Identified the killer of Romero, the San Salvador vescovodi awkward scheme

Find peace, 30 years after his death, monsignor Oscar Arnulfo Romero, the Archbishop of San Salvador killed while celebrating mass on March 24, 1980. Peace, but not justice. According to the Salvadoran newspaper Diario CoLatino was identified the killer who, with a sniper rifle, freddò Romero on the altar while up the host. It is Marine Samayoa Acosta, sottosergente of the second section of the now abolished the "National Guard". The revelations emerged are heavy and call into question the responsibility of the State apparatuses. Responsibility that always have hovered over the crime, but never, until now, had been proven. Romero's killer was, at that time, a member of the security of the President, Colonel Arturo Armando Molina. And, according to the diary, it would have been the son of Molina, Mario, to provide the Hitman to delete a Bishop became too uncomfortable, for his complaints against the regime. To give the revelation, it would have been the major Roberto D'aubuisson, founder of the death squads and principal of the murder, which confirms a "murder". Those of high rank because, if it is true that at the time of the civil war more than 200 activists were killed or disappeared, the killing of one of the leaders of the National Catholic Church has a meaning quite different.

It is true that last year, in the 30 anniversary of the death of Romero, President of El Salvador, Mauricio Funes, is officially apologized for the crime. The leaders acknowledged that "the death squads have acted under cover, collaboration, acquiescence or participation of agents of the State". It was illegal armed groups that terrorized the population in the years of civil war (1980-1992). Illegal form, legalized and legitimized by the State in substance. According to the "Truth Commission" which investigated crimes committed during the civil war, "there is plenty of evidence on the involvement of the late Roberto D'aubuisson, founder of the Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA), right-wing party that has ruled the country between 1989 and June 2009. Now there is also the name of the murderer.

There are other responsibilities and other international support. Remind to us President Barack Obama, who visited the tomb of Romero in March this year, is the missionary Roy Bourgeois, which revealed many years ago as the killer of Romero and members of the squadrons were trained in the Institute for Security Cooperation in the Western Hemisphere, known internationally as "School of the Americas (Soa). The missionary, founded the "Soa Watch" nonviolent Observatory, which calls for the closure of the infamous Soa Institute, which has trained military and paramilitary in support of dictatorships or regimes in Argentina, Chile, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Colombia. President Obama's visit to the tomb of Romero, then, seemed an opportunity to bring out the truth and to recognize the u.s. responsibility (at least indirect) in the massacres of the civil war. So it was not. No public fine from the US President.

"Justice is not of this world", and the rulers of Salvador knows well. They knew when they approved an amnesty on crimes committed in the civil war. In the 1993 Parliament of the Central American country, at the suggestion of President Alfredo Cristiani (always party Arena), decided to grant amnesty to culprits: a sponge on the massacres of the regime, priests and bishops were killed in churches, on peasants gunned down in the streets. In spite of the Un report that accused the military and guerrillas to be responsible for a long series of massacres go unpunished and he accused the military and Supreme Court judges suspected of having obstructed the course of justice.

Also justice unearthly language, in the case of Romero. Thirty years after his death, the story and the martyrdom of Romero are critics and opponents even in the Vatican, always distrustful Latin American priests and bishops too active in social and political arena. According to some reports, a few months before his martyrdom, the 7 May 1979, Romero had presented to John Paul II a dossier on human rights violations in his country, but his complaint was upheld by the Pope with the laconic invitation to "have better relations with its Government." Pope Ratzinger and nothing has changed. For years the Church, on the missionary world – the "progressive" – of the ecclesial community celebrates the day of missionary martyrs 24 March, the day of the death of Romero. The cause of beatification of Bishop (iter to proclaim the Holiness), launched in 1997, it remains stranded in who knows what obstacles. Romero is "servant of God" but despite the efforts of Bishop Vincenzo Paglia, "his lawyer on Earth", the Congregation for the causes of Saints seem to do still make ears by merchant.

In Gaza opens the process controi killer "Vik" by Vittorio Arrigoni

Starts today in front of a military court in Gaza, the trial of four people charged in the kidnapping and murder by Vittorio Arrigoni, the activist and Italian reporter killed in the Strip, on the night of 14 and 15 April, after a kidnapping and contours still unclear.

The four defendants are Mohamed Salfiti (23 years), Tamer Hasasnah (25), Khader Gharami (26) and Amer Abu Ghula (25). Missing the call the two alleged leaders of the cell that has kidnapped and killed "Vik", Palestinian Bilal al Omari and Jordan Ahmed Rahman Breizat, killed by Hamas security forces a few days after the discovery of the body of Arrigoni, in blitz against the alleged "hotbed" in the refugee camp of Nusseirat.

According to the indictment, the defendants were part of an armed group Salafi and from what you know – in advance of the depositions defensive today by the newspaper Il Manifesto that has reached one of the lawyers – young people at the bar they tend to confirm this version, even if you reduce the scope of their "group", which would not be part of a structured organization. Mohammed Najar, lawyer Gharami said to manifest that the band's intention was to seize a Westerner, to put pressure on Hamas, and obtain the release of Sheikh Abdel-Walid al-Maqdisi. The action would be served, according to the indictment, to accredit this group as a local contact to Tawhid wal Jihad, a Salafi. Sheikh was arrested two months earlier by Hamas security forces and imprisoned on charges of subversive activity.

Jordan Breizat, pupil of al-Maqdisi, according to the indictment, had entered Gaza some weeks before for trying to organize an operation that saw the release of Sheikh.

According to the version of the defendants, had been to Omari, who knew Arrigoni because they attended the same gym, to indicate the target of kidnapping. The lawyer of Gharami explains that his "assisted" because he insisted was seized Arrigoni, because it was well-known in the Strip and in the world of organizations of solidarity with the Palestinians, and because he "led a life too, does not conform to the dictates of Islam."

The defendants claim that was not their intention to kill Arrigoni, but in the video released by the Group appeared emaciated and swollen for the beatings suffered. It is not clear, and it is up to the military court to clarify the facts, because things have gone out of hand. The group, perhaps, he felt the pressure of the intelligence services of Hamas, which has already been a few hours after the seizure had identified and arrested Gharami, who had the task of following the movements of Arrigoni. At that point, according to defence, Omari and Breizat decided to kill the English and tried, along with the other, to lose their tracks.

In addition to the actual role of the two alleged leaders, it is not clear yet which side had each of the defendants. Mohamed Salfiti said investigators had not been present at the time of the killing of Vittorio, and so also Hasasnah, while Gharami claims not to have had an operational role in the kidnapping and have been limited to follow the Italian activist movement. Ghula, instead, is accused only of flanking because he rented the apartment where the Group has carried out the seizure until his tragic epilogue. The end of the seizure, the advocate Najar, was "first of all get the liberation of al-Maqdisi, then scare Italian, crush it and put it back in freedom".

Victor's family will be represented in the process from the Palestinian Centre for human rights. The military judge Atallah Abu Omar has many things to be clarified, since it was chosen as a victim of Vittorio an operation whose political goal was put in difficulty Hamas, whose authorities have been very reticent about the investigation and did not show the documents the prosecution nor the family Arrigoni.

Joseph Zarlingo