Celebrities Join in Protest of U.S. Aid to El Salvador

Celebrities, including singer-actor Kris Kristofferson and actor Robert Blake, Sunday denounced the United States for aiding the government of El Salvador in its ongoing civil war against leftist rebels.

The celebrities were among 200 people who attended a benefit in an airplane hangar at Santa Monica Municipal Airport to raise money for medical supplies and food for victims of El Salvador’s civil war and recent earthquake,

‘Responsible for Misery’

“The United States is responsible for something like 50,000 people being killed there,” said Kristofferson, who performed at the benefit. “The money we’re sending down there is helping a government that is responsible for a lot of misery.”

The event was sponsored by Medical Aid for El Salvador, a humanitarian organization that has already sent $750,000 to buy medical supplies and food for El Salvadorans.

Since 1982, the organization has helped set up medical clinics, a hospital, a mother-and-infant care program and a variety of other humanitarian projects in the Central American country.