Monthly Update

Article Summaries:
I. Vigil Helps Small Town Remember the War
On November 3, 2003 the residents of Copapayo, located in the Department of Cuscatlan, held a vigil to commemorate a 1983 massacre that killed 142 of the town’s residents. Copapayans have observed the vigil every year since the town’s repopulation in 1987. It is one of many such commemorations that have become integral to the preservation of historical memory in post-war El Salvador.

II. Civil Society Educates and Mobilizes Against Trade Agreement
With only one round left in the negotiations over the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), Salvadoran Civil Society continues to educate about the trade agreement and its possible impact on the economy, democracy, and the well being of many Salvadorans. Although some doubt their ability to stop ratification of the agreement, they claim that their efforts could yet bear fruit.

III. Anti-Gang Law Debate Changes Venue While Youth Still Persecuted
In the month since the Anti-Gang Law passed the El Salvador’s Legislative Assembly, debate over the measure’s constitutionality has grown more heated. The law is currently limited to a six-month lifetime. Debate regarding the measure’s constitutionality will not likely reach El Salvador’s Supreme Court unless the Legislative Assembly votes to extend the six month limit. The law presently undermines the constitutional guarantees of many youth and could pose a long-term threat to the civil liberties of all Salvadorans.

IV. 1986 Earthquake Victims Pressure State Housing Agency
For five years the residents of Altos de Monte Carmelo, located in the city of Soyapango, have been waiting to see whether a private investor will buy their homes, or if ownership will be transferred to the state-run National Fund for Public Housing (FONAVIPO). The legal insecurity in which the community has been living for the past 6 years is the fallout of a scandal involving the latter organization and the Salvadoran Association for Organizing, Training and Development (PROCADES). Many residents of Altos de Monte Carmelo, tired of waiting, began pressuring FONAVIPO to give them some guarantees. On November 24, their efforts proved successful.

V. Solidarity in Action: One World Delegation Moves to San Francisco Chinameca
Having spent mid-October to mid-November studying Spanish with the Center for Exchange and Solidarity (CIS), participating in the organization’s Political Cultural Program, and staying with host families, Karina, Heather, Laura, Leanne and Mariel will now begin the second phase of their program: living and volunteering in the rural community of San Francisco Chinameca.

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The vigil was still well attended at 2:30 am, when another of the town women approached the microphone. “It is very hard to lose a child,” she began. She described how her daughter had been detained by the armed forces, raped repeatedly, and murdered. Her voice wavered, and she stopped abruptly, excusing herself from the group. She was still in sight when she began to weep, just before she disappeared around the corner of the community center.

The vigil, held the evening of November 1 and the early morning of November 2, was in commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the massacre of Copapayo, a community located on the shores of Lake Suchitlan, in the municipality of Suchitoto. Copapayans have observed this vigil annually since the community’s re-population in 1987. It is one of many practices for maintaining historical memory that have taken root in post-war El Salvador.

Copapayo was one of many rural communities in El Salvador where, during the late 1970s and early 1980s, agricultural laborers began to organize to demand better wages and working conditions. The armed forces responded to this upsurge in organizing with violence.

“We started [organizing] in 1979,” recalls Don Angel Rivas, an elder resident of Copapayo. “In August [of 1980] you could begin to see the repression.”

Because of this repression, the residents of Copapayo frequently had to evacuate the town to avoid confrontation with the armed forces. This is just what they did in late 1983 upon receiving word that the army was in the area.

They had intended to wait until the soldiers had left the immediate area before returning to the town. A scout that was sent ahead to investigate returned with tentative confirmation that the troops had left. The town residents made a decision to return.

“One hundred and forty two people died,” says Don Angel of the days following their return to Copapayo. The town residents were crossing the lake in boats when the army came down from the hills and opened fire. Many people not killed while climbing out of the boats were taken back to Copapayo and later the nearby town of San Nicolas, where they were executed.

Sarah Gelsomino, Senior at DePaul University in Chicago, is conducting an oral history project in Copapayo. She notes that many of the town’s original residents were dispersed at this point in the war, many of the men having left to join the FMLN.

“Which is why,” Gelsomino points out, “the massacre was mainly women, children and old people."

Many of the survivors fled to the Mesa Grande Refugee camp in Honduras. “We were there for one year before we founded a commission to discuss how we could return to Copapayo,” says Don Angel.

In 1987 the families from Copapayo left Mesa Grande in a group of 2,300 Salvadoran refugees seeking repatriation. This group was dispersed among five different communities after reentering El Salvador, one of which was Copapayo.

The Copapayo that suffered this massacre and the town that currently bears the same name do not, however, occupy the same physical space.

“We came here in 1987 because we wouldn’t all fit in old Copapayo,” says Don Angel. “More people came later when they realized that nothing had happened to the people that repopulated.”

Despite the substantial number of families currently residing in the town who did not witness the massacre in “Old Copapayo,” the vigil has become a ceremony observed by all. It also draws people from surrounding communities, and as far away as San Salvador.

“A lot of people weren’t at Old Copapayo, but everyone has lost someone,” notes Gelsomino. “This is a time to remember everyone, a time to mourn the war. It’s important for everyone.”

The evening began with music and images from the war projected on a large movie screen. This was followed by tamales and coffee that the community had prepared.

The procession began at 11:00 pm. Each person was given a candle stuck through the bottom of a Styrofoam cup. Two single-file columns walked to the perimeter of the community and back to the central square, amid singing and shouts of “Long live Monsignor Romero! Long live the martyrs of the UCA!” The remainder of the evening was filled with music, poetry and testimonies.

Copapayo is not the only community to have suffered a massacre, nor is it the only to commemorate such an event. The residents of El Mozote, in the department of Morazan, will hold a vigil on December 13 to commemorate the 1981 massacre that lasted from December 11 to 13, and killed nearly a thousand people.[1]

Similarly, on the evening of November 15 and the entire week prior, the Central American University in San Salvador commemorated the murder of 6 Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter by members of the Salvadoran Military’s infamous Atlcatl Battalion.

II. Civil Society Educates and Mobilizes Against Trade Agreement

The November 14 edition of the San Salvador daily Co Latino featured a one page spread, complete with illustrative cartoons and captions, describing how the Salvadoran government has been spreading misinformation about the possible impact of Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) on sugar production in El Salvador.

The lead paragraph reads: “The Minster of the Economy, Miguel Lacayo, has been announcing that with the Free TradeAgreement between the United States and El Salvador, sugar producers will benefit greatly and will give work to a lot of people. The announcement of the Minster is part of the government’s propaganda.

Image from an education pamphlet distributed by the

Sinti Techan Network. The caption reads, "The lies

of 'free trade.'"

The layout was in the distinctive style of the popular education organization Equipo Maiz, which has been publicizing similar materials weekly in Co-Latino for the past several months.

With only one round left in the negotiations over CAFTA, different civil society representatives in El Salvador continue to move forward with a campaign of educating the public and denouncing the trade agreement. While some doubt their ability to stop El Salvador and other regional governments from signing CAFTA, they maintain that their efforts could yet bear fruit.

The San Salvador based Center for the Defense of the Consumer (CDC) has similarly identified education as the most effective means of counteracting the push for CAFTA.

“It is our position that the TLC cannot be reformed,” says CDC Director Armando Flores. “It represents a clear threat to the fundamental rights of people. This obligates us to work in education, to inform the citizens.”

To this end, the CDC has collaborated with other Salvadoran NGOs to create Sinti Techan, a Salvadoran citizen action network designed to demand public responsibility in business and investment.

A pamphlet released by Sinti Techan entitled “10 Reasons to Resist the TLC” illustrates with cartoons and bullet points the negative impact the network feels the agreement will have on the Salvadoran economy, the well being of people and the health of the country’s democracy.

One of the ten points features a cartoon showing various goods, services and contaminants flowing into El Salvador, while a wall topped with barbed wire and armed guards prevent enpoverished Salvadorans from leaving. The caption reads, “The lies of ‘Free Trade.’”

“We have hosted different informational activities so that people understand the logic of these agreements, and specifically the case of CAFTA,” says Ana Murcia, Coordinator of the Economic Justice Program at the Salvadoran women’s organization Las Dignas (also a member of the Sinti Techan network). “We have also organized a number of marches, and lobbied the legislative assembly so that they won’t sign [the trade agreement].”

In addition to organizing marches against CAFTA, Murcia notes that her organization worked to educate the population about the perils of free trade at the numerous “white marches” that were organized to protest the privatization of public health.

Even though she considers many Salvadorans better informed about the trade agreement than before, Murcia mentions the difficulty Las Dignas and Sinti Techan have had countering the government’s pro-CAFTA campaign. Advertisements touting the anticipated benefits of the trade agreement appear on television as well as on billboards around San Salvador.

Armando Flores agrees. Of Civil Society efforts to educate the public about CAFTA he notes, “The impact to date has been limited.”

This realization has not, however, led to disillusionment. “After the signing of the agreement comes implementation,” says Murcia. “That will create conditions that will lead to greater mobilization.”

“What could stop this agreement is a counterweight: social power,” adds Armando Flores. “We don’t have it yet, not even in Costa Rica where three years ago they succeeded in stopping the privatization of electricity.”

At the same time Armando Flores cites the Costa Rican example, the Salvadoran people’s prevention of the privatization of public health, as well as Bolivia’s expulsion of the Bechtel corporation, as building blocks of just such a counterweight.

“We have to work harder,” says Armando Flores. “We have to give voice to the people and make them protagonists.”

The President of the Republic of El Salvador, Francisco Flores, appeared on television the evening of October 26 with a new entreaty regarding his administration’s most recent initiative, the Anti-Gang Law.

President Flores appealed to the judges charged with implementing this law, a number of who have denounced the measure as unconstitutional. He asked that they set aside their objections, and move forward with the implementation of a law he claims will curb gang activity and save lives.

The month following the Anti-Gang Law’s passage in the Legislative Assembly of El Salvador has seen increasingly vociferous public debate about the law’s constitutionality and the motives behind its promulgation. Set to expire sometime in early April, it remains unclear whether the Assembly will vote to extend the law's life. It is clear that the law currently facilitates civil rights violations.

Recent debate has been characterized by the President’s redirection of his criticisms away from opposition parties within the Legislative Assembly to Judges who have refused to implement the law.

“The President has to look for someone to blame, because he is not going to be able to make good on his promises about this law,” says Colonel José Antonio Almendáriz Rivas, Legislative Deputy for the Partido de Conciliacion Nacional (PCN) and President of the Commission on Public Security.

As First Judge for the Execution of Matters Relating to Minors, Aida Luz Santos de Escobar is not in a position to decide whether she personally will or will not implement the Anti-Gang Law. Given her position, however, she is well aware of the law’s present and potential impact.

“The spirit of the law is unconstitutional,” notes Judge Santos. “We do not need a law that only punishes, we need a preventative law.”

The President has asserted that the Anti-Gang law makes gang membership alone a punishable crime. The criteria used to determine gang membership is at the heart of debate about the law’s constitutionality.

Article 1 of the law defines a gang as a “group of people that act to disturb public order or act against decorum and good custom, and meet with some or all of the following criteria: they meet regularly, they mark territories as their own, they use signs or symbols as means of identification, they mark their body with scars or tattoos.”

Judge Santos points out how dangerously vague this language is. “This should be looked at in the context of the elections,” she says, noting that the election period itself constitutes a disturbance of public order. In her assessment, the law could be subjectively applied to people involved in different electoral activities.

Beyond this, the Law’s constitutional violations are numerous. Article 3 of the Constitution of the Republic of El Salvador, which guarantees that “All people are equal under the law,” presents just one example. In the case of crimes perpetrated by other sectors of society, the law stipulates more stringent punishment for gang members.

Ricardo Montoya, Coordinator of the Juvenile Penal Justice Department at the Foundation for the Study of the Application of the Law (FESPAD), points to the law’s political expediency as explanation for the President’s disregard for constitutionality. “This law was adopted for electoral ends,” he says. For Montoya the apparent sloppiness with which the law was written is only further evidence of the electoral motives underlying its promulgation.

As it relates to political expediency, Judge Santos agrees. “A poll was taken regarding the two problems that most affect the lives of Salvadorans,” she says. “They were poverty and delinquency. The elections are coming, and the image of the executive has to be good. It is easier to take on the problem of delinquency than the problem of poverty.”

Ricardo Montoya also points to the law’s vague language as evidence that the President’s assertion regarding the illegality of gang membership is untrue. “In reality it is not illegal to be a gang member,” he says, citing Article 1 of the Anti-Gang Law. “We could say that the judges are applying the law.”

The National Civilian Police (PNC), however, are basing their conduct on the public assertions of the President. “The police are acting in err,” says Montoya. “They believe that it is a crime to be a gang-member but it is not.”

Moving forward based on this assumption, however, the PNC has begun to detain real or suspected gang members en masse. Daily articles in San Salvador’s two major dailies trumpet the increased number of gang members captured by the police, and the concomitant reduction in the number of homicides.

This has inevitably led to violations of the civil liberties of minors, and brings into question whether young people who are not in gangs feel safer under the new law. One sixteen-year-old who did not want to be identified says that one of his friends – who is not a member of any gang - was arrested and detained for a week.

“He was with a group of about 7 friends,” relates the youth. “None of them are gang members. It was six o’clock at night. A gang member approached them to ask for money, and then the police arrived. Nobody had identification, so they took them all in. My friend missed a week of school.”

Despite such violations, the lifetime of the law suggests that debate regarding its constitutionality will not reach El Salvador’s Supreme Court. “The law is only going to be in effect for six months,” points out Montoya. “If this law were to become permanent, then it would have to be brought before the [Supreme] Court.”

The PNC, however, began enforcing the law on July 23, 2003, roughly two and a half months before its October 9 passage of the Legislative Assembly. Even if the law is not extended beyond its initial six months, there appears to be little guarantee that police enforcement of the measure would stop accordingly.

At eleven o’clock am on the morning of November 24, Ricardo Gomez congregated with some 50 other residents of the community Altos de Montecarmelo at the offices of the state-run National Fund for Public Housing (FONAVIPO).

Gomez says that the community members want a signed agreement from FONAVIPO guaranteeing that the value of their mortgages will not be raised.

Altos de Montecarmelo is nestled in the hills that surround the city of Soyapango, just outside San Salvador. The land that the community currently

The residents of Altos de Montecarmelo gather outside the offices of the National Fund for Public Housing (FONAVIPO). To see more photos of the protest click here. (Photo: CIS)

occupies was bought by the non-profit Salvadoran Association for Organizing, Training and Development (PROCADES)––with money donated by the Swedish organization Radda Barnen––to build housing for families displaced by the 1986 earthquakes in El Salvador.

The homes, although only partially constructed, were turned over to the displaced families with no-interest mortgages.

“Any improvements to the homes were done by community,” says resident Marina Gloria Hernandez. This includes the introduction of potable water and sewage systems. With collective money the residents have also built retention walls, a community center, a church, and a basketball court.

The residents of Altos de Montecarmelo were not informed when, in 1997, PROCADES took out an 11,214,884 Colon mortgage with FONAVIPO using their homes as collateral.[2] The money, ostensibly for use in other housing projects, was never used to benefit poor families.[3] Several member of PROCADES’ Board of Directors were accused of having pocketed the funds.[4]

This mortgage was facilitated by the fact that then-Director of PROCADES, Claudia Margarita Cáceres, also sat on FONAVIPO’s Board of Directors. When PROCADES fell behind on their payments, FONAVIPO ordered an audit of their finances, thereby discovering the organization’s embezzlement of funds.[5]

As part of the subsequent law suit filed by FONAVIPO, all properties belonging to PROCADES were seized by the State.

Levis Abarca, Lawyer in the Human Rights Department at the Foundation for the Study of the Application of the Law (FESPAD), says that legal procedure dictates that all properties formerly managed by PROCADES be placed on the market. “If they do not sell, then ownership is transferred to FONAVIPO,” he says.

Abarca notes that, for the residents of Altos de Montecarmelo, as well as all the communities constructed by PROCADES, this presents a number of problems. If a private investor buys their land, they face the risk of being removed––perhaps forcibly––if that investor decides s/he would like to use the land for other purposes.

This, however, is not the greatest risk. “It is not likely that a third party will purchase the property,” says Abarca. In his opinion the fact that it is already occupied makes it unattractive for private investment.

Abarca and the community have been more concerned that, if ownership of the land is transferred to FONAVIPO, they will raise individual mortgages according the present value of the properties. (The State must reassess the value of each home before placing the property on the market.)

“We are looking for a way out that respects the agreement that we had with PROCADES,” said Gomez.

To this end, the community has been pressuring FONAVIPO to sign a document that assures them that the value of their mortgages will not be raised, and that they will not be evicted from their homes.

FONAVIPO Legal Consul Nelson Omar Guerra Trinidad initially asked the community to be patient. He pointed out that homes affected by the PROCADES scandal needed to be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.

“We cannot promise to adhere to the agreement with PROCADES,” Guerra Trinidad told community residents in a November 11 meeting at FONAVIPO, “because they might have promised things that we cannot deliver.”

Despite this, in an email response to letters sent by members of the Center for Exchange and Solidarity (CIS) Human Rights Network, FONAVIPO Director Oscar Adán Burgos stated that the matter was effectively out of FONAVIPO’s hands. Burgos asserted that the property currently belongs to the Bank of America.

Community leaders were suspicious. “They want to confuse us so we will pressure the bank and not them,” said Gomez.

The very fact that the Director of FONAVIPO responded to letters regarding the case of Altos de Montecarmelo had some convinced that they are applying pressure in just the right places. “If they felt completely free of culpability, they would not have sent that letter,” said community resident Eva Gutierrez.

The events of November 24 seem to support Gutierrez’s theory. On that day, the residents of Altos de Montecarmelo gathered at the offices of FONAVIPO for the third time since September, but this time they arrived with signs and a bullhorn.

In an effort to get them off the sidewalk, FONAVIPO representatives immediately offered the community a meeting with Director Oscar Adán Burgos. Community leaders initially refused, saying they did not want to enter until their lawyer or the media arrived.

After an hour Ricardo Gomez, Marina Hernandez and other community representatives agreed to meet with Director Burgos.

Hernandez emerged a half-hour later. “They said they would sign an agreement with us saying they would respect the agreement we had with PROCADES,” she said. She added, laughing, “they also said they were going to sign an agreement with the community that makes us promise we will not come here to protest anymore.”

Hernandez noted that Director Burgos had mentioned to the community members all the emails he had received from CIS Human Rights Network members.

Gomez exited the building one hour later with the document in hand. “I think we’ve been successful in what we came here to do,” he said. (Click here to see the document)

Glowing from their victory, some community residents also noted the need to formulate a next step in their struggle to gain housing security.

“We are not just going to just leave this where it is,” said one elderly resident.

[2] “Communidad de Soyapango demandará a PROCADES por estafa.” La Prensa Grafica..San Salvador, El Salvador. 2/18/99: 18.

[3] “Ordenan arresto de implicada en estafa.” La Prensa Grafica. San Salvador, El Salvador. 2/11/99: 20.

[4] Alberto López. “Piden captura para directivos de ONG.” El Diario de Hoy. San Salvador, El Salvador. 3/3/99: 14.

[5] Alfredo Hernández. “Estafa en FONAVIPO por ¢ 20 millones.” La Prensa Grafica. San Salvador, El Salvador. 2/5/99: 5.

Mariel Angus, 18, decided to come to El Salvador because she wanted to learn Spanish and have an international experience before she began her university studies.

"I’m going into International Development in the University," she adds, "so I wanted to have some experience in that area before entering."

Muriel is one of five Canadian women who came to El Salvador with the organization One World. Since their arrival at the Center for Exchange and Solidarity (CIS) on October 13, they have been studying Spanish, living with host families, and participating in the organization’s Political Cultural Program. They will spend the next two months living and volunteering in the town of San Francisco Chinameca.

"Part of my interest in going to Central America was the political aspect and the history of political struggle," notes Karina Chagnon, 23, from Montreal, Quebec. "For me it’s also to raise [other Canadians’] conciousness about social justice issues.

The young women will be working on a number of different projects already initiated by residents of San Francisco Chinameca. "Everything is really well organized," says Leanne Murray, 19, from Seaforth, Ontario. "We have full schedules."

The women will spend the majority of their time teaching English, basic computer skills, sports, and art to young people in the community. English and computer classes will also be available to adults.

All the delegation members are concerned to varying degrees about what they have to offer the community that will host them for the next 2 months.

"I am brining my support and solidarity with anti-globalization and anti-poverty work that I do at home," says Karina. "But," she adds, "I just feel like I have so much more to learn than to give"

Laura Devereaux, 19, from Seaforth, Ontario, articulates a similar tension between what she will give to the residents of San Francisco Chinameca, and what she will take. "I feel I have to offer the education that I’ve been given back home; my music and my English."

At the group’s orientation in the community, however, the music students that Laura will be working with played a number of complicated songs. "After watching them, I don’t know what I’m going to do," she said.

All the women in the delegation share an expectation to learn. "I anticipate gaining an awareness, a global awareness that you just can’t get by staying home," says Heather Brady, 19, from Kingston, Ontario.

For Francisco Viscarra, Coordinator the Cultural Center in San Francisco Chinameca, One World’s arrival in the community represents a tradition of international collaboration. "We have always received support from others," he tells the women in their orientation, "not from the government or people from this community but from the CIS and people like you. It is important that you are here."

The intent of the project is that, through building bonds of mutual solidarity, both the residents of San Francisco Chinameca and the women from One World get what they are looking for.

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II. Civil Society Educates and Mobilizes Against Trade Agreement