The Catholic Church and Violence

     There is sharp disagreement among WAISers about the role of the Catholic Church in Central American violence. El Salvador has just marked the tenth of the anniversary of the massacre of Jesuits attached to the Central American University. The consensus there is that elements in the Army were responsible. Feelings run high, and indirect U.S. involvement is alleged. U.S. official hostility to the Jesuits in Central America is an old story. Years before the violence, when I was in El Salvador preparing The Scientific Institutions of Latin America, the American Embassy viewed the Central American University with open, indeed vocal hostility.
     For more on this whole business see "A safe haven, but for whom? The U.S. provides sanctuary for many of the world's most wanted" (U.S. News & World Report, November 15, 1999).

Ronald Hilton - 11/17/99