The civil conflict in El Salvador through the life of Ignacio Ellacuria

Abstract

The Spanish Jesuit philosopher and theologian, Ignacio Ellacuria Beascoechea, the “Jesuit volcano”, entered the company of Jesus at a very young age and moved to El Salvador in the novitiate of Santa Tecla where he tried, from the José Simeón Cañas Central American University, to analyze the causes and propose non-violent solutions to the confrontation between the local coffee oligarchy and the peasant movements that had degenerated into an armed conflict in the 1980s.

In “The Failed Civilization” the author examines the thought of the Spanish priest, contextualizing it in a country, El Salvador, that since the second half of the 19th century was run by a coffee-growing elite gathered in 14 families, capable of directly controlling the civil governments or to cause military coups when they needed it. This reactionary and unscrupulous elite repressed any attempt at rebellion from the peasant base, and with the support of the North American government, it channeled social tensions into an armed conflict that lasted 12 years. Nor did he hesitate to persecute Jesuit theologians, accusing them of spreading the communist ideology that had triumphed in Cuba and Nicaragua.

However, the reflection and action of the Spanish theologian took place within the universities, and was characterized by the attempt to find a theoretical and viable alternative between exploitative capitalism and real socialism, without any concession to the dominant oligarchy and neither towards the violent and destructive degeneration of guerrilla movements.