PVC 1991 Delegation – Part Nine: Fr. Antonio Canas

The following notes have been edited to correct errors and to add explanations and updates. Parenthetical notes and remarks from the original are enclosed in parentheses. Present day [2022] updates are italicized and enclosed in square brackets.

Monday, 14 October 1991 – 3:00 PM – At the UCA (University of Central America)

We arrive early on campus for our meeting with Fr. Antonio Canas so stop in the cafeteria for drinks. I order tea, which turns out to be an herbal tea with sugar already added, not at all what I had wanted and too sweet to be refreshing. There are definite disadvantages to not drinking carbonated beverages. The cafeteria itself is a pleasant structure, open on three sides, with tables and benches in rows, looking more like a fast-food restaurant than an academic institution.

From the cafeteria we walk over to the administration building and are seated in a meeting room. Fr. Canas begins the discussion by asking if there are any specific areas which we want to explore. As our delegates speak, he takes notes on a small pad that he has brought with him.

Linda: Please discuss military reform and the underlying social conditions which caused the war.

Gregg: I am concerned about foreign aid, especially that which comes with strings attached, encouraging privatization. How will that affect Salvadoran society?

George: Would you speak about the role of DEBATE both now and in the future, in the reconstruction.

Linda: When we return to the U.S., we have appointments scheduled in Washington. What is it important for us to stress to our Congressional representatives?

"I have been working for seven years here at the University in information, as editor of the journal 'Processo' and also as a professor. This work is dedicated to analyzing and unraveling the political and economic situation in the country. This is the task that Fr. Ellacuria gave us, and it is one reason that he was killed. [Ignacio Ellacuria SJ was one of the six Jesuit professors at the UCA who, along with their housekeeper and her daughter, were assassinated by the military on November 16, 1989.]

PVC 1991 Delegation – Part Three: Evening Conversation in the Guest House

The following notes have been edited to correct errors and to add explanations and updates. Parenthetical notes and remarks from the original are enclosed in parentheses. Present day [2022] updates are italicized and enclosed in square brackets.

Saturday, 12 October 1991 - 7:00 PM

We are gathered in the living room for our first meeting, and as he did last year, Father T. has come from one of the local parishes to talk with us about the current situation in the country. He has brought with him M., who works with Christian base communities in another parish. They request that we list some of our questions, and then they will try to address these issues in particular during their talk. The delegation asks for the churches' view on the negotiations [Peace talks were then on-going, resulting in the signing of a Peace Accord early in 1992]; changes which have taken place since last year; is military reform possible? and a discussion of the recent persecution of educators. Just as Father T. is about to begin, a woman enters the room and is introduced as Th., who works with expectant mothers and newborn infants, and also with M. on Bible study.

"Let me say this first. In this country, through the efforts of the negotiations, even though not all of the agreements have been signed yet, to this point there are things which have not been fulfilled, but the agreements have opened spaces at every level - for the popular organizations, political parties, churches. In the years before the accords, there was a continuous struggle for economic justice, for the right to organize ourselves, for human rights, land reform, against the impunity of the armed forces. We had all of these issues as struggles, but with the accords, there is something concrete for the people to grab onto. Before there was no legal structure (to back us up), even though our struggles were legitimate and just. From the point of view of the government, anything which came out of the popular organizations was seen as illegitimate. So the accords are legitimizing forces, opening spaces in which we can work.