Protest follows Catholic peace award

Protests followed in El Salvador and among Salvadoran support organizations in the United States after the president of El Salvador received a peace medallion from a foundation run by the Vatican’s apostolic nuncio at the United Nations.

The 2008 “Path to Peace Award” was given June 10 in New York to Salvadoran President Elias Antonio Saca Gonzales by Archbishop Celestino Migliore, apostolic nuncio. Migliore serves as the Vatican’s permanent observer to the United Nations and president of the Path to Peace Foundation.

In a news release from Vatican Information Service, the foundation said it had chosen to honor Saca for his role in advancing the 1992 peace accords that ended El Salvador’s 12-year civil war (1980-92), for his accomplishments in the areas of judicial and fiscal reform, and for addressing juvenile delinquency and poverty in El Salvador.

Saca is a member of the Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) Party.

ARENA was founded in 1982 by the late Roberto D’Aubuisson, who was identified by a United Nations war crimes commission as responsible for thousands of death squad murders during the civil war and as the “intellectual author” of the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero in 1980. After 20 years in power, ARENA is facing stiff opposition in the run-up to national elections in early 2009.

Migliore, responding to NCR e-mail inquiries, defended the foundation’s choice, saying it had recognized Saca as the “highest representative of a country which engaged in this important peace process and for the important role played and the contribution offered by the El Salvador delegation within the United Nations in the setup and activity of the Peace Building Commission.”

He said that Saca was the unanimous choice of the foundation’s board of directors and that “no one outside is consulted in the nominating or selecting of candidates.”

Among those protesting, the SHARE Foundation, a faith-based group established in 1981 to promote solidarity between American and Salvadoran churches, questioned the substance and timing of the award in a statement posted on its Washington Web site. SHARE policy director Claudia Rodriguez said that “this award will be highly publicized in the Salvadoran press and could mislead the global community about the current reality in El Salvador and Mr. Saca’s track record.”

The site posted a letter to Migliore expressing “deep concern” about its prestigious award going to Saca at a time when El Salvador “was experiencing alarming social, political and economic instability, which has greatly eroded the achievements gained in the 1992 peace accords.”

The peace accords have stalled under Saca, the letter said, because of the government’s refusal to abide by provisions calling for full investigation and prosecution of war crimes as an important step toward national reconciliation. Under Saca, the letter said, El Salvador has grown poorer, more violent and more repressive. The letter noted that El Salvador is the only Latin American nation with troops in Iraq, a war opposed by both Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI.

Representatives of some 40 human rights organizations and church groups delivered a letter of protest to the Apostolic Nunciature in San Salvador. The letter, bearing 750 signatures, expressed regret over the award, saying that since Saca’s election in 2004, “inequalities, exclusions and poverty have worsened among Salvadorans, while insecurity and impunity have become widespread.”

Miguel Angel Guzmán, a leading member of the Christian Base Communities of El Salvador, said in a June 10 Inter Press News Service story that he was “outraged, because rather than working for peace, Saca has focused on building a positive image for himself and the party he represents.”

American Jesuit Fr. Dean Brackley wrote to NCR from the Jesuit-run University of Central America: “The Path to Peace Award to President Tony Saca is truly puzzling. Many of us are asking not only ‘Why Tony Saca?’ but also, ‘Who in the church would promote his candidacy for this award and why?’ ”

Asked about the potential political value of the award in El Salvador’s upcoming elections, Migliore said, “The only reason for the selection of the honoree was to encourage the implementation of the Peace Process and to recognize the contribution of the El Salvadoran Mission to the United Nations in setting up the Peace Building Commission.”

As a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt, private foundation, the Path to Peace Foundation, which Migliore described as independent from the permanent observer mission, is prohibited from engaging in political influence or activity. Such foundations file a yearly tax return available to the public.

Patrick Marrin, editor of Celebration, the NCR liturgy resource, is a frequent contributor to NCR.

National Catholic Reporter June 27, 2008