Salvadoran rights champion Maria Julia Hernandez dies at age 68

Published: 2007-04-02

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Maria Julia Hernandez, who for more than two decades led the San Salvador Archdiocese's internationally recognized human rights efforts, died of a heart attack March 30 in El Salvador. She was 68. Hernandez, who reportedly had been hospitalized with heart problems since March 9, suffered a heart attack March 28 before the fatal attack. Hernandez worked alongside Archbishop Oscar A. Romero, who was killed in 1980. Two years later, when San Salvador Archbishop Arturo Rivera Damas reorganized the archdiocesan human rights agency and established its successor, Tutela Legal, Hernandez was placed in charge. Thomas Quigley, the U.S. bishops' adviser on Latin American affairs, called Hernandez "the most tireless, yet gentle, fighter for human rights in El Salvador" and noted that "she had worked more closely than almost anyone with Archbishop Romero. Like the Chilean Vicariate of Solidarity, Tutela became a model for human rights organizations throughout the hemisphere," Quigley said April 2. "While her death is a terrible loss for the still-urgent need for monitoring violations of basic rights in El Salvador, she is at last with her beloved Monsenor Romero."

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