Now that San Salvador Archbishop Oscar Romero is being seriously considered for sainthood, the story of El Salvador in the 1980s is being told again. Romero became archbishop in 1977, and he was assassinated 24 March 1980. In February, 1980, Romero wrote to U.S. President Jimmy Carter warning against the military aid the U.S. Government was giving to El Salvador's repressive regime.

I have a friend who lived in El Salvador at the time, an American woman married to an Salvadoran. She was there during part of the Salvadoran Civil War (1979-92), and she saw dead bodies in the street every day.

With the 1980 election of Ronald Reagan, the U.S. began to give military aid to the El Salvador regime, hoping to keep communism out of Central America. U.S. aid continued through the 1980s. The 1989 murder of Jesuit priests probably triggered the ending of U.S. aid.

More at http://www.pbs.org/itvs/enemiesofwar/elsalvador2.html

-Joe-