from Wikipedia:
United States
Public reaction
The United States public's reaction
Archbishop Romero's death was symbolized through the "martyrdom of Romero" as an inspiration to end US military aid to El Salvador. In December 1980 the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union refused to deliver military equipment destined for the Salvadoran government. The leader of the union, Jim Herman, was known as a supporter of Romero and denounced his death.[68] On 24 March 1984 a protest was held in Los Angeles, California where around 3,000 people, organized by 20 November Coalition, protested US intervention in El Salvador, using the anniversary of the Archbishop's death and his face as a symbol.[69] On 24 March 1990, 10,000 people marched in front of the White House to denounce the military aid that was still flowing from the United States to the Salvadoran government. Protestors carried a bust of the archbishop and quoted some of his speeches, in addition to the event being held on the anniversary of his death. Noted figures Ed Asner and Jennifer Casolo participated in the event.[70]
Government response
On 25 March 1980, US Secretary of State Cyrus Vance revealed that the White House would continue to fund the Salvadoran government and provide it military aid, in spite of the pleas of Romero and his death immediately prior to this announcement.[71] On 31 March 1983, Roberto D'Aubuisson was allowed entry to the United States by the State Department after deeming him not barred from entry any longer. When asked about D'Aubuisson's association with the assassination of Romero, the Department of State responded that "the allegations have not been substantiated."[72] In November 1993, documents by the Department of State, Department of Defense, and the Central Intelligence Agency were released after pressure by Congress increased. The 12,000 documents revealed that the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush knew of the assassinations conducted by D'Aubuisson, including that of Romero, yet still worked with him despite this.[73]
Investigations into the assassination
No one has ever been prosecuted for the assassination or confessed to it to police. Immediately following the assassination, José Napoleón Duarte, the newly appointed foreign minister of El Salvador, actively promulgated a "blame on both sides" propaganda trope in order to provide cover for the lack of official inquiry into the assassination plot.[74]
Subsequent investigations by the United Nations and other international bodies have established that the four assassins were members of a death squad led by D'Aubuisson.[75] Revelations of the D'Aubuisson plot came to light in 1984 when US ambassador Robert White testified before the United States Congress that "there was sufficient evidence" to convict D'Aubuisson of planning and ordering Romero's assassination.[76] In 1993, an official United Nations report identified D'Aubuisson as the man who ordered the killing.[60] D'Aubuisson had strong connections to the Nicaraguan National Guard and to its offshoot the Fifteenth of September Legion[77] and had also planned to overthrow the government in a coup. Later, he founded the political party Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) and organized death squads that systematically carried out politically motivated assassinations and other human rights abuses in El Salvador. Álvaro Rafael Saravia, a former captain in the Salvadoran Air Force, was chief of security for D'Aubuisson and an active member of these death squads. In 2003 a United States human rights organization, the Center for Justice and Accountability, filed a civil action against Saravia. In 2004, he was found liable by a US District Court under the Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA) (28 U.S.C. § 1350) for aiding, conspiring, and participating in the assassination of Romero. Saravia was ordered to pay $10 million for extrajudicial killing and crimes against humanity pursuant to the ATCA;[78] he has since gone into hiding.[79] On 24 March 2010–the thirtieth anniversary of Romero's death–Salvadoran President Mauricio Funes offered an official state apology for Romero's assassination. Speaking before Romero's family, representatives of the Catholic Church, diplomats, and government officials, Funes said those involved in the assassination "unfortunately acted with the protection, collaboration, or participation of state agents."[80]
A 2000 article by Tom Gibb, then a correspondent with The Guardian and later with the BBC, attributes the murder to a detective of the Salvadoran National Police named Óscar Pérez Linares, acting on the orders of D'Aubuisson. The article cites an anonymous former death squad member who claimed he had been assigned to guard a house in San Salvador used by a unit of three counter-guerrilla operatives directed by D'Aubuisson. The guard, whom Gibb identified as "Jorge," purported to have witnessed Linares fraternizing with the group, which was nicknamed the "Little Angels," and to have heard them praise Linares for the killing. The article furthermore attributes full knowledge of the assassination to the CIA as far back as 1983.[81][75] The article reports that both Linares and the Little Angels commander, who Jorge identified as "El Negro Mario," were killed by a CIA-trained Salvadoran special police unit in 1986; the unit had been assigned to investigate the murders. In 1983, U.S. Lt. Col. Oliver North, an aide to then-Vice President George H.W. Bush, is alleged to have personally requested the Salvadoran military to "remove" Linares and several others from their service. Three years later they were pursued and extrajudicially killed – Linares after being found in neighbouring Guatemala. The article cites another source in the Salvadoran military as saying "they knew far too much to live".[82]
In a 2010 article for the Salvadoran online newspaper El Faro,[83] Saravia was interviewed from a mountain hideout.[83] He named D'Aubuisson as giving the assassination order to him over the phone,[83][84] and said that he and his cohorts drove the assassin to the chapel and paid him 1,000 Salvadoran colónes after the event.[83]
In April 2017, however, in the wake of the overruling of a civil war amnesty law the previous year, a judge in El Salvador, Rigoberto Chicas, allowed the case against the escaped Saravia's alleged role in the murder of Romero to be reopened. On 23 October 2018, days after Romero's canonization, Judge Chicas issued a new arrest warrant for him, and Interpol and the National Police are charged with finding his hideout and apprehending him.[85][86] As both D'Aubuisson and Linares had already died, they could not be prosecuted.
More:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%93scar_Romero
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The death squad leader considered the "mastermind" of the assassination, and a million other monstrous crimes against humanity. You might find his entire Wikipedia worth scanning. One of his nicknames was "Blowtorch Bob" which appealed to him due to his affection for using blowtorches during torture sessions with political prisoners.
His son, living today, same name, is a very active right-wing politician in El Salvador, apparently very popular with the country's right-wing, not shunned at all because of Blowtorch Bob.
Here's his Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roberto_Jos%C3%A9_d%27Aubuisson_Mungu%C3%ADa
Here is "Blowtorch Bob's" Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roberto_D%27Aubuisson
Roberto D'Aubuisson
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