BILL NUMBER: HR 28INTRODUCED BILL TEXT INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member De Leon MARCH 24, 2010 Relative to Archbishop Oscar A. Romero Day of Remembrance. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST HOUSE OR SENATE RESOLUTIONS DO NOT CONTAIN A DIGEST WHEREAS, The State of California is home to the largest concentration of Salvadorans outside the Republic of El Salvador, with an estimated population of one million nationals who are inextricably linked to their homeland; and WHEREAS, The late Archbishop of San Salvador Oscar Arnulfo Romero, the ultimate pastor of the Salvadoran people, represented the moral voice against the injustices and human rights violations that led Salvadorans to flee their country and seek refuge in the United States; and WHEREAS, The Salvadoran people, including the Salvadoran community in California, embrace the memory of Archbishop Oscar A. Romero as a matter of national identity; and WHEREAS, As an advocate for the poor and the persecuted, Archbishop Oscar Romero became the "voice of the voiceless," in the midst of a civil war, and, despite death threats against his life, he continued his campaign for human rights; and WHEREAS, On March 24, 1980, a group of assassins entered a small chapel in San Salvador as the Archbishop celebrated mass, and fired a single bullet into his heart, killing him; and WHEREAS, In September of 2004, Judge Oliver Wanger of the United States Federal Eastern District Court of California declared a former Captain of the Salvadoran Army living in the United States responsible for his role in the crime against Archbishop Oscar A. Romero; and WHEREAS, Federal Judge Wanger determined that the murder constituted a "crime against humanity" because it was part of a widespread and systematic attack against a civilian population and concluded that what happened to Archbishop Romero was the "antithesis of due process"; and WHEREAS, In 1993, a United Nations Truth Commission on El Salvador found that there was "full evidence" of who participated in the crime and named those involved in the assassination of Archbishop Oscar A. Romero; and WHEREAS, Despite the existing evidence, the Salvadoran judicial system has yet to identify and bring to justice the murderers involved in the assassination of Archbishop Romero; now, therefore, be it Resolved by the Assembly of the State of California, That in the spirit of our friendship with El Salvador, and in response to the pleas of thousands of Salvadoran Americans in the state, the Assembly hereby urges the Government, the Legislative Assembly, and the Supreme Court of El Salvador to bring to justice those responsible for the assassination of the Archbishop of San Salvador, Oscar A Romero; and be it further Resolved, That the Assembly recognizes the 30th anniversary of Archbishop Oscar A. Romero's martyrdom.