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Marzo 22, 2005
Fr. Luis Espinal
Today marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the murder of Father Luis Espinal, S.J. in La Paz. Coincidentally, Fr. Espinal was killed only three days before another high-profile murder of an outspoken priest that criticized an oppressive government, Archibishop Oscar Romero in El Salvador.
Born in Spain, Fr. Espinal came to Bolivia in 1968 and immediately took on the role of an outspoken critic of the military dictatorship and defender of the poor. Three years after arriving to Bolivia, Espinal became a naturalized Bolivian and became actively involved in hosting a radio program at Radio Fides and publishing a newspaper called Aqui.
A well-known film enthusiast and critic, Espinal hosted a radio program with his friend Eduardo Perez (better known as Padre Perez, who still hosts a TV program and radio program in Bolivia). When Espinal, who never missed a Saturday morning radio show, did not show up on March 22, something seemed fundamentally wrong. It was soon discovered that he had not returned to his room the night before.
La Razon describes his final days:
On the night of March 21, 1980, the film enthusiast Espinal was returning to his house after watching a movie in the 6 de Agosto theater. At the end of the street Diaz Romero in Miraflores, near where he shared a house with fellow Jesuits, a young man witnessed a man being forced into a jeep and, then he heard a cry for help. Luis Arce Gomez and Guido Benavidez, as was discovered later, were the responsible for the kidnapping and murder.
The priest was taken to the Achachicala slaughterhouse where he was tortured for four hours, before receiving 17 bullets. In the early dawn hours, a campesino found his body in some trash near the road to Chacaltaya, where the neighborhood Plan Autopista now is located.
The burial was attended by approximately 80,000 weeping persons. In his tomb in the General Cemetery, where fresh flowers are always placed, it reads “Killed for helping the people.”
Fr. Espinal is remembered all across Bolivia, and especially in La Paz where a pilgrimage is annually held to the spot where his body was found. The Spanish-Bolivian priest never thought his life was in danger and did very little in terms of precautions. He once wrote in his newspaper:
"No queremos mártires". "El país no necesita mártires, sino constructores (...)".
“We don’t want martyrs…the country does not need martyrs, instead it needs builders…”
Posted by eduardo at Marzo 22, 2005 05:42 PM