl Battalion, an elite counterinsurgency force trained at the infamous School of the Americas (SOA) in Fort Benning, Georgia. Several members of the military high command who gave the orders and participated in the cover-up were also graduates of that illustrious institution.
Source: 30 Years Ago Today in El Salvador, US-Trained Soldiers Murdered 6 Priests in Cold Blood
