More killing and depression in Central America

Hey guys, I just received this message, thought you all might be interested. Greetings friends.

I just received the sad news from El Salvador that a Lutheran pastor and his family were killed on November 4. These are people who worked with the Centre for Global Education programs in El Salvador, hosting students during accompaniment projects. Francisco and his family opened their home freely and frequently to everyone. Their home often became a makeshift clinic for those who arrived sick or injured. Regardless of who arrived or how they arrived, I know that theyalways left nourished in body and in spirit. Beyond the deep sadness of their deaths lies a reminder of the ongoing violence that is suffered still in El Salvador. Please keep the people there in your prayers, and may we all work together to create communities, nations, a world infused by the love and faith reflected in the lives of Francisco and Jesus and their children. God’s peace be upon them. Alice

This message is from Father Dean Brackley, a teacher at the UCA in San Salvador and great friend of the Lutheran Church…

Dear friends,Last night (Sunday) I joined members of the Jayaque community to receive the bodies of Francisco Carillo and his wife, Jesus Calzada de Carillo, co-pastors of the Lutheran Church in Jayaque. Francisco and Jesusita were both shot in the Colonia Dos de Mayo, near Los Sí-tios on Saturday (Nov. 4) at 5:20PM as Francisco locked up the Lutheran chapel there following a religious service. His wife was shot and killed as she waited nearby in their vehicle parked and ready to takethem and a couple of passengers home. Francisco was not killed immediately but actually died along the road at Los Chorros on the way tothe hospital. (To compound the tragedy, by law the vehicle had to stop and call legal authorities –who do not work nights on weekends. The two bodies, along with the couple’s two adult children, Roxana and Wilber, had to spend the night on the roadside. The legal medical authorities didnot arrive until the next morning.) People present near the site of the killings saw the three men onbicycles who shot the couple. Although people heard the shots, they first thought they were firecrackers. According to one of the witnesses, the killers were from nearby communities, Tsu-chi and Llano Verde, which have been plagued by gang violence. Some believe that the killers were gang members, but nothing was robbed, and the motive remains unclear. Last night at the wake and vigil, one resident of Dos de Mayo expressed frustration, claiming that to his knowledge the police (PNC) still had not arrived to the scene of the murders more than 48 hours after they occurred. Furthermore, Paco (Francisco) told one of those present just before theservice that just before, while on the way to the service, a vehicle hadmade menacing movements, as if to run Paco and Jesus off the road. A mutual friend of the couple told me that several weeks ago, during a house visit by a Lutheran friend from the U.S., Paco had confided to him that he had been threatened (“Estoy amenazado”). Lutheran Bishop Medardo Gómez confirmed that fact last night at the wake and vigil in Jayaque. Last Tuesday, at the meeting of Lutheran ministers, talk was circulating about threats received by Paco.

Francisco told the bishop then, “Dicen que me quieren matar. Pero no tengo miedo. No he hecho nada malo. Y andocon el Señor.” Last night, after the bodies arrived in Jayaque at almost 10:00PM, Bishop Gómez expressed the profound pain, grief and indignation that everyonefelt. He pointed out the work done by Paco and his wife in founding theambulance service for the poor rural community of Jayaque. Paco had also helped form groups in defense of human rights. Bishop Gómez expressedexasperation that people would kill such people, ministers who went aboutdoing only good. He said, “No tengo duda de que Francisco Carillo, en particular, fue asesinado por su trabajo en favor de la justicia y lapaz, por su trabajo en favor de los derechos humanos.”Francisco and Jesus were also well-know members of the FMLN. Their death raises important questions about the motive, and the people, behind thekillings, when one takes into account the present tense political climatein the country and the presence of significant FMLN support in what is an area traditionally dominated by the right, even the extreme right. Jayaque has also been plagued for decades by widespread electoral fraud, as I can attest on the basis of testimony by trusted people. Paco and Jesus leave two grown childeren, Roxana and Wilber Roxana. While a student at the UCA (in law), Roxana was a member of the Martí-n Baró cooperative. We Jesuits and the cooperative have collaborated with the Luteran church in Jayaque in response inpost-earthquake re-construction. Paco y Jesus, ¡Presentes! Descansen en paz. We continue to offer prayers for the Lutheran Church, the family of Jesus and Paco and the community of Jayaque. We must demand a thorough andeffective investigation of these horrible murders. Dean

It is also hitting me that this could happen to any of our friends in El Salvador… any of those I know who are working for justice and therefore threatening the political and economic systems.

I don’t really have time to write, but I wanted to give this update.

I talked to Emily tonight and she raised many questions for me. What does it mean to be a Christian in this world and how do we deal with something like this? How are we supposed to respond? What does solidarity mean? And where is God?

I learned this from a Lutheran Volunteer Corps recruiter who is visiting my school. He has been to El Salvador several times and has many friends there. He told me that the murders were most definitely politically motivated and that the government inspectors did not show up to check out the crime scene for nearly 24 hours. The attached article reports that the government forensics department was also very slow in releasing the bodies back to family members. (Click on the title of this blog entry for the link.)

In the country that birthed liberation theology, a country still grappling with the horrors of a civil war, which in the 1980s claimed the lives of Archbishop Oscar Romero and dozens of priests and lay church leaders, this event shakes to life the nightmare of violent oppression.

Sometimes I forget how threatened groups of power are by voices of justice.

Remember Francisco and Jesus Maria today. Remember Oscar Romero and the many martyrs in El Salvador who, inspired by Christ, dared to speak for justice to their tiny corner of the earth. They didn’t just pray, “Thy kingdom come, on earth…” They built it.

Peices of life laid on the table.
Here is the blood, poured out in love.
Fill this cup, raise it up
Here’s to the day, my friend.

Time draws a line down innocent faces.

So you say goodbye, say goodnight.
And here’s to the day, remember.

Can you say it for the ones whose voices are silenced?
Can you say it for the ones who’ve never been free?

Here’s to the day that’s coming.
God speed the day…

Gather in close now, cling to each other.
Sing to the night, you don’t sing alone.
And fill this cup, raise it up.
Here’s to the day, remember.

Last week Bush signapproved a plan to build a 700 mile fence along the U.S. Mexico border. He said we haven’t had control of our borders for decades, so he decided to do something about it now, two weeks before election day. Oh, and it’s going to cost a couple hundred million dollars, which the government plans to pay for out of the homeland security budget. Because we have money to throw at all sorts of defense plans, apparently.

Take a look at the two linked articles, one from BBC and the other from the Washington Post. I found an interesting discrepancy between their info. Most obviously, the BBC article said there are 400 million illegal immigrants from Mexico in the U.S., while the Post said there are 12 mil. (Maybe the Post was talking about all illegal immigrants, not just from Mexico? But why would they quote that number when they’re specifically talking about beefing up U.S./Mexico border security???)

Here’s my take. If we didn’t systematically screw over Latin America with neoliberal economic policies that encourage the creation of monster businesses while ending the individual worker or family farmer’s ability to sustain a living, maybe we wouldn’t have so many econonomically devastated and desperate people clammoring to cross the border. What a concept.

And yes, while it certainly takes both governments working TOGETHER on the issue, what we’re doing is a poor excuse for negotiation. Seems authorizing your country to build a 700 mile wall to keep another country out isn’t the best way of getting that other country to LISTEN to your concerns or COMPROMISE with you. A wall is no substitute for people working together on programs that could curb drug trafficking, for instance, or border violence.

And as for the issue of immigrants taking U.S. jobs, did you know that the unemployment rate in Texas is the lowest it’s been in years? We’re talking around 4% – so low it’s almost BAD for the economy, because there has to be at least a little instability to stimulate growth. Weird, right?

We should be combatting these problems with human resources, not concrete. We don’t need walls, we need justice. Sometimes, that justice might mean keeping people out. Other times, though, it might mean letting them in. Or occasionally focusing our international economic policies on creating a just system instead of a system which overwhelmingly favors our nation and our big businesses.

I think I like it. I think, once I get out of college it will be even better. (When the people who are only 18 or 19 stop gasping at “how ollllld” 22 is.)

I could continue this meditation, but it is time for me to go to chapel. So maybe there will be more later. Who knows? It’s my birthday; I can do whatever I want. : )

hung out with Trey, who was visiting from Colorado.

went to film class, which was held outside.

locked myself out of my apartment.

took a nap in a hammock.

climbed into my apt. through my window.

reconnected with my Central America experience through fellow TLU student LeAnn Beasley‘s blog.

(Sleeping in a hammock made me miss Central America, too : )

Sometimes I just miss people and places and I want to go back and relive it all over. Looking at LeAnn’s pictures, pictures of places I remember well with different people in them, is both validating and disconcerting.

One on hand, the places are still there, the families are still there. They are okay. Some of them do not have a lot, but they are surviving.

On the other hand, I am far far away. I don’t really know what’s going on there anymore. I’ve written a few letters, but frankly, I don’t know how mail gets to people when they don’t even have a street address. Part of me feels like I’m being pulled back there, but I know that even though the places look the same, they are decptive… the experience won’t be.

And it’s hard to let go of things that won’t ever “be” again. I won’t ever be in Guatemala, El Salvador or Nicaragua with the same twenty-one people I spent last fall there. Most of those people, I won’t likely see again.

But when I say that, I immediately think of a story two of those people in El Salvador.

On a rainy, wintry day, Vanessa, my group’s travel coordinator, was walking down a busy street in New York City while visiting some Boston College friends who lived there when she ran into Peggy, my liberation theology professor from New Jersey, who was hailing a cab. It doesn’t sound like an extraordinary moment. Except that the last time the two had seen each other was in El Salvador months before. Except that both were only in New York for a day.

I always hope for days like that. Of course, every time I reconnect with a friend, it feels like one of them.

This week her boyfriend’s mom died.

It has really torn me up to watch her deal with this and to watch her boyfriend deal with it. I went to the funeral in Laredo, driving nearly 10 hours on Tuesday because I sensed I needed to be there, not for me as much as for Rachel and Perry.

When I returned to school, I felt emotionally and physically drained, but also more connected to these people I love. I think that grief, in a weird way, connects us. We realize how much we love each other, and we realize how much compassion we are capable of sharing.

The message on my cell phone used to include the phrase “I love you guys.” I’ve since changed it, but when I had it, people would tease me for telling the whole world I love them.

In a way, I do.

It’s not a phrase I usually throw around, but if you are calling my cellphone, odds are good that, unless you are my dentist’s receptionist (who, incidentally, has been calling a lot lately), you are probably my friend or family member, and I probably really do (!?) love (!?) you.

My sister and I don’t always communicate well. We are prone to long silences when we talk on the phone and one-liners when we send eachother emails. But whenever one of us is hurting (or when we are happy) we can count on the other’s willingness to share in the pain or the joy. I think that’s what I mean when I say “I love you.” I am saying that I care about you, that I want know what is going on with you, whether things are wonderful or terrible or inbetween. “I love you” is a conscious effort to make you a part of my life.

Old Enlgish cyta, a kind of hawk. name probably imitative of its cries The first toy kite appeared in 1664, called this because it hovered in the air like a bird.

Other favorites –
poetry, root comes from the ancient Greek word meaning “to create.” A poet is thus a creator; the poem, her creation.

nuance, comes from the French word for cloud, nu, as in the cloud of meaning around a word or phrase.

The photograph is my sister’s. Zilker Park, 2006.