AMERICA/EL SALVADOR - Mgr. Romero was not a politician but a true pastor

San Salvador (Agenzia Fides) - "Mgr. Romero was not a political figure, but a true pastor, because he lived preaching the Gospel, therefore it is not fair to make him a character linked to the political-party system," said the Archbishop of San Salvador, Monsignor José Luis Escobar, at the press conference after Palm Sunday Mass, which coincided with the anniversary of the assassination of Mgr. Romero.
On March 24, 1980, Mgr. Romero was shot to death while celebrating Mass in a hospital chapel in San Salvador. In that year a civil war was about to start that lasted until 1992.
The archbishop said he was cautious about the "consequences" of any annulment of the amnesty law of 1993, required on March 20 by local organizations for human rights in the Supreme Court of Justice because he left in impunity the crimes committed during the civil war, including that of the case of Mgr. Romero.
The Commission for Truth that investigated the crimes committed during the civil war, in its report published in 1993 states that there is "clear evidence" of complicity in the murder of Romero by Roberto D'Aubuisson (who died in 1992), founder of the Nationalist Republican Alliance party of the extreme right, that ruled the country in the period 1989-2009. The assassination of Mgr. Romero, like many crimes against humanity committed during the civil war go unpunished, such as the killing of six Jesuit priests in 1989 (five of them Spanish) and two of their local collaborators.
(CE) (Agenzia Fides 25/03/2013)