 Members of Wednesday Morning Coalition protest assassination of Jesuit priests and civilians at the University Central America in El Salvador. Participants include Rev. Jim Lawson, Fr. Luis Olivares, Rev. Frederick Borsch, Cardinal Mahoney, actors Martin Sheen & Ed Asner and community activists Mary Brent Whirli & Sr. Pat Kroamer. |
1989 In the midst of war intensification in El Salvador and its impact in the Los Angeles community, CARECEN’s legal services and education outreach expands to secure the legal and constitutional rights of immigrant refugees. CARECEN’s "Ningun Ser Humano es Illegal" campaign begins a hunger strike on the steps of the INS Federal Building. Participants in the solidarity movement include: Salvadoran refugees, Father Luis Olivares, actors Martin Sheen & Ed Asner and hundreds of priests & church people active in an ecumenical committee to ensure just treatment of refugees. Their demands are for the US to recognize refugees and to stop US intervention in El Salvador and its support of the Salvadoran military. On September 25, CARECEN and the national network of Central American Refugee Committees organize the "Caravan for Peace," a nationwide campaign/tour starting in San Francisco as a means to create higher public awareness regarding US military aid and policy in El Salvador. The caravan committee participates in 55 press interviews, contacts 25,000 people directly, conducts 250 presentations/events, visits 49 congressional and senatorial offices and generates over 1,700 emergency telexes to El Salvador. The caravan raises funds for economic aid to the refugees in Mesa Grande, Honduras. On November 11, the Farabundo Marti Liberation Front (FMLN) launches a major military offensive in El Salvador that includes assaults against military strongholds all over the country, resulting in the FMLN occupation of half the capital of El Salvador. This event was the turning point for the negotiated solution to the civil war. The North American public is shocked by the Salvadoran military assassination of six Jesuit priests, a housekeeper and her fifteen year-old daughter at the Universidad Centroamerica (UCA). This, coupled with the assasination of Archibishop Oscar Romero on March 24, 1980, and the killing by the Salvadoran military of four North American religious women in 1980, creates a public outcry by Americans participating in the Sanctuary and Solidarity Movement. |