Archbishop Delivers Aid to Salvador : Central America: Los Angeles’ Mahony calls for greater respect for human rights and justice.

SAN SALVADOR —  In a highly symbolic show of support for El Salvador’s beleaguered church, Los Angeles Archbishop Roger M. Mahony delivered 20 tons of medical supplies to his Salvadoran counterpart Saturday and called for a “deeper level of justice” and respect for human rights here.

Mahony flew into El Salvador’s Comalapa International Airport on a chartered Boeing 727 loaded with donated sutures, bandages, antibiotics and food. He and Salvadoran Archbishop Arturo Rivera y Damas watched as workers hoisted the crates onto four trucks parked on the tarmac.

The relief supplies were destined for civilian victims of the Salvadoran civil war.

Mahony said his visit represented a “very visible, public” show of support for El Salvador’s bishops in the wake of “shocking and intolerable” threats against priests and religious workers.

On Nov. 16, six Jesuit priests, their cook and her daughter were dragged from their beds at the Central American University and shot to death. Church officials have blamed the slayings on right-wing extremists who may be linked to the military.

Rivera y Damas has since been threatened and soldiers have raided churches and arrested Roman Catholic, Lutheran and Episcopal priests and religious workers as part of a crackdown following the recent guerrilla offensive in San Salvador.

The threats and murders “raise very serious questions about the ability of the (Salvadoran government) to protect its citizens and offer security. These questions should be answered,” Mahony said.

“I believe our government should be making certain that the government here is working hard to find the people who perpetrated these crimes, bring them to justice and to secure all citizens of El Salvador . . . (from) threats.”

Mahony called on the U.S. government to condition military aid to El Salvador on the government’s respect for human rights. Washington gives El Salvador nearly $1 million a day in military and economic support.

Though Mahony has been known for a somewhat liberal position on immigration and refugee issues, he suggested that recent events may be forcing a shift in some sectors of American public opinion.

“The situation has changed,” Mahony said as he stood beside the plane in stifling heat.

“When six priests are murdered, and the government is seemingly not able to give protection to its citizens, that’s a new situation. That is not the situation of a year ago.”

The head of the United States’ largest archdiocese--where about 350,000 Salvadorans now live--called for a “deeper level of justice, equality and distribution of wealth” if El Salvador is to flourish as a nation.

Rivera y Damas, accompanied by Auxiliary Bishop Gregorio Rosa Chavez of San Salvador, seemed satisfied with the support from Mahony.

“Where human rights are violated, it reverberates in all humanity,” he told Mahony.

Rivera y Damas said the aid, valued at $600,000, would be distributed through 18 Catholic parishes in San Salvador--though two of the churches are still closed by military occupation.

The supplies were stockpiled by two Los Angeles-based organizations, Operation California and Medical Aid for El Salvador. Operation California has flown relief missions to more than 30 countries over the last 10 years, including an airlift to El Salvador after the 1986 earthquake and to Nicaragua after the devastation of Hurricane Joan last year.

Some of the money to charter the plane was raised among Hollywood celebrities, producers and screenwriters, who form part of a large network of political activists who follow the Salvadoran developments.

Airlift organizers insisted on assurances from the Salvadoran government that the supplies would be consigned to the Catholic archdiocese for delivery to parishes or hospitals. They said they wanted to avoid making it possible for the army to seize the material.

Mahony was met at the airport by U.S. Ambassador William Walker. No Salvadoran government representatives were present. Nor were any airport workers present at first, forcing Mahony to wait on the plane for about five minutes. Only when Walker stepped over and personally started to move a portable stairway did workers appear.

Mahony also presented the Salvadoran prelate with a check for $100,000 and said he had asked Gov. George Deukmejian to provide government planes for future airlifts.

Mahony did not leave the airport and boarded the same chartered plane back to Los Angeles about two hours after he arrived.