Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
My visit to the university grounds where those six Jesuit priests were shot was
poignant. Reading about events in faraway lands in the newspaper, you learn what
happened. Then you can flip to the sports pages or comics. But hearing the story of an
event from people who lived through it, you
feel
what happened. Right there behind the
bedrooms of those professors, the smell of the flowers, the hard labor of the hunched-over
gardener, the quiet focus of students whose parents lost a revolution, the knowledge that
my country provided those exploding bullets… all combined to make this experience both
vivid and enduring.
While the FMLN could have fought on, the toll on their country was too great.
Eight years of negotiations finally led to a 1992 peace accord. Suddenly, the guerillas
shaved, washed, and found themselves members of parliament representing a now-peace-
ful FMLN party. For many years, the FMLN played a role in government, but was effect-
ively marginalized. They were welcome…as long as they didn't get too powerful.
Democracy in these countries reminds me of a bonsai tree: You keep it in the window
for others to see, and when it grows too big, you cut it back. And who does the cutting?
It has traditionally been the USA—first through active military involvement, and later
through strong-arm political pressure, including (in 2004) outright threats to deport El Sal-
vador guest workers if ARENA didn't win. You can argue whether American meddling in
Latin American politics is justified. Either way, it makes me uncomfortable to think that
a nation founded on the principles of liberty and freedom wields such a strong influence
over fledgling democracies. I asked Father Jon Sobrino (a leading Jesuit priest and scholar
at the University of Central America) about America's influence on Salvadoran politics.
He said, “These days, when I hear the word 'democracy,' my bowels move.”
