Next time you hear some conservatarian raving about how wonderful Ronald Reagan was, remind him of this: in 1982, when Salvadoran soldiers were routinely stealing babies from their families to sell on the international adoption market, the Reagan Administration was supporting the Salvadoran government, under the control of Roberto D’Aubuisson’s ARENA party.
Yes, that’s the same ARENA party that arranged for the murder of an archbishop in his cathedral: the first, I believe, since Thomas Beckett in the twelfth century. And that’s the same ARENA party that still rules El Salvador, forbidding trade-union organization under penalty of law and blocking access to military records that might help trace the stolen babies.
Our President at the time was the smiling, genial Great Communicator.