T he last few days have been a mixed bag for the people of El Salvador. When air temperatures and pressures from Hurricane Ida swung into the Gulf of Mexico, El Salvador seemed to have gotten off more or less unharmed — perhaps a benefit of being the only Central American country without an Atlantic shoreline. But three days later, before residents could breathe a sigh of relief, a nameless tropical storm from the Pacific drenched the country, causing massive flooding and landslides and over 120 casualties.
Yet this disastrous news seems to have overshadowed another extraordinary event this week: The Spanish newspaper El País reported on Saturday that leftist President Mauricio Funes publically acknowledged the government's responsibility in the assassination of activist for the poor Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero in 1980. Now would be a good time to stop stalking Halloween pictures on Facebook.com and head on over to your slightly more academic online vice, Wikipedia.com. If you don't know who Romero was, take two seconds to look him up.
The news reported by El País has been shocking for a few reasons. An admission of responsibility for the action that many attribute as the seedling for the more-than-a-decade-long civil war in El Salvador would seem to be the first effort by the government to recognize its roll in a brutal history. Funes' government represents the first time since the war that a liberal party, the Farabundo Marti Liberation Front (FMLN), has been in power since the war's end in 1992. Prior to last year's election, the rightwing party Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) had been in power for decades, including a harsh reign during the war itself. An admission of guilt by ARENA would seem impossible; indeed, they have a history of refusing association with some of the country's most egregious human rights violations, passing the blame onto independent agents or the army.
Yet in Central America, it is understood that few political actions are taken without the planning of autores intelectuales, or intellectual authors of political might who instruct lower-level operatives to actually commit crimes. After the war, ARENA managed to slip out from the hand of justice when the Peace Accords brokered (read: handed down) by the ARENA government and guerilla fighters in 1992 included an Amnesty Law, which released fighters on both sides from being prosecuted for their actions, essentially allowing ARENA's atrocities to be simply brushed over in history. The Salvadoran people have still not had closure from their government for the atrocities it committed against them in the 12-year period of the war; I witnessed this firsthand while visiting over the summer. This is not to say that guerilla fighters were not guilty of crimes as well, but I think most will agree with my assessment that government-sanctioned crackdowns on their own people are particularly brutal. The extent of U.S. funding and "advising" of this regime is perhaps best saved for another week.
The magnitude of Funes' statement goes beyond partisan lines to progress in healing a nation. Something of such magnitude then, might be expected to be found somewhere besides the back pages of El País and gain international attention. Yet despite any number of Google News and New York Times searches, it seems that few have picked up on this huge step for the voice of the people in Central America's most population-dense republic. For once, it seems, the government is speaking for the people, but the international world is not listening. Part of me wants to make excuses for the international press; perhaps their reports on the issue were put on hold in order to cover the storm's damage. It isn't every day that governments try to right past wrongs, particularly in Central America. Maybe it's time to give some credit to those who do.
