Segundo Montes' Social Anthropology
Segundo Montes did research and wrote on social stratification, land ownership, the possibilities for democracy and the military. His work on these issues is still a dominant influence on the theoretical frameworks employed by researchers to analyse Salvadoran reality. He is a common reference for studies in power distribution and the effects of emigration on Salvadoran society. Among his published articles was an analysis of economic, political, and other motives for Salvadoran emigration to the United States, addressing claims by the United States government that Salvadoran immigrants were economic refugees and thus did not qualify for political asylum.
The political implications of Montes' commitment to his ideas met strong opposition from the conservative religious and political forces in El Salvador. This opposition led to Montes' murder by the Salvadoran Army in 1989 at his residence in UCA along with five other fellow Jesuit priests (among them Ignacio Ellacuría and Ignacio Martín-Baró) and two employees (see The murdered scholars of UCA). Their murders marked a turning point in the Salvadoran civil war (see History of El Salvador). On the one hand, it increased international pressures on the Salvadoran government to sign the Chapultepec Peace Accords with the guerrillas.
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