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The US & El Salvador: Interview with Maryknoll Missionary

By VVAW

El Salvador is a small country in Central America. Controlled by a military junta (made in the USA) it is the largest recipient of U.S. military officer training conducted in the Panama Canal Zone. It is also racked by a civil war that has claimed close to 10,000 lives, among them more than 100 priests and nuns from the Catholic Church. In order to find out more about the situation and to inform our readers, we interviewed Father Roy Bourgeois, a Maryknoll missionary who has spent more than 5 years in South America including an investigative trip to El Salvador.

Fr Bourgeois grew up and attended college in Louisiana. He joined the Navy in 1962; from 1966-1967 he was in Vietnam where he was wounded and received a Purple Heart. He decided on becoming a missionary after his experiences with a Catholic orphanage in Vietnam caring for 400 children. He said, "I went over thinking the Vietnamese communists were our enemy but found that it was the poor and struggling people of Vietnam whom we were fighting."

Upon returning to the U.S. Fr Bourgeois joined the Maryknolls, a Catholic missionary group centered mainly in South America. During seminary he became involved with VVAW in the early '70's in New York. "I was torn," he said, "about what to do (when he was supposed to leave for Bolivia) about belonging to the antiwar movement, but I left and Bolivia was home for the next five years, where I worked in a community development program in the Barrio, a slum."

"My first three years were mainly social work, setting up medical clinics, day-care centers, teaching school. I was living in a small room for $8 a month, living with the people. I heard the cry of hungry children at night. I decided then to become a voice for and with the people.

"Things became very oppressive and we formed a Human Rights Commission to speak out for the needs of the poor and against U.S. aid to the Bolivian dictatorship. Then, one day I was arrested by four plain-clothes policemen with machine guns and taken to jail." Fr Bourgeois was worked over, tortured by the secret police to find out the names of the Bolivians he was working with. They did not find out any names and luckily, the Bishop of La Paz found out about his abduction and put pressure on the ruling generals for his release. He was declared persona non grata and sent back to the U.S.

In 1978 Fr Bourgeois was sent to El Salvador as part of a Church Human Rights Commission and has continued to work on the situation there. He explained: "First, you have got a situation of exploitation, an oligarchy of the so-called 14 families who own 65% of the farmland, businesses and companies. The wealth and power are in the hands of a few. As for the rest of the country, 40% of the children die before they reach the age of six. Those who do work are paid on the average a dollar a day. Illiteracy stands at 65%. There is a limit to what the people can take—they are beginning to resist.

"The resistance is made up of different sectors. First, the peasants (mostly small farmers) who work the land for the 14 families. Second, the workers; in El Salvador labor unions are outlawed and it is the death penalty for organizing one. Third, students, university professors, high school teachers, even doctors. Many doctors have been killed. There are also small businessmen who feel they cannot make it under the ruling families. All of these different sectors are resisting the 2% (who control the military, the police and the National Guard). Incidentally, many of the officers have been trained at West Point.

"The State Department likes to portray the struggle as one between the extreme left and the extreme right. The truth of the matter is that the struggle is a liberation struggle. The majority (90%) make up the peoples' forces; they are fighting to overthrow the small ruling class.

"The U.S. does not want to admit this. The struggle is basically one of the people to survive. Bishop Oscar Romero said this and was killed on March 24. Prior to this, on February 17th, he wrote a letter to Carter pleading with him not to send aid to the ruling junta. On April 1st, the U.S. approved $5.5 million in military aid and $30 million in 'economic aid."

Fr Bourgeois closed by saying "I talk to a lot of high school students, and tell them, if we (the U.S.) fights (in El Salvador) it will be against the people of El Salvador, the poor and the oppressed. They will be asked to come to the aid of the oligarcy and thy had damn well better know who they are fighting for and who they are fighting against."

Fr Bourgeois expects to be reassigned to the Missions in 1981, either to Guatemala or El Salvador.

Reagan and his transition team have already said they think too much has been made of "Human rights" and that the U.S. should not be ashamed to support "moderately repressive" dictatorships. Two of Reagan's main foreign affairs advisors have served in the pas as age of Central American dictators. His main foreign affairs advised Allen, was a foreign lobbyist for the Portuguese government fain support for their colonial wars in Africa. Reagan's team has announced that the U.S. must be prepared to send troops anywhere regardless of world opinion or support. And the recent events in El Salvador demonstrate that the rulers believe they can move against the people without incurring any disfavor in the U.S.

STOP INTERVENTION

The government has an elaborate list of items it wants to send to El Salvador—helicopter patrol boats, jeeps, riot control gear and training in "internal security." But before the wish list can be funded, Congress has to act. And that's where individuals can come in a letter to your Congressman Senator can't hurt and may he slow down the propping up of yet another military dictatorship.

For more information, write El Salvador Solidarity Committee 3411 West Diversey Chicago, IL 60647 (312) 227-1632