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PRESIDENT HIGGINS WILL visit the tomb of murdered Catholic archbishop Oscar Romero on the final day of his visit to El Salvador today.
Archbishop Romero became a symbol of the country’s brutal and sustained civil war after he was shot dead in the city of San Salvador in 1980 as he was celebrating mass. He had been outspoken about horrific human rights abuses carried out by the ruling regime.
An estimated 75,000 people died between 1980 and 1992 in El Salvador’s civil war as the US-backed government and military killed and tortured its own population.
Michael D Higgins, who had previously visited the country in 1982, delivered a speech last night in which he spoke about memory and paying tribute to people who fought against the regime.
In it, he described how the country’s social fabric was torn apart by the conflict.
“Theirs was a struggle for greater social justice that included emancipation from poverty, access to land, and the basic means of livelihood for the poorest Salvadorans,” he said.
‘Why care?’ – some could be tempted to ask; ‘it is a thirty years old conflict.’ But for those who have lost a loved one, it does not matter how many years have passed. The questions and pain are always present, for there is no greater object of sorrow, nothing more upsetting than a human life not being allowed to bloom to its full potential.
The naming of each and every one of those who died or was made to ‘disappear’ is of the utmost importance. This is something I personally feel strongly about, and it is why I opened one of my poems from the 1980s, entitled Memory, with a line from French philosopher Paul Ricoeur, which simply said that ‘to be forgotten is to die twice”.
Later today he will also visit the Monument to Memory and Truth which commemorates all the people who died during the conflict.
The President will travel to Costa Rica tomorrow for the final leg of his 12-day official visit to Latin America. He is due to return to Ireland on 31 October.
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Salvador by Oliver Stone was a good watch on the subject
He was a wonderful arch bishop Brian, during a terrible period throughout the entire Latin America region. Identifying more and more with the reality of his office towards the end of his life. A more worthy holder of the title ‘Bishop’ one will not find.
“Odious twerp on sun holiday at taxpayers expense” Great news.
A fake in every sense of the word. A fake intellectual, a fake poet (Read his ‘Donkey’ poem, a four yr old child would write better) He is a pseudo orator who has never wrote one of his own speeches, and a complete fraud depicting himself as a man of the people, a spokesman for the underprivileged. He is a fraud and an overpaid one at that!
Awe I like Micheal D even if he does look like a goblin from the Harry Potter movies.
Grow up
Lighten up
In the words of Comic Book Guy… Worst, news, ever!!
Yet you clicked on the story why??
Hoping to spread bile… Religion and the president …. Nice story, how could you hate it…
U watch too much cartoons bobo, get will the real world.
It is a boring article, it has the least amount of views so far out of today’s columns! As for watching too much cartoons… It’s the Simpsons, who hasn’t seen it! Oh and the reason I opened the article… We’ll I read every bit of news on this regardless of being interesting or not!
Bobo, you are an idiot
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