IRTF is grateful to the 200 supporters who gathered on October 27 at Pilgrim Church in Cleveland’s Tremont neighborhood for IRTF’s annual Commemoration of the Martyrs. In addition to marking the 44th anniversary of the martyrdom of Cleveland’s missioners in El Salvador (Jean Donovan and Sister Dorothy Kazel, alongside Maryknoll Sisters Ita Ford and Maura Clarke), we commemorated 36 human rights defenders killed in Central America and Colombia this past year because they dared to speak truth to power.
Our keynote speaker, Lorena Araujo of the largest campesino organization in El Salvador (CRIPDES), held the crowd’s attention with horrific stories of mass arrests, detentions and deaths currently happening under their government’s State of Exception, now in its third year. With more 88,000 imprisoned (and more than 300 deaths in prison), El Salvador now has the highest incarceration rate in the world—surpassing the astronomical rate of incarceration in the United States.
As the people of El Salvador face the greatest challenge to their democracy since the end of the civil war in 1992, they invite us to renew and deepen our solidarity.
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Here we share with you:
COMMEMORATION LINKS
video recording of the Commemoration program held in the Pilgrim Congregational Church sanctuary: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhV76a_tB6VIGpU0iILz8TPZNLVhVs575&feature=shared
program book with our event co-sponsors (listed below): https://bit.ly/3YTeqa3
LITANY OF THE MARTYRS
INSTRUCTIONS FOR READERS: Read each name slowly, prayerfully, with reverence. Pause 2 seconds between each name.
LITANY OF THE MARTYRS
(listed here by country, in order of the Rapid Response Network letters we wrote on behalf of each victim of targeted assassination or death by state violence)
Since we gathered one year ago, we have written dozens of letters to express our sadness and outrage, calling for justice in the killings of dozens of people in Central America and Colombia whose lives were cut short because they dared to speak truth to power.
In COLOMBIA
Juan David Chávez Yoino (RRN letter JAN 14 2024)
Phanor Guazaquillo Peña (RRN letter JAN 16 2024)
Pedro Pablo Salas Sánchez (RRN letter JAN 17 2024)
Camilo Osuna (RRN letter JAN 18 2024)
Robert Fernández (RRN JAN 21 2024)
José Enrique Roa Cruz (RRN letter JAN 28 2024)
Eliécer Chocue (RRN letter FEB 11 2024)
Eywar Yamid Morán Campo (RRN letter MAR 3 2024)
Ludivia Galíndez Jiménez (RRN letter MAR 4 2024)
Lirnedy Soto (RRN letter MAR 5 2024)
Jhon Fredy Muchavisoy (RRN letter MAR 5 2024)
Faber de Jesús Rincón Pérez (RRN letter MAR 6 2024)
Nallely Sepúlveda and her 14-year-old nephew Edison David (RRN letter APR 21 2024)
Carmen Yule Paví (RRN letter APR 22 2024)
Narciso Beleño Belaides (RRN letter APR 26 2024)
Alba Rocío Riaño Nossa (RRN letter JUN 25 2024)
Luis Eduardo Vivas (RRN letter JUL 13 2024)
Yoli María Toloza Cardoza (RRN letter JUL 14 2024)
Jorge Méndez (RRN letter AUG 5 2024)
Armando Torres Bohórquez (RRN letter SEP 25 2024)
Germán Ríos Cifuentes (RRN letter SEP 25 2024)
Valeska London (RRN letter SEP 25 2024)
Carlos Andrés Ascué Tumbo (RRN letter SEP 26 2024)
Carlos Andrés Becoche (RRN letter OCT 23 2024)
Roxenda Sanguino (RRN letter OCT 24 2024)
Heber Rivera Méndez (RRN letter OCT 25 2024)
In GUATEMALA
Noé Gómez Barrera (RRN letter JAN 11 2024)
José Domingo Montejo (RRN letter JUN 21 2024)
In HONDURAS
Francisco Javier Ramírez Amador (RRN letter JAN 25 2024)
Marvin Dubón (RRN letter APR 24 2024)
Erlin Asbiel Blandin Alvarez (RRN letter AUG 6 2024)
Juan Antonio López (RRN letter SEP 21 2024)
Olman García Ortiz (RRN letter SEP 22 2024)
In EL SALVADOR
Franklin Gabriel Izaguirre (RRN letter APR 23 2024)
José Leonidas Bonilla (RRN letter APR 23 2024)
And, the Martyrs of El Salvador killed in 1980
Saint Oscar Arnulfo Romero
Jean Donovan
Sister Ita Ford
Sister Maura Clarke
Sister Dorothy Kazel
¡presente!
CO-SPONSORS
of the IRTF 44th annual Commemoration of the Martyrs
Thank you to all our co-sponsors (57!) who contributed to our Commemoration program book, The Human Toll of a State of Exception.
Action Reconciliation Service for Peace (ARSP)
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Ohio
Beaumont School
Catholic Worker Community of Cleveland
Centro de Intercambio y Solidaridad (CIS)
Chicago Religious Leadership Network (CRLN)
Christian Church in Ohio (Disciples of Christ)
Christians for Peace in El Salvador (CRISPAZ)
Church of the Gesu – Catholic parish
Church of the Redeemer – United Methodist Church
Church of St. Dominic – Catholic parish
Church of the Saviour – United Methodist Church
Cleveland Jobs with Justice
Cleveland Nonviolence Network
Cleveland Peace Action
Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES)
Committee of 500 Years of Dignity and Resistance
Community of St. Oscar Romero (COAR)
Community of St. Peter
Community Peacemaker Teams
Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph
Cuyahoga County Progressive Caucus
Disciples Justice Action Network
Disciples Peace Fellowship
Equal Exchange
Fellowship of Reconciliation
Forest Hill Church Presbyterian
FutureChurch
Ida B. Wells Foundation
International Partners in Mission (IPM)
Jewish Voice for Peace
John Carroll University Campus Ministry
Lake Catholic High School
Latin America Working Group (LAWG)
LGBT Community Center of Greater Cleveland
Mardy Townsend – in memory of Marge Townsend
Margaret W. Wong & Associates LLC
Northeast Ohio Friends of Immigrants
Northeast Ohio Sierra Club
Oficina del Ministerio Hispano – Catholic Diocese of Cleveland
OPAWL: Building AAPI Feminist Leadership
Pilgrim Congregational Church - United Church of Christ
Policy Matters Ohio
St. Ignatius High School
St. Noel – Catholic parish
St. Patrick Church – Catholic parish
St. Paul’s Community Church – United Church of Christ
Sisters of Charity of St. Augustine
Sisters of the Humility of Mary
Sisters of Notre Dame
Spates Accounting Services
State Senator Nickie J. Antonio (OH-23)
Urban Community School
Ursuline Sisters of Cleveland
Vegan Collective
Walsh Jesuit High School
West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church – in memory of Anne Osborne
