Hello, you're very welcome to Long Reeds, a Jacobin podcast where we look in depth of political topics and thinkers.

My name's Daniel Finn and the Features editor here at Jacobin and I'll be presenting the show.

In 1990, the actor Raul Julia spoke at a rally in Washington to mark the 10th anniversary of Oscar Romero's

death. Romero, the Archbishop of San Salvador, was murdered soon after writing an open letter

to the US President Jimmy Carter. He called for the US to withdraw its support from the military regime in El Salvador.

Julia, who played Romero in a movie about his life, read out his letter at the rally to a crowd of 10,000 people.

Since I, as a Salvadoran and Archbishop of the San Salvador Archdiocese have the obligation to work for the reign of faith and justice in my country,

I urge you if you really want to defend human rights to prohibit the giving of military assistance

to the Salvadoran government, to guarantee that your government will not intervene directly or indirectly

with military, economic, diplomatic, or other pressure

to determine the fate of the Salvadoran people.

We are going through a serious economic and political crisis in our country.

But without a doubt, the people are more conscientized and organized and and thereby are becoming agents responsible for the future of El Salvador

and are the only ones capable of ending the crisis.

It would be deplorable and unjust if by the intervention of foreign powers the Salvadoran people should be frustrated, repressed and hindered from deciding autonomously

the economic and political course our country should follow.

Last April, 45 years after Romero's death,

the current president of El Salvador, Naib Boukele,

was a guest on the other side of the White House security barrier.

There have been six US presidents since Carter.

The latest one, Donald Trump, is a huge fan of Buckele.

This time, it was the President of El Salvador, who was offering to help with the campaign of domestic repression in the United States.

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