Residents in Santa Marta Continue Resisting Eviction Order

The hand-painted sign strewn tightly across the road read: “Don’t undermine the dreams of Santa Marta ’s children.” In front of the sign, representatives of 50 families from the small community located in El Salvador ’s northern Cabañas province. For the last eight months, they have been threatened with eviction from the land they have worked for 20 years and owned for thirteen.

Community authorities hold a title to the land, which was purchased for $26,400 in 1994, but the validity of that title was recently challenged in court by the former owner, Ms. Maria Elba Beltran, who says that she never received compensation for the land in question.

Beltran filed suit last September and was able to legally nullify the 1994 sale of three parcels to Santa Marta residents. She has allegedly offered to drop further proceedings if the community pays another US$100,000. The legal decision rendered the land title useless, but community members and supporters decided to fight. They have vowed to stay on the land and have refused to pay a penny more.

Santa Marta residents are blocking the road to their community because an April 28 eviction order deadline has been handed down by a local judge. For the eviction to take effect, the judge must first verify that residents have not abandoned the property in question and are not complying with the initial order. Community members believe that delaying verification will buy them time to pursue other avenues to resolve the conflict.

Over the Mayday weekend, their were no attempts to illicitly cross the blockade.

Road blocks are a common form of non-violent protest in rural Central America .

Santa Marta is a repopulated community, comprised mostly of Salvadorans who returned from exile in Honduras during the peak of the conflict in El Salvador . As you can see below, thanks to the commitment of so many, the children of these courageous folks, are benefiting from what has been built in Santa Marta since the community’s return. We at CRISPAZ support the struggle of the people of Santa Marta to retain their land and to continue to build community that they can be proud of.

The following is a description—prepared by Tim Crouse of Indianapolis-based Cocoda-- of the gains and challenges that the people of Santa Marta have won and faced in their 13 year struggle to re-build their lives in the wake of El Salvador’s brutal civil war. Most of this was possible due to a concerted attempt at community organizing within Santa Marta and the sustained coordination with committed international grassroots partners, like Cocoda.

Cocoda:

“The third class of the first post-war generation was about to graduate from Santa Marta’s own high school, thirty-six of whom are now attending university in the city. Most families now have cinderblock homes with running water, electricity, fruit trees, and cell phones to communicate with family working abroad. No one is turned away from the Santa Marta Health Center , which is mostly staffed by Santa Marta ’s own health promoters and includes a physical rehabilitation and manual therapy facility. Santa Marta has one of the best equipped computer facilities in rural El Salvador , connected by satellite to the world wide web. The local radio station, Radio Victoria , is run by Santa Marta youth and has become the primary source of local news and radio entertainment in the region, also with loyal listeners across the border in Honduras . They just inaugurated a science lab funded in large part by the Santa Marta immigrant community in Herndon , Virginia.

Despite free trade policies that have been disastrous for Cabañas farmers, it seems that Santa Marta is beginning to see evidence of the better future they envisioned back in the early days of resettlement during the war. To now be threatened once again with losing their land seems a sinister reminder that democratic reforms in El Salvador since the war may be no guarantee that the basic rights of citizens will be respected where economic interests are concerned.

Some speculate that plans for building a major highway through Cabañas as part of the “Plan Puebla Panama ” development corridor is creating speculation jacking up the value of real estate that 10 years ago was considered the least desirable land in the country. The former owners in the dispute for Santa Marta ’s land say they will drop the case if the community purchases the land for $100,000. Santa Marta representatives say they already bought the land, they have no intention of paying for it a second time, or of being forced out of their homes. How justice will be served in the Salvadoran courts remains to be seen.”