ENCORE: State murders of Nuns in El Salvador and Black Panther Fred Hampton repression at home and abroad (G&R 444)

This week is the anniversary of two events which define the State in the U.S., both in the past and today.

In 1969, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Chicago Police Dept. assassinated Black Panther leader Fred Hampton and his associate Mark Clark while they slept in Hampton's home. Hampton had been an up and coming, inspiring, leader in the Chicago community and worked to build coalition with a variety of groups in the area. The FBI had viewed Hampton as a potential “messiah,” who needed to be “neutralized.” When the COINTELPRO program was exposed, it was clear that the FBI had worked to eliminate domestic enemies like Hampton and the Black Panther Party.

In 1980, the rape and murder of four Catholic missionary nuns by U.S. backed death squads sparked international outrage and criticism of President Carter's support for the government in El Salvador. Carter initially suspended aid to the regime, he later reinstated it, and President Reagan continued this support. Later in the 1990s, when documents were declassified revealing the extent to which the U.S. support torture and terror campaigns, former NJ congressman Robert Torricelli said that it was "now clear that while the Reagan Administration was certifying human rights progress in El Salvador they knew the terrible truth that the Salvadoran military was engaged in a widespread campaign of terror and torture".

Despite a history of these events, the movement continues. As Hampton said, "You can jail a revolutionary, but you can’t jail the revolution."

In 2025, the Trump administration is sending ICE to terrorize undocumented people in communities across the country, designating dissidents as "terrorists" and provoking war with Venezuela. We also just recently witnessed "blowback" from Salvadoran style death squads in Afghanistan with the shooting of national guard solders in Washington D.C.

Here's an encore of our episode from 2020 discussing the terrible events.

Much to learn from this history. ---------------------------🎸 Outro- Green and Red Blues by Moody🎙️ Follow Green and Red🔗 Linktree: https://linktr.ee/greenandredpodcast🌐 Website: https://greenandredpodcast.org💬 Join our Discord community: https://discord.gg/ccJgRR26📰 Follow us on Substack: https://greenandredpodcast.substack.com🌌 Follow us on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/podcastgreenred.bsky.social💚 Support the Green and Red Podcast🎉 Become a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/greenredpodcast☕ One-time donation: https://bit.ly/DonateGandR🌍 Our Networks🎧 Labor Podcast Network: https://www.laborradionetwork.org📢 Anti-Capitalist Podcast Network: https://linktr.ee/anticapitalistpodcastnetwork📻 Listen on WAMF (90.3 FM) New Orleans: https://wamf.org📢 False Positive Podcast (https://bit.ly/3LvyTgJ)🎬 A Green and Red Podcast production👨‍🏫 Produced by Bob (@bobbuzzanco) and Scott (@sparki1969)✂️ Edited by Scott🔔 Subscribe for more analysis on U.S. politics, leftist strategy, and anti-establishment resistance.