O.C. Nun Terrorized by Soldiers in El Salvador

A nun from Orange County was among those terrorized Sunday when soldiers returned to the little Church of San Roque, pounding floors and walls with rifle butts and scanning books for “subversive” literature.

Sister Elena Jaramillo, 45, of the Sisters of St. Joseph in Orange County, said one soldier demanded to know where the clinic’s medicine came from.

“I said, ‘It comes from the same place your uniforms come from,’ ” the gray-haired nun said. The United States has provided about $3.5 billion in aid to El Salvador in the last decade.

The nuns said it was the second time in five days that soldiers had come to the church, terrifying families who had taken refuge there from fighting between troops and leftist rebels in San Salvador. The nuns said the first raid on the church Wednesday made them realize it was not a safe sanctuary.

On Thursday, six Jesuit priests were killed in a dormitory at a university. Rightist death squads, involving men in military uniforms, have been accused of that massacre.

After Wednesday’s first incursion at the church, the nuns began trying to move the refugees out. But, Sister Elena said, “We don’t want to leave until the last refugee is out.”

There were still 30 refugees in the church when the soldiers came back Sunday.

An Associated Press correspondent went by the church just before curfew. It was locked and shuttered. Nearby residents said the people inside had been taken away by Red Cross vehicles.