EL SALVADOR

EL SALVADOR
The village church at El Mozote, Morazán Department. Romero is mentioned in prayers and his image is beside the altar.
guerrilla forces that became part of the
country’s political establishment after
the peace deal and whose current leader
is now El Salvador’s president. Today
Vargas is a member of the Legislative
Assembly as a member of the Nationalist
Republican Alliance, or ARENA, which
governed El Salvador from 1999-2009.
Speaking of Romero, Vargas said, “His
homilies and his words were absolutely
manipulated by both the left and Liberation
Theology priests,” he told me referring
to the movement within the church
that calls on priests to actively oppose
social inequality and that such work is
not decoupled from religion and faith.
Romero did not publicly portray himself
as a liberation theologian although
the issues he addressed dovetailed with
some of the movement’s ideals.
“The left infused his words with
Marxist-Leninist ideals,” Vargas told me,
“and that’s what the guerrillas did in
the mountains. They used his words for
indoctrination. His image should not be
used for political ends.” Vargas said that
he wanted to make clear his personal
reverence for Romero. “There are people
who don’t like him today but that is
because they don’t understand what he
represented. “I have read his words. He
was a pastor and nothing more.”
Others in ARENA, including party
president Jorge Velado, have accused the
FMLN government of former Salvadoran
President Mauricio Funes (2009-2014)
of blatant “politicization” of Romero.
Funes publicly referred to Romero as his
“guide” in government; he renamed the
San Salvador airport; he gave a piece of
Romero’s bloodstained vestment to Pope
Francis and he formally apologized on
behalf of the state for the killing, saying
the death squad that killed the Archbishop
“unfortunately acted with the protection,
collaboration or participation of
state agents.” All are gestures that critics
claim demonstrate the FMLN’s co-opting
of Romero for political ends.
Of the current government, Velado
said, “Some people from the FMLN are
all the time saying that Monseñor Romero
was a person very close to us, [that]
he used to think like we think. That’s
not true.” But Velado added the current
FMLN government of Salvador Sánchez
Cerén is not “over the top” the way he
charges Funes was. Velado pointed out
that he, along with Roberto d’Aubuisson
Arrieta, son of ARENA founder Roberto
d’Aubuisson, were in the delegation of
dignitaries attending Romero’s beatification
ceremony. FMLN supporters
heckled the ARENA members and
branded them as political opportunists
for attending. The younger d’Aubuisson,
72 ReVista SPRING 2016