María Cristina Gómez

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A copy of the 'Maria Gómez Cross' showing scenes from her life
A copy of the 'Maria Gómez Cross' showing scenes from her life

María Cristina Gómez (c.1938 - 5 April 1989) was a Baptist primary school teacher and community leader in El Salvador who was abducted on April 5, 1989 and subsequently murdered.

A member of Emmanuel Baptist church in San Salvador, Gómez was a national leader both of Baptist women and in the teachers' union.[1] She was a founder of the National Coordination of Salvadoran Women (CONAMUS), an organization of women founded in 1986. Since then, CONAMUS has addressed the issues which directly affect poor women in El Salvador, including domestic violence and rape, economic survival, lack of political participation, and social inequality. In 1989 CONAMUS opened a clinic to respond to women who were victims of domestic violence and rape. [2]

According to witnesses, heavily armed men dressed in civilian clothing forced Gómez into a car when she returned from the John F. Kennedy School in Ilopango. An hour later, she was pushed alive from a car, in front of hundreds of witnesses near a cemetery in Antigua Cuscatian, on the outskirts of San Salvador. Four shots were fired at her and she died immediately.

On examination, her body showed signs of torture and burns most likely caused by chemicals such as acid. The murdered teacher had been taken from an area that was the operational base for the Salvadoran Air Force. General Juan Rafael Bustillo, the then head of the Salvadoran Air Force, has been implicated in the murder. The National Association of Salvadoran Educators (ANDES) has stated that Bustillo had publically threatened Gomez on previous occasions.[3][4]

ANDES ordered a two-day shutdown of all educational activities to protest at Gómez's murder, and demanded that the country's chief prosecutor begin proceedings to bring those responsible to justice. Leaders of the National Union of Salvadoran Workers (UNTS) have also said they believed Bustillo had ordered the killing.

The Movement for Bread, Work, Land and Liberty (MPTL) staged a protest calling on the people to resist the new nation-wide wave of repression that has marked the weeks following the Nationalist Republican Alliance's (ARENA) electoral victory. The protesters ended their march at the vigil that was held for the murdered schoolteacher.

In its defence, the El Salvador Government has stated that the intention behind Gómez ’s abduction and murder was primarily to discredit the Airforce (who are in charge of the area in which the murder occurred). They added that Gómez had never been arrested and that she had never even been questioned by the authorities. [5]

After her death her church commissioned a local artist to paint a wooden cross with scenes from Gómez's life as she worked among the women of El Salvador. Images of this cross have become internationally recognised as they are used by churches and schools around the world to tell the story of Gómez's life and death.

Gómez was married to Salvador Amaya and had several grown up children.

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