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1998 & 1999). The indigenous people suffered the worst consequences. This armed conflict finished on the 26th December in 1996.\u000AThere were also similar guerrilla uprisings in El Salvador and Nicaragua in different periods. This ideological-political conflict produced divisions and polarizations in all of society. In the context of the Cold War the socialist state of Cuba was established in 1959 reinforcing the anti-communist sentiments of that time. Evangelicals and Catholics were involved in this phenomenon.\u000A(1) The reaction of the Catholic Church\u000AAlonzo and Benda\u00F1a affirm that during the governments of Ar\u00E9valo and Arbenz the Catholic Church maintained a steely anti-communist stance in defence of \u2018Christian values\u2019 (1998: 155-6,162; 1996: 122, 126, 182). Cant\u00F3n notes that the reactionary leadership of Cardinal Mario Casariego influenced their conservative posture (1998: 79). However at the institutional level, the Catholic hierarchy turned around with regard to their ideological and anti-communist position after the Vatican II.\u000AThe Latin American Episcopal Conference (CELAM) in 1968 delineated the new Catholic posture with regard to injustice and poverty. Dussel affirms that CELAM assigned priests the task of \u2018promoting holistic human development\u2019 (1981:193). In some of the sectors of the church the option for the poor became a sort of North Pole in their theological debate and action. Liberation Theology opted for the poor and social justice.19 Gustavo Guti\u00E9rrez, the so called father of Liberation Theology, underlines that what motivated the Catholic Christians to participate in the liberation of their oppressed people\u000A19 Dussel named this theology \u2018Latin American Theology\u2019 and traces its birth in the context of European theology where the Latin American Catholic theologians were trained, the influence of Medellin\u2019s conference of CELAM and the political relationship (1981: 244-7). This theology was called after Liberation Theology. Gustavo Guti\u00E9rrez in his book Teolog\u00EDa de la Liberaci\u00F3n perspectivas (1977) traces the lines of thought which were followed by Catholic laypeople and theologians in Latin America. Jon Sobrino in his book Cristolog\u00EDa desde Am\u00E9rica Latina (1977) influenced the thinking and praxis of priests and laypeople in Central America. From the Protestant perspective, ISAL (Iglesia y Sociedad en Am\u00E9rica Latina) linked to the ecumenical world promoted Revolution Theology and later the Theology of Liberation from their standpoint of option for the poor. Emilio N\u00FA\u00F1ez in his book Teolog\u00EDa de la Liberaci\u00F3n (1986) and Samuel Escobar in his work La Fe Evang\u00E9lica y las Teolog\u00EDas de la Liberaci\u00F3n (1987) outline and analyses the origins and development of the Liberation Theology among Catholic and Evangelical theologians from the Evangelical perspective.\u000A     49\u000A


































































































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