Williams supports ‘Romero’ freedom of information suit

The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Williams, is supporting calls for the CIA to release documents relating to the assassination of Blessed Archbishop Oscar Romero, writes James Roberts.

Lord Williams has submitted a statement in support of a lawsuit against the CIA alleging that the agency failed to properly respond to requests for the declassification of documents regarding the alleged but unproven involvement of retired Salvadoran Colonel Sigifredo Ochoa Pérez in the murder of Romero on 24 March 1980. Ochoa Pérez is not typically included among the participants in the plot to assassinate Romero but he was personally and ideologically close to those accused. The lawsuit, being brought by the University of Washington Center for Human Rights (UWCHR), alleges that the CIA failed to properly respond to the UWCHR’s Freedom of Information Act request. Urging release of the documents Lord Williams writes: “Echoing Mgr Romero’s call to the Government of El Salvador to act transparently and ethically, I would make the same plea to the US Government.”