Obama to Visit Romero's Crypt

Romero's Residence

President Obama is scheduled to visit the tomb of Monsignor Oscar Romero while on his visit to El Salvador this week. Romero was struck down by an assassin's bullet on March 24, 1980. As I mentioned in January, I thought that this was a no-brainer place for Obama to visit.

Here's former guerrilla Lorena Pena and former US Ambassador to El Salvador Robert White's takes on Obama's visit to Romero's crypt.

“It’s historic,” said Congresswoman Lorena Pena, a former guerrilla fighter with the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, a rebel group-turned-political party. “It’s a recognition of our pastor who was killed for fighting for justice, for democracy and human rights.”

Robert White, who was the U.S. ambassador to El Salvador in the early 1980s, said that the visit by Obama to Romero’s tomb “is like a U.S. stamp of approval on the positive influence Romero’s life and death have had on Latin America and the world.”

The visit “is a declaration that the United States is no longer identified with oligarchic governments,” added White, who is now director of the Washington-based Center for International Policy, a foreign policy think tank.  

It's true that Romero was fighting for justice, democracy, and human rights when he was killed. He spent the last few months of his life doing everything he could to prevent all out war between the government and the rebels in the country.

While he was sympathetic to the rebels in terms of what they were fighting against (the oligarchy and government repression), however, he did not support their use of violence to bring about change in the country. Violence would only beget more violence. Maybe his stance would have changed had he not died, but as of March 24, he had not come out in support of the guerrillas.

The Cathedral

While Romero has been adopted as a hero on the extreme left to the moderate right, not everyone is happy with Obama's tribute to Romero.

I imagine that (Obama) is doing something natural ... a courtesy visit to someone who is supposed to represent some measure of national spirit, (but) half of Salvadorans do not believe Romero is worthy of sanctification,” Mario Valenti, a former president and member of the right-wing party Nationalist Republican Alliance, or Arena, was quoted by El Mundo newspaper as saying in its Friday edition.

Obama “should also go to the grave of Major Roberto d’Aubuisson,” Valenti said, referring to the notorious death squad leader.

This is just disgusting and a reminder that some on the Salvadoran right don't have a democratic bone in their body.

Romero's Crypt in the Cathedral