Bishop threatened after opposing violence in west Colombia

[Judi Lynn]

by Adriaan Alsema March 5, 2021

The bishop of Buenaventura received death threats after speaking out against violence that is submerging Colombia’s largest port city on the Pacific coast.

In a radio interview, Bishop Ruben Dario Jaramillo said he received a death threat via WhatsApp and was warned he could become the victim of a bomb attack.

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The church leader told W Radio on Wednesday that “some powerful groups in Buenaventura are upset that people talk about things that are happening here.”

I am not afraid because I am with God. I am doing my things with responsibility and showing what is happening in Buenaventura makes some people uncomfortable.

Bishop Ruben Dario Jaramillo

More:
https://colombiareports.com/bishop-threatened-after-opposing-violence-in-west-colombia/

He dares to speak out for protection for the innocents, and, of course, goes to the top of their assassination list. It's an old story, isn't it?

[XanaDUer2]

1. Recc'd

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[Judi Lynn]

2. Archbishop Oscar Romero's assassination in El Salvador by the Government

Archbishop Oscar Romero

Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez (15 August 1917 – 24 March 1980) was a prelate of the Catholic Church in El Salvador who served as the fourth Archbishop of San Salvador. He spoke out against poverty, social injustice, assassinations, and torture amid a growing war between left-wing and right-wing forces.[3] In 1980, Romero was assassinated while celebrating Mass in the chapel of the Hospital of Divine Providence. Though no one was ever convicted for the crime, investigations by the UN-created Truth Commission for El Salvador concluded that the extreme right-wing politician, founder of ARENA and the U.S.-backed death squad leader Roberto D'Aubuisson had given the order.[4]

During Romero's beatification, Pope Francis stated, "His ministry was distinguished by his particular attention to the most poor and marginalized."[5] Hailed as a hero by supporters of liberation theology inspired by his work, Romero, according to his biographer, "was not interested in liberation theology" but faithfully adhered to Catholic teachings on liberation and a preferential option for the poor,[6] desiring a social revolution based on interior reform. Up to the end of his life, his spiritual life drew much from the spirituality of Opus Dei.[7][8] While seen as a social conservative at his appointment as archbishop in 1977, he was deeply affected by the murder of his friend and fellow priest Rutilio Grande a few weeks after his own appointment and subsequently developed into an outspoken social activist.

In 2010, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 24 March as the "International Day for the Right to the Truth Concerning Gross Human Rights Violations and for the Dignity of Victims" in recognition of the role of Romero in defence of human rights. Romero actively denounced violations of the human rights of the most vulnerable people and defended the principles of protecting lives, promoting human dignity and opposing all forms of violence.

. . .

Massacre at Romero's funeral
During the ceremony, smoke bombs exploded on the streets near the cathedral and subsequently there were rifle shots that came from surrounding buildings, including the National Palace. Many people were killed by gunfire and in the stampede of people running away from the explosions and gunfire. Official sources reported 31 overall casualties, while journalists claimed that between 30 and 50 died.[58] Some witnesses claimed it was government security forces who threw bombs into the crowd, and army sharpshooters, dressed as civilians, who fired into the chaos from the balcony or roof of the National Palace. However, there are contradictory accounts about the course of the events and one historian[who?] stated that "probably, one will never know the truth about the interrupted funeral."[58]

As the gunfire continued, Romero's body was buried in a crypt beneath the sanctuary. Even after the burial, people continued to line up to pay homage to their martyred prelate.[21][59][60][61]

. . .

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%93scar_Romero

While the priest is speaking to the crowd assembled in the courtyard, you can hear several single rifle shots but apparently the crowd is so large, so many people jammed together for the funeral, nothing happens from the camera's vantage point. at 2:55 minutes, finally the camera focuses on one lady who has been shot as some people run to get her to some help. Immediately after, more shots start raining down on the crowd, and you can see how very many people are caught in the crossfire, trying to get to safety. Who would want to slaughter the very people Archbishop Romero saught to save from the murderous hatred of the right-wing government?

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A Report from Romero's Funeral: From April 26, 1980
James L. Connor
April 26, 1980

The U.S. Government's official position toward El Salvador is badly misguided. Of that I am now convinced. Prior to March 30, I would not have said this so confidently. But that day I got a fresh perspective on the question as I huddled with 4,000 terrified peasants inside San Salvador's cathedral while bombs exploded and bullets whistled outside in the plaza where we had gathered to celebrate the funeral of Archbishop Oscar Romero.

……

The funeral ceremonies started calmly on a beautiful, but hot day. A procession of some 30 bishops (from England, Ireland, Spain, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela, Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Panama, Costa Rica and the United States) and more than 200 priests wound its way through eight or ten blocks of the city from the church where we had vested to the cathedral. Hundreds of people lined the sidewalks, many of them listening to a radio broadcast of the event on their transistor radios. We had been assured that the day would be peaceful and free of "events." The Popular Front, including the far left, had covenanted to observe nonviolence in honor of the archbishop, and it seemed unthinkable that the hard-line right would desecrate this moment unless first provoked.

. . .

Beyond these matters of fact, a series troubling questions remained as one tried to fathom the logic of the Government's attempted interpretation: Why had it taken the militia, some of whom are known to have been stationed only blocks away, so long to appear on a scene of bombs blasting and guns firing? Who would most like to see the common people and the clergy terrorized?

The next day, on the flight home from San Salvador, I began to puzzle together the bits and pieces of what I had seen and heard about El Salvador in the past three years as well as over this tragic weekend. In a sense it became a choice between Archbishop Romero and the U.S. State Departrment.

My conclusions run along this line: In EI Salvador, governments come and go. Be it a military dictatorship or a civilian-military junta in form is of little consequence because the real power behind the throne remains the same. It is the wealthy oligarchs who consistently control the government, the police force, the judiciary, the militia, the media and with much more limited success, as events indicate the church.

Given this history, it is easy to understand why the oligarchy would violently reject the campisino's claim to land reform, to political organization, to participative democracy, to freedom of ownership and association, to education, housing and a just income. These moves would undercut its power base by restructuring a society that in a way seems almost a 1980'S throwback to feudalism.

. . .

The response of the powers-that-be in EI Salvador continues to be a series of empty gestures toward reform through puppet governments (made largely, one suspects, to soothe U. S. sensitivities and to insure continued U.S. aid) and more insidiously by far, a simultaneous increase in brutal repression and intimidation of the poor through torture, murder, acts of terrorism aimed at tearing the heart out of any desire for human rights.

More:
https://www.americamagazine.org/issue/100/report-romeros-funeral

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Video on "Blowtorch Bob" D'Aubuisson, true monster.