Friday, January 9, 2026: 3:50 PM
Price Room (Palmer House Hilton)
On November 16, 1989, one week after the fall of the Berlin Wall, which set in motion the end of the Cold War, the Salvadoran military carried out a brutal attack against Jesuits at the Central American University in San Salvador. The U.S.-trained Atlacatl Battalion killed six priests, their housekeeper, and her daughter. The murders represented only the latest in a country racked by violence. However, this time, unlike in the aftermath of the assassination of Archbishop Óscar Romero in March 1980 and the murder and rape of four U.S. churchwomen in December 1980, critics of U.S. policy from both within and outside the government refused to back down. Congressman Joseph Moakley (D-MA) led the charge as head of a Special Task Force on El Salvador to investigate the murders. Moakley also used the task force to press for progress in other areas, especially peace negotiations. Meanwhile, grassroots organizations came together under the banner of the National Agenda for Peace in El Salvador, which served as an information clearinghouse, lobbied Congress, and organized protests. With a renewed focus on El Salvador, the National Agenda issued a “Platform for Peace” and set up meetings between Salvadoran religious leaders and U.S. representatives and senators.
While George H.W. Bush showed less affinity for the Salvadoran government than his predecessor, Ronald Reagan, he remained committed to keeping the rebels, the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, from taking over the nation. Not surprisingly, Bush administration officials joined with Salvadoran political and military leaders to openly criticize Moakley’s investigation and the National Agenda’s activities. Though it is true that the Bush administration pressured Salvadoran president Alfredo Cristiani to accept the Peace Accords in 1992, Moakley and U.S.-based grassroots activists forced Bush to pursue such an approach, officially bringing El Salvador into the post-Cold War era.