Obama to visit Romero tomb.
American President Barak Obama is scheduled to visit the tomb of Salvadoran “saint” Oscar Romero this week. Romero, a former Archbishop of El Salvador was brutally slain while performing Mass on the evening of March 24th, 1980.
The widely beloved cleric had previously been receiving death threats because of his outspokenness on behalf of the impoverished masses of his country and corresponding criticism of its wealthy, military-backed oligarchs. His tragic death – now believed to have been on the instruction of right-wing military strong-man Major Roberto d’Aubuisson – first led to international outrage and, after some time, efforts to have Romero beatified. So far, those efforts have been resisted by the Vatican.
Last December, following lobbying by organizations like the London-based Archbishop Romero Trust (http://www.romerotrust.org.uk/), the United Nations declared March 24th the International Day for the Right to the Truth concerning Gross Human Rights Violations and for the Dignity of Victims. At that time Romero Trust Chairman Julian Filchosky hailed the UN’s recognition of Romero as an extraordinary development.
The Jesuit led Jose Simeon Cañas Central American University in El Salvador – which also experienced the brutality of the Salvadoran military firsthand in the 1980s – also applauded the UN’s move saying “This is a homage to Monseñor Romero and should fill us with pride as Salvadorans, and with a sensation that the world, in some way, has declared Monseñor Romero a saint. Now he is not only Saint Romero of the Americas...countries with little Catholic tradition such as Azerbaijan and India backed the (UN) proposal.”
Obama will be in El Salvador as part of a Latin American tour that began on Sunday with a visit to Brazil. The tour, which some feel is intended to mark the beginning of a new era in US-Latin American relations, also includes a visit to Chile, where Obama arrived today. American backing of brutal, dictatorial regimes in Latin America, like Agusto Pinochet’s Chile, is a legacy Obama is keen to distance himself and his administration from.
Speaking to the Washington Post recently, former U.S. ambassador to El Salvador (early 1980s) Robert WhiteRobert White said that Obama’s visit to Romero’s tomb “is like a U.S. stamp of approval on the positive influence Romero’s life and death have had on Latin America and the world.”
However many observers – including many Salvadorians and other Latin Americans - will probably view his homage to Romero as a potentially pointless symbol. They will be looking for more tangible demonstrations of support from their super-power northern neighbour. Salvadorans will particularly be looking for US assistance in addressing the Mexican cartel catalyzed or compounded increase in drug related crime and violence that currently undermines their impoverished nation’s efforts to end its legacy of exploitation and underdevelopment.
And outside the Americas, people like Archbishop Romero Trust supporter Pamela Lowe (of Norwich Justice and Peace, Norfolk, England) will also be paying close attention to Obama’s visit, hopeful that America’s first black president can indeed put an end to a pattern of US-Latin American interaction that has historically seen the masses for whom Romero lived and died treated with something approaching criminal negligence.
On Sunday Norwich Justice and Peace will commemorate Romero's death by screening the film “Monseñor: The Last Journey of Oscar Romero”. As promotional material from the group states "this is a new documentary that explores the last three years of Romero’s life." The narrative is developed "through Romero’s own words in extracts from his Sunday homilies, broadcast on radio, and from his personal diary."
Filochowski, who was personally acquainted with Romero, will introduce the film.
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