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Judge
Atilio Ramirez Amaya
Judge
Ramirez Amaya is a criminal law practitioner
in San Salvador, El Salvador, and a professor of criminal law at
the National
University there. In 1980, he was the judge in charge of
Criminal Court No. 4 in San
Salvador and was assigned the investigation
of Archbishop Romero’s assassination.
As a consequence of his involvement in the investigation, Ramirez
Amaya faced numerous threats and was repeatedly told to abandon the
investigation. Eventually members of the security forces
attempted to kill Ramirez Amaya and his family and they were forced
to flee the country.
Ambassador Robert White
Robert White served as a U.S.
diplomat in Central and South America from 1963 until 1981, including
as Ambassador to Paraguay. He served as the Ambassador to El
Salvador from March 1980 through
March 1981. He consulted
with Archbishop Romero and was present at the Archbishop’s final Sunday
service on March 23, 1980. After
retiring from the Foreign Service in 1981, White served as Senior
Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Since joining the Center for International Policy as its president
in 1989, he has led delegations to several Caribbean and Latin American
countries, published numerous articles on U.S. policy in the region, and is leading an ongoing
effort to reform U.S. intelligence agencies.
Amado
Antonio Garay
He served as Saravia’s driver.
He drove the shooter to the chapel where the shooter killed Archbishop
Romero, and then drove the shooter back to Saravia.
Professor Terry Lynn Karl
Terry Lynn Karl is the Gildred
Professor of Latin American Studies at Stanford University. She previously served as the Director of the Stanford Center for Latin American Studies. Her research on Latin America focuses
on human rights, democratization, economic development, and the effects
of U.S. foreign policy. She is the author of numerous books and
articles on these subjects.
In conjunction with her scholarly research, she conducted several
field research missions to El
Salvador.
Karl has received many awards for her research including a
MacArthur grant. In addition
to her teaching at Stanford, Karl has led courses on democratization
in Chile, Cuba, El Salvador,
and South Africa. In 1997 she received the Order of Rio
Branco from the president and foreign minister of Brazil in recognition of her service to Latin
America.
Francisco Acosta Arevalo
Francisco Acosta, a native
of El Salvador
and now a U.S. citizen, knew Archbishop Romero
from the time that Acosta began his studies as a seminarian. Romero was instrumental in saving the
life of Acosta's brother, a labor organizer, by sheltering him after
a failed assassination attempt against him.
Acosta was active in El Salvador in building housing for
the poor; for this, he also was targeted and was forced into exile. After the civil war, Acosta co-founded
the Monsignor Oscar Romero
University in the Salvadoran
province of Chalatenango. Acosta now works for a non-governmental
organization that works to preserve Medicare and social security.
Esther del Carmen Chavez Mancia
Esther Chavez Mancia
is an organizer for the American Friends Service Committee in New Jersey. She attributes her activism in her native
El Salvador
to her contact with Archbishop Romero.
Romero encouraged her to assess the community needs of her
Christian base community, a grassroots organization within the Catholic
Church. Responding to
those needs, she founded a day care center which Romero visited.
Death threats forced Chavez into exile soon after Romero's
assassination. She has dedicated herself to work on behalf
of Salvadoran and other immigrant communities in the U.S. since her
arrival here over twenty years ago.
Father Jon Cortina, S.J.
Father
Cortina is a Jesuit priest and the
director of Pro Busqueda, an organization that helps reunify families
torn apart by the Salvadoran civil war, especially those whose children
were kidnapped by the military and put up for adoption through military
channels. During the armed conflict, Cortina worked
in Aguilares, a rural community frequently visited and supported by
Monsignor Romero. The
religious leader of Aguilares was Father Rutilio Grande, one of Archbishop
Romero’s best friends and a key person in helping to deepen Romero’s
understanding of the Salvadoran people.
Fr. Grande was assassinated by a death squad in 1977. Cortina worked very closely with
Fr. Grande and Archbishop Romero during those early years.
Bishop
Thomas Gumbleton
Bishop Gumbleton is one of
the leading advocates for peace and disarmament in the United States,
and he has spoken and written widely about Archbishop Romero. Gumbleton founded Pax Christi in 1972
and served as its president from 1972 until 1991. He co-authored the 1983 U.S. Conference
of Catholic Bishops’ Pastoral Letter, “The Challenge of Peace.” He has traveled to conflict zones throughout
the world to work for peace, including at least a dozen delegations
to El Salvador.
He is the recipient of numerous honorary degrees as well as
awards for his peace work. Named
a Bishop in 1968, Gumbleton currently serves in a parish in inner-city
Detroit.
Maria Julia Hernandez
Maria Julia Hernandez is the founding director
of Tutela Legal, the human rights office of the Archdiocese of San
Salvador. She worked
very closely with Archbishop Romero during his three years as Archbishop,
from 1977-1980. Under
Maria Julia’s leadership, Tutela Legal has been a leading voice for
human rights in El
Salvador and has continued to carry
on the vision of Archbishop Romero.
Prior to founding Tutela Legal, Maria Julia studied philosophy
and law at the Central American University in San
Salvador.
Professor Naomi Roht-Arriaza
Naomi Roht-Arriaza is a professor
at the University of California,
Hastings College of the Law. She is a world-renowned expert on the issues
of impunity of human rights abusers, accountability for past abuses
in transitional societies, and universal jurisdiction. Roht-Arriaza also is an expert in international
human rights law and international environmental law. She is the author of “Impunity and Human
Rights in International Law and Practice,” a forthcoming book on the
impact of the arrest of Augusto Pinochet, as well as numerous articles. In addition to her research and teaching
activities, Roht-Arriaza serves on the boards of several human rights
and environmental non-governmental organizations.
The
Reverend Canon William L. Wipfler, Ph.D.
The Reverend Wipfler, an Episcopal
priest, has long been involved in the struggle for human rights in
Latin America. From 1977-1988, he served as Director of the Human Rights Office of the National Council
of Churches (NCCCUSA). Before
that he was the Director of NCCCUSA’s Latin America Department for
ten years, and was a missionary in Costa
Rica and the Dominican Republic. Wipfler has lectured widely and is the
author of numerous publications on human rights; he also has testified
before Congress regarding human rights in Central America. In
recognition of this work, he has received numerous honors, including
the Letelier-Moffit Award for Human Rights in 1980.
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