EL SALVADOR: FIGHTING BETWEEN REBEL AND GOVERNMENT FORCES ESCALATES FOLLOWING THE MURDER OF SIX ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIESTS

Record ID: 860563

  • Title: EL SALVADOR: FIGHTING BETWEEN REBEL AND GOVERNMENT FORCES ESCALATES FOLLOWING THE MURDER OF SIX ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIESTS
  • Date: 16th November 1989
  • Summary: SAN SALVADOR, EL SALVADOR (NOVEMBER 16 1989) ***GRAPHIC IMAGES*** GVS SMOKE AND FIRE ENGULFING HUGE WAREHOUSE AFTER REBEL FIREBOMB ATTACK (2 SHOTS) GV AIRCRAFT FLYING OVERHEAD GV GOVERNMENT TROOPS ON ARMOURED VEHICLE GV SOLDIERS FIRING MACHINE GUNS FROM ARMOURED VEHICLE (2 SHOTS) SV PAN & GV BODIES OF MASSACRE VICTIMS (2 SHOTS) CU US AMBASSADOR WILLIAM WALKER (ENGLISH SOT) "I DO NOT KNOW WHO COMMITTED THIS HEINOUS CRIME. UNFORTUNATELY THE HISTORY OF ATROCIOUS DEATHS IN EL SALVADOR HAS COME FROM THE EXTREMES OF BOTH RIGHT AND LEFT." CU PRESIDENT ALFREDO CRISTIANI (ENGLISH SOT) "MOST OF THE TIME THESE TYPES OF CRIMES, WHICH ARE DONE I BELIEVE TO DISRUPT THE DEMOCRATIC PROCESS, ARE DONE, IN THIS CASE, I BELIEVE, TO HURT THE PEACE PROCESS AND IT IS DONE BY MINORITY GROUPS." GV & SV ARCHBISHOP OF SAN SALVADOR ARTURO RIVERA Y DAMAS PRAYING OVER BODIES. (2 SHOTS) GV HOUSE BEING LOOTED GVS PEOPLE QUEUING FOR FOOD DISTRIBUTION (3 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 1st December 1989 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: El Salvador, El Salvador
  • City:
  • Country: El Salvador
  • Topics: Conflict,General
  • Reuters ID: LVA4LLHDGXEXBZSAPGVU9N3AJ0R5
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: SAN SALVADOR, EL SALVADOR Tens of thousands of residents fled San Salvador's working class northern suburbs on Friday. This was the seventh day of the most serious offensive in el Salvadors' 10-year-old civil war between government forces and left-wing guerillas.
    On Thursday, President Alfredo Cristiani rejected a Red Cross appeal for a truce.
    Some of the fiercest fighting was around Jose Simeon Canas Central American University, where armed men had tortured, killed and then mutilated the bodies of six Jesuit Roman Catholic priests. Their housekeeper and her 15-year-old daughter were also killed.
    The murders have been condemned by the United States and by Pope John Paul II, who described them as acts of "abominable violence". Local church leaders have blamed the killings on death squads operated by the extreme right, which accuse the Jesuits of fostering subversive ideology.
    <strong>Source: REUTERS - MAITE GALEANO</strong>
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2013. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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