Statement
Statement on Central America in English
Statement on Central America - English
A 1987 statement from the United States Catholic Conference assessing Central America’s humanitarian, political, and economic crises and urging U.S. and international policies that favor peace, justice, and development rather than militarization and external intervention.
Key diagnoses
- Widespread human suffering: high death tolls, mass displacement, refugees, and severe economic decline across the 1980s.
- Root causes: historic social injustice, concentrated land and wealth, extreme poverty, corruption, militarism, and ideological polarization.
- Superpower involvement: East‑West rivalry and outside intervention have intensified conflicts and risk regional escalation.
- Country‑specific troubles: persistent violence and human‑rights abuses in El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala; militarization and refugee burdens in Honduras; economic strain in Costa Rica; civil‑military excesses in Panama.
Moral and pastoral framing
- The Church calls for peace rooted in justice, not merely cessation of hostilities.
- Bishops emphasize solidarity with Central American episcopates, respect for national sovereignty, protection of human rights, and the pastoral role of the Church in mediating, supporting refugees, and promoting reconciliation.
Policy recommendations
- Prioritize economic justice: address external debt, fragile economies, and agrarian concentration to reduce root causes of conflict.
- Support the Esquipulas II peace process and regional initiatives (Contadora, Support Group, neighboring democracies) as the primary path to negotiated settlement.
- Urge the U.S. to shift from military emphasis to political and diplomatic engagement, avoid using Central American lives as pawns in superpower rivalry, and make aid conditional on human‑rights accountability.
- Advocate direct U.S. negotiations with the Soviet bloc on geopolitical concerns rather than proxy conflicts in Central America.
- Increase humanitarian assistance and adopt broad, generous asylum/refugee policies (including temporary relief for those not meeting strict legal criteria).
- Encourage other American states to help verify and support the peace process.
Calls to U.S. society and Church
- Reduce polarized domestic debate; seek national consensus and reconciliation ahead of elections.
- Mobilize parishes, religious communities, and Catholic social agencies to expand refugee assistance, humanitarian relief, and development support.
- Sustain episcopal engagement in national reconciliation commissions to help insure truth and lasting peace.
Peace in Central America is possible but requires concerted political negotiation, regional solidarity, economic justice, and a reorientation away from militarization and toward development and human rights. The U.S. is urged to use its influence constructively to back regional processes that foster reconciliation and long‑term stability.