Jimmy Carter’s Dark Legacy in El Salvador

Naomi LaChance January 3, 20251/3

President Jimmy Carter, who died Sunday, is remembered as a humanitarian and a champion of human rights around the globe.His legacy, though, includes supporting amilitary regime in El Salvadorduring the beginning of the Salvadoran Civil War, includingthe assassination of Saint Óscar Romero.

The United States sent military and economic aid to the government of El Salvadorduring its bloody 12-year civil war, and trained military leaders. A reminder that the Cold War was not always “cold,”75,000 people were killed in the war, most at the hands of the military and death squads.

Some consider it less of a civil war andmore of a proxy war(Ukraine); America’s justification for its involvement wasthat communism was spreadingfrom the Soviet Union, Nicaragua, and Cuba. But in reality, the leftist guerrillas were motivated more by the material conditions within their own country — extreme economic inequality — than by any kind of international movement. Some experts speculate that the guerrillas would have won were it not for U.S. involvement.

The country never fully recovered from the war, as evidenced by the hundreds of thousands of people who have fled El Salvador for the U.S. in recent years. The country has been plagued with gang violence andpreviously had the highest murder rate in the world; now it has the world’s highest incarceration rate, as its current government has jailed tens of thousands, including many thousands of innocents, under a “state of exception” suspending basic civil liberties.

At the beginning of the civil war, Archbishop Óscar Romero took an active role in arguing for human rights and an end to the violence in the country in his weekly homilies that were broadcast on the radio. While he viewed himself as apolitical,Romero’s pro-human rights stance naturally placed him in opposition to the Salvadoran military.

Originally something of a centrist, hebecame radicalized when his friend, Father Rutilio Grande Garcia, a Jesuit priest, was killed. The junta, Romero said repeatedly, was killing innocent people. He endorsed agrarian reform, a program to redistribute large areas of land to the campesinos, or peasants.

The Carter administration was paying attention. In January 1980, theU.S. reached out to Pope John Paul II about Romero. In the letter, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Carter’s national security advisor, noted a “shift” in Romero’s rhetoric. The Archbishop, he wrote, “has strongly criticized the Junta and leaned toward support for the extreme left.”The “extreme left,” he wrote, was responsible for the violence in the country — not the junta, or the death squads.

Brzezinski wrote: “We have cautioned the Archbishop and his advisors strongly against support for an extreme left which clearly does not share the humanitarian and progressive goals of the church.” He asked that the Pope intervene. Romero met with the Pope in Rome shortly thereafter.

But Romero kept pushing. In February, he reached out to the U.S. with great concern. He wrote to President Carter expressing his misgivings about the possibility of the U.S. sending aid to his country. TheU.S. was thinking about giving military aid — a $49 million aid packagewith up to $7 million in military equipment — to El Salvador. Romero wrote:“the contribution of your government, instead of promoting greater justice and peacein EI Salvador, will without doubt sharpen the injustice and repression against the organizations of the people who repeatedly have been struggling to gain respect for their most fundamental human rights.”

He continued: “For this reason, given that as a Salvadoran and as archbishop of the Archdiocese of San Salvador I have an obligation to see that faith and justice reign in my country, I ask you,if you truly want to defend human rights, to prohibit the giving of this military aid to the Salvadoran government.Guaranteethat your government will not intervene directly or indirectly with military, economic, diplomatic, or other pressures to determine the destiny of the Salvadoran people.”

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/jimmy-carter-oscar-romero-legacy-el-salvador-1235224083/

(This is only one example of Carter's horrendous acts, arrogance and incapability of being President. His entire legacy is like this. No wonder why Carter is hated by millions in the US)

>>22285398

2/3

The U.S. decided to send the aid, andCarter did not respond personally. Instead, Secretary of State Cyrus Vance responded to Romero, writing:“We appreciate your warningsabout the dangers of providing military assistance given the traditional role of the security forces in El Salvador.”

“We are as concerned as you that any assistance we provide not be used in a repressive manner,” Vance continued, adding that any assistance would thus go toward enhancing the armed forces’ “professionalism” so they would be able to maintain order while using “a minimum level of lethal force.”

Romero knew he was putting himself at risk. Two days after he sent the letter to Carter, the Catholic radio station that broadcast his weekly sermons was bombed. But he had to keep going. “I would be lying if I said I don’t have an instinct for my own preservation,” he said, “but persecution is a sign we are on the right road.” He added: “We are now in the middle of a current that cannot be stopped, even if one dies.”

In March 1980, the day before his assassination, Romero addressed the Salvadoran National Guard, police, and the military in his sermon: “I would like to make an appeal, especially to the men of the army, and concretely to the National Guard, the police, and the troops. Brothers, you are part of our own people.You are killing your own brother and sister campesinos,” he said. “The Church defends the rights of God, the law of God, and the dignity of the human person, and there cannot remain silent before such abominations… In the name of God, then, and in the name of this suffering people, whose laments rise more each day more tumultuously to heaven,I beg you, I beseech you, I order you in the name of God: stop the repression!”

The next day , while he was giving communion at the chapel of the cancer hospital where he lived, a gunman pulled up in a Volkswagen. The man entered the room, shot Romero, and fled.

According to a nun, on the way to the hospital,Romero said: “May God have mercy on the assassins.”He was 62.

Carter called Romero’s assassination “a shocking and unconscionable act.” He said the archbishop “spoke for change and for social justice, which his nation so desperately needs,” and demanded that the Salvadoran government “bring the archbishop’s assassins to justice.” (FU Carter!)

We still don’t have all the answers about Romero’s killing, but theCarter administration got an inklingin November 1980, when a Salvadoran National Guard officertold a U.S. embassy political officer that Major Roberto D’Aubuisson organized a meeting a day or two before the assassination where participants drew lots to see who would carry out the killing. D’Aubuisson had been trained by the U.S. at the Defense Department’s notorious School of the Americas. In other words, the Carter administration had reason to believe that a U.S.-trained military officer orchestrated the killing of a future saint, and — with this knowledge — continued working with that military.

That’s not to say the Carter administration didn’t care about human rights. When D’Aubuisson visited the U.S. in mid-1980, the Carter administration was embarrassed by “his open presence in the country,” writes human rights attorney Matt Eisenbrandt in Assassination of a Saint: The Plot to Murder Óscar Romero and the Quest to Bring His Killers to Justice. One example of the Carter administration’s commitment to human rights is that it cut direct aid to Guatemala in 1977 during the Guatemalan genocide.

Debbie Sharnak, assistant professor of history and international studies at Rowan University, describes the line that Carter walked in his foreign policy: “By according the broad notion of ‘human rights’ such a prominent place in his administration,Carter raised expectations without clearly defining the limitations of human rights and the reach of its policy. This vagueness, combined withhis inability to articulate the limited capacity of U.S. influence, hamperedhis policy and the public’s perception of his effectiveness.”

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/jimmy-carter-oscar-romero-legacy-el-salvador-1235224083/

>>22285416

3/3

I have been researching the Salvadoran Civil War for years. In February, I asked staff at the Carter Center whether the former president wished to answer some of my questions about Romero’s assassination. A spokesperson wrote back: “As you know, President Carter entered hospice care on Feb. 18 last year, and since then he is not providing interviews or commenting publicly on events and issues.”

The president following Carter, passionately anti-Communist Ronald Reagan, made El Salvador’s civil war his own. When he took office in 1981, aid increased exponentially. By the end of 1981, the Salvadoran military was employing a “scorched earth” strategy== inspired by tactics from the Vietnam War.

In December, between 700 and 1,000 people — including children, elderly people, and disabled people — were killedat El Mozote by the elite U.S.-trained Atlacatl Battalion. The battalion’s leader, Domingo Monterrosa, attended the School of the Americas, like D’Aubuisson. When U.S. newspapers broke news of the massacre, the Reagan administration went to great lengths to convince the public and Congress that the story of the massacre was guerrilla propaganda.

Butmajor human rights violations happened under Carter’s watch, as well. In May 1980, Salvadoran soldiers, alongside Honduran troops, killed at least 300 civilians trying to escape across the river in what is known as the Sumpul River massacre.

Human Rights Watch alleges that earlier that year, officials at theU.S. embassy even worked with a death squad in the disappearance of two law students. Salvadoran National Guard troops arrested Francisco Ventura and José Humberto Mejía after a political demonstration. With permission, they brought the men to the property of the U.S. Embassy. From there, men dressed as civilians put Ventura and Mejía in the trunk of a private car. They were never seen again.

There was more violence against members of the church.Maryknoll Sisters Maura Clarke and Ita Ford, Ursuline Sister Dorothy Kazel, and lay missionary Jean Donovan had been working with the poor of El Salvadorwhen they were raped and shot at close rangein December 1980. Especially after Romero’s killing, this event drew outrage.

Carter stopped aid briefly, but he soon brought it backAmbassador to El Salvador Robert White, committed to improving conditions in the country, said there was no evidence the Salvadoran government was investigating the murders of the churchwomen. White was, not surprisingly, removed when Reagan took office, and the new administration went to lengths to cover up the crime.

Ultimately, while Carter demonstrated an interest in protecting human rights — and would champion the cause in his post-presidency — he funded a country committing mass atrocities. In fact, sending lethal aid to El Salvador was one of the Carter administration’s final decisions.

The New York Times reported at the time: “Among its last acts, the CarterState Department disclosed last week thatit had sent El Salvador ‘lethal’ military aid for the first time since 1977. Transfused with a quick fix of $5 million in rifles, ammunition, grenades, and helicopters, the junta seemed to have little trouble containing the guerrilla offensive, although hit-and-run strikes continued.”

Pope Francis declared Romero a saint in 2018.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/jimmy-carter-oscar-romero-legacy-el-salvador-1235224083/

May Carter get the Divine Judgement of God Almighty, and may his decision be to send Carter to the Lake of Sacred Fire for the Second and Final DeathCarter has done similar WW, during his term and after.

St. Joseph of Cupertino(New anons start out like St. Joseph, kek)

After suffering a terrible childhood,St. Joseph of Cupertino became one of the most miracle-prone saints in the Church—he was often totally consumed by prayerful rapture and was even observed levitating.

He was born 1603 in Cupertino, Italy to poor parents. His father was a carpenter, but was unable to make ends meet and had to put the family house up for sale just as his wife came to term—she bore Joseph in a shed behind the house.

Joseph’s father died when he was young, and his widowed mother abused him. Joseph’s development suffered—he had a hot temper, and became absent-minded. Village people knew him was known as “the gaper” around town because he would wander about aimlessly with his mouth open. One thing did consume his attention: he threw himself into devotional practices and grew in his faith.

When he reached maturity, he was apprenticed to a shoemaker, but failed at that position. He applied to several monasteries, but was refused. The Capuchin order accepted him on a trial basis as a lay brother, but he was inept and clumsy—he would drop whole piles of dishes, or forgot his duties, or could not be trusted with even minor responsibilities.

He returned home in a great depression. His mother was not happy to see him, and she pleaded with her brother, who was a Franciscan monk, to have him accepted to his monastery as a servant. He was taken in and given work cleaning out the stables.

The consistent work and community life seemed to suit Joseph, and he became more trustworthy and capable. He had a certain humility and sweetness, and was diligent in his prayer and devotional life—within a few years, he was accepted as a full brother in the community.

Though he struggled in his studies, and had nothing to offer in the way of eloquence, he was ordained a priest in 1628. His devotional life increased, and he took on rigorous fasting and disciplines.

After his ordination, Joseph’s life came in tune with the divine in a new and radical way.He began to experience ecstasies and visions and was a worker of miracles—more than nearly any other saint!He frequently fell into contemplative ecstasy, and could not be awakened with pinches or blows. He was friends to animals in a way that surpassed even St. Francis of Assisi.

During Mass or prayer, he would often be lifted from his feet—he was observed levitating more than 70 times.

The experience of levitation is a physical expression of the deep prayer that raises the heart and mind to God. In Joseph’s case, a number of his levitations were well-documented.

In one instance, the Spanish ambassador visited Joseph’s monastery and visited Joseph in his cell. The ambassador told his wife that he had met “another St. Francis,” and she wanted to meet Joseph herself. She asked to meet him in the church, but Joseph, knowing his susceptibility to fall into rapture at even the sight of religious imagery, realized that he might not be able to speak with her.

When he entered the church, Joseph’s eyes fell on an image of Mary, and he was transported by ecstatic prayer and rose more than ten feet off the ground and flew over the heads of those present to the statue of Mary. After praying there, he flew back to the doors of the church and returned to his cell. This story was captured in depositions from eyewitnesses that were gathered for Joseph’s cause for canonization.

Joseph was moved to a monastery in Assisi, and–for a time–was treated severely by his superiors, who thought him a hypocrite or suspected he was pretending. During his time in Assisi he was visited by many prominent religious and political figures who heard of his holy miracles and took up correspondences with notable figures of his day.

“Pray,” he told everyone. “Pray. If you are troubled by dryness or distractions, simply say the Our Father. Then you make both vocal and mental prayer.”

The marvels that accompanied Joseph became a distraction to both the monastery and to others who came seeking novelty,so he was not allowed to offer Mass or pray in public, or even to eat his meals with his brothers. His order eventually isolated him and he had little contact with other members of his community.

He consented to isolation, and used solitude to commune with God on an even deeper level.He fell ill at the age of 60 and died on this date in September 18, 1663 at a Franciscan monastery in Osimo. His relics rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica, and he is depicted above in a painting by Ludovico Mazzanti.

St. Joseph of Cupertino, the levitating saint, pray for us!

https://faith.nd.edu/saint/st-joseph-of-cupertino/

3 Jan, 2025 12:40

Moscow calls out Trump team for waffling on Ukraine

Communications contain no proposals of interest for resolving the conflict, Russia’s UN envoy has said

Russia's UN envoy Vassily Nebenzia has criticized what he described as “vague signals” regarding the Ukraine conflict from the incoming administration of US President-elect Donald Trump.

In an interview with Russia 24 TV on Friday, Nebenzia said Moscow currently finds nothing of interest in communications about the crisis.

“Deal is [US President-elect Donald] Trump’s favorite word; everyone knows that. How this is consistent with Russia’s interests is still unclear,” Nebenzia remarked.

He added that the signals from the incoming US administration offer nothing appealing.“These are some unformed vague signals of readiness for something,”he said.

Nebenzia recalled Putin’s call to fully end the conflict rather than freeze it. “We often hear the word ‘freezing the conflict.’ On December 19, Russian President Vladimir Putin last said clearly and precisely on what terms we are ready to talk about not freezing but ending this conflict, provided that our legitimate security interests are respected. But so far, nothing in the signals of the new US administration indicates that this is something that will be of interest to us,” he stressed.

Trump has promised on several occasions that he could achieve a negotiated settlement of the Ukraine conflict in just one day. Trump has also criticized the US approach to the conflict and described Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky as a “salesman” whose visits to Washington result in multibillion-dollar aid packages.

On December 22, Trump announced that he would wait for a meeting with Putin to resolve the conflict. He also insisted that the conflict would not have occurred had he been in office.

In December, Putin said during a press conference that he was ready to meet and talk with Trump. Earlier, the Russian president outlined conditions for a peaceful resolution, including an immediate ceasefire and readiness for negotiations, if Ukrainian forces withdraw from all Russian territory, including those that joined the country following referendums.

Putin also called on Kiev to renounce NATO ambitions, demilitarize, and adopt a neutral, non-aligned, and nuclear-weapon-free status. The Russian envoy also noted ongoing talks from the Ukrainian side about potential “arrangements.” However, he questioned the feasibility of such efforts.

“The question is, when Zelensky finally, let’s say, gets around to wanting to sit down at the negotiating table, on which line of military contact will this take place? The further he goes, the worse the conditions will be for him,” Nebenzia said.

(I don’t know but I don’t think this is true. I think the negotiating has been ongoing, behind the scenes. Both Walz and Kellogg messed things up by talking out of turn, and both of them taking a somewhat aggressive tactic towards Russia in the beginning. I think they were told to stop talking about this because they were not informed on how Trump would handle it.)

https://www.rt.com/russia/610391-russia-criticizes-us-for-unclear-signals-ukraine/

3 Jan, 2025 02:40

Cybertruck explosion suspect ‘served in Ukraine’ – AP

The highly decorated US Army Green Beret died in an alleged suicide before the blast near a Trump hotel

The suspect in the Tesla Cybertruck explosion on New Year’s Day, identified as Master Sgt. Matthew Alan Livelsberger, was a veteran US special forces operative who not only deployed to Afghanistan twice but also served in Ukraine, AP reports, citing the US Army.

The blast outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on Wednesday left seven people with minor injuries.

Livelsberger died at the scene from an allegedly self-inflicted gunshot wound before the truck exploded, according to Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill.

The US Army confirmed on Thursday that Livelsberger enlisted in 2006 and had served with the 10th Special Forces Group based in Stuttgart, Germany since 2012. His military career included multiple deployments to Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Georgia, and Congo, earning him numerous awards, including five Bronze Stars.

The US Army also confirmed, according to AP, that Livelsberger was “serving in Ukraine” at some point, although the exact timing is unclear.

“US Army Special Operations Command is cooperating fully with federal and state law enforcement agencies, but as a matter of policy, we will not comment on ongoing investigations,” the US Army stated.

Law enforcement officials indicated that Livelsberger had packed the rented Tesla Cybertruck with fireworks, camping fuel, and other explosive materials. Despite the explosion’s proximity to the Trump hotel, the sheriff claimed that there is no conclusive evidence of political or ideological motives.

In a photo posted by his wife on Facebook in 2016, Livelsberger is seen wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with a Ukrainian coat of arms and a nationalist slogan. In a comment on LinkedIn, he responded to an offer for work in Ukraine, stating that he knew a “top” special forces medical sergeant who had been “looking for just this opportunity.”

Livelsberger was on leave from his assignment in Germany during the incident. His wife reportedly told investigators that he had been absent from their Colorado Springs home following an argument about infidelity over the holidays.

As a Green Beret, Livelsberger was based at Fort Liberty (formerly known as Fort Bragg) in North Carolina. Shamsud-Din Jabbar, who killed 14 people in a vehicle attack in New Orleans on Wednesday morning, was also stationed at Fort Liberty and had deployed to Afghanistan. The Army is currently investigating whether the two men knew each other.

(Does it make any sense that his ID was not burned up with everything else?And why even bring his ID with him?Is it possible that Ukrainianssnuck into America to force him to do a terrorist act? Typically this is how they do their attacks, blackmail or pay the saboteur. When his family said he would never do this, I believe them. Someone was there, is that why the full video was not released when the car drove up to the hotel?)

https://www.rt.com/news/610373-cybertruck-suspect-served-ukraine/

>>22285791

That's not so on the Logan Act, for the coming in President and appointees, you are believing the FBI lie, made that up for Flynn, to prosecute him.

I'm sure Russia wants to avoid another Russia, Russia , Russia, so I think they only publish these things to pretend they are angry. Like I said, I think they know a strategy, but they have to complain to convince the media, that they could be adversaries. KEK if true.

>>22285781

They are not holding him responsible, it's true Kellogg and Walz both waffled on what Trump had promised by speaking about Ukraine early, so it's not Trump, it's his appointees speaking out of turn. They are just expecting talks and not solutions now.

>>22285865

This is gonna seem strange, but my intuition is this guy was set up some how, I really don't get the sense, it was his plan. If it was he wouldn't have made such a inoperable and pathetic bomb. He would have built something to blow up half the building if he was really an enemy.

>>22285879

Trump never said he would support H1B visas, he also misnamed the visa he used for law care H2 or 3 B. Trump was intentionally not specific and made mistakes is my guess.

He's usually very clear in his posts, and his meaningful misspellings.