User:SRobert99/1980 murders of U.S. missionaries in El Salvador

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On December 2, 1980, four Catholic missionaries from the United States working in El Salvador were raped and murdered by five members of the El Salvador National Guard (Daniel Canales Ramirez, Carlos Joaquin Contreras Palacios, Francisco Orlando Contreras Recinos, Jose Roberto Moreno Canjura, and Luis Antonio Colindres Aleman). The murdered missionaries were Maryknoll Sisters Maura Clarke and Ita Ford, Ursuline Dorothy Kazel, and lay missionary Jean Donovan.

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The Salvadoran Civil War began after a 1979 military coup brought the Revolutionary Government Junta to power. Catholic activists protested against the junta's oppression of impoverished citizens. Óscar Romero, the Archbishop of San Salvador, was assassinated on March 24, 1980, while performing Mass. The four murdered Americans were involved in an international humanitarian aid mission which was accused by the régime of fomenting political opposition.[citation needed]

El Salvador was in the midst of the Cold War, which had enveloped other neighboring Latin American nations in conflict. Other countries practiced involvement and interference, namely the United States. American intervention was generally limited to support of the Salvadoran Military Junta through the use of helicopter airlifts of troops as well as airstrikes conducted by helicopters and jets. United States Marine vessels were positioned in the Gulf of Fonseca late in the 1970's and were to remain well into the 1980s. Additionally, American ground forces have also been reported to have played a role in the conflict, likely in the form of special operations units.

Fear and paranoia among the Salvadoran government was present leading up to 1980. Robert White, the U.S. ambassador to El Salvador at the time, commented that any association with the poor in El Salvador would be treated as participation in the revolution by the military and government.

El Salvador has a history of violence against clergy, with the Arch-bishop Oscar Romero being murdered just months before the four Maryknoll Sisters. On March 23rd, 1980, Romero gave a sermon calling for Salvadoran military personnel to defy the orders of their superiors which he argued resulted in the suffering of his fellow Christians. The following day, he was assassinated by a gunman while attending mass in a local hospital. Romero would later be canonized on October 18th, 2018 by Pope Francis.

During the 1960s, following calls from Pope Paul VI to bolster the Catholic Church in Latin America, European and North American clergy and missionaries travelled to the region. The Maryknoll Sisters made up one such group.The Maryknoll Sisters were an active organization in several South American countries throughout the 20th century. The group was heavily involved in both religion and society in Peru, Nicaragua, and El Salvador starting in the 1960s.