Remembering the 1989 Murders of Six Jesuit Priests in El Salvador

REMEMBERING THE 1989 MURDERS OF SIX JESUIT PRIESTS IN EL SALVADOR -- (House of Representatives - November 16, 2005)

(Mr. McGOVERN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, 16 years ago today, in the dead of night, the Salvadoran Army's U.S.-trained Atalacatl Battalion entered the grounds of the University of Central America in San Salvador, pulled six Jesuit priests from their beds, marched them out onto the lawn behind their residence, put high-powered rifles to their heads and shot them dead in cold blood. A few minutes later, these same soldiers discovered the Jesuits' housekeeper and her teenager daughter hiding in the house and murdered them as well.

A bipartisan commission appointed by the Speaker of the House and chaired by our former colleague, Congressman Joe Moakley, investigated this heinous crime, identified the killers, and the Commission's report became critical evidence in the prosecution and conviction of the priests' killers and, I believe, in creating support for the U.N.-brokered negotiations that ended El Salvador's 12-year civil war.

Mr. Speaker, I knew these priests. I was proud to call them my friends. Let us take a moment to remember their courage and to remember the bipartisan work of this House under the leadership of Joe Moakley that helped El Salvador forge a pathway to peace.

Let us never forget the names of those who were murdered on November 16, 1989: Father Ignacio Ellacuria, Father Ignacio Martin-Baro, Father Segundo Montes, Father Armando Lopez, Father Joaquin Lopez y Lopez, Father Juan Ramon Moreno, Celina Maricet Ramos and Elba Julia Ramos.

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