Salvadoran Archbishop Arturo Rivera y Damas (1923-1994) accompanied by his clerical assistants and political leaders visit a town in central El Salvador, May 1, 1984. Rivera y Damas was named Archbishop in February of 1983 after the post was left unfilled following the March 1980 assassination of Archbishop Óscar Romero. Rivera y Damas was similarly outspoken in denouncing injustice and crimes committed by the state and he led the Church as a monitor in the country’s 1992 UN-backed peace process.
Roberto D'Aubuisson (1944-1992), center left, shakes hands with Roman Catholic Archbishop Arturo Rivera y Damas (1923-1994), right, at an event in San Salvador, El Salvador, June 1, 1983. Salvadoran President Álvaro Alfredo Magaña Borja (1925-2001), center, looks on. D’Aubuisson helped establish the paramilitary network of death squads around the country in the late 1970s was named responsible as giving the orders for the assassination of Rivera y Damas’ predecessor, Archbishop Óscar Romero, on March 24, 1980.