NATION : Stop Salvador Aid, Clerics Ask U.S.

WASHINGTON —  Roman Catholic and Protestant religious leaders called on the United States today to end military and war-related aid to El Salvador.

“The civil war in El Salvador is now nearly a decade old,” 33 leaders wrote in an open letter to the government and church members. “Thousands of deaths, more thousands of people displaced and a ruined economy are the results.” The letter was initiated by the Religious Task Force on Central America to call attention to the February, 1980, letter by Salvadoran Roman Catholic Archbishop Oscar Romero asking then-President Jimmy Carter to stop the flow of military aid to the Salvadoran government. Romero was assassinated little more than a month later.