Justice as Memory and Right to the Truth Versus the Policy of Silence and Oblivion in El Salvador: Notes on the Public Perception of Oscar Arnulfo Romero and the Experience of Intergenerational Dialogues in the Parishes of the Archdiocese of San Salvador

Abstract

The policy of silence and oblivion, adopted in El Salvador after the 1993 Amnesty Law, has fostered ignorance in Salvadoran society (particularly in young people under twenty-five) about the causes and consequences of the 1980-1992 non-international armed conflict and about the critical human rights violations that occurred in it. The parishes of the Salvadoran church are not alien to this situation; as the intergenerational dialogues promoted by the Office of Tutela de Derechos Humanos of the Archbishopric of San Salvador in July 2018 have shown, their younger members are unaware of the military and police forces persecutions to their community during the armed conflict. The controversy over Oscar Arnulfo Romero, at least until 2013, between different Salvadoran church factions is the result of that situation, which negatively affects the individual and collective right to the truth extents. Additionally, it prevents the satisfaction of justice (understoodas memory), considering the serious international crimes committed in El Salvadorwhen constructing its historical memory and taking the necessary measuresto avoid new critical human rights violations. Finally, it provides a breedingground for historical revisionism. Faced with this situation, the intergenerationaldialogues held in 2018 in some parishes of the Archdiocese of San Salvador haveshown their ability to expose and overcome the negative impact of the policy ofsilence and oblivion.