by Gail Presbey

Ricardo said right now there are about 450,000 campesinos who grow the corn, beans, and other staples eaten by 6 million El Salvadorans. 37% of the El Salvador population lives in rural areas. About 200,000 families who live by agricultural work don’t have their own land, they must rent land or work for landowners as laborers. This problem of the landless is something that Ricardo is very concerned about. He wants to ensure everyone has land. He is also an advocate of food sovereignty. The campesinos used to use their own seeds. Up to 2019 there were no genetically modified seeds used, but now the government is promoting such seeds. El Salvador only produces 55 percent of their corn, and 15 percent of their rice. (However, they grow 85 percent of their beans, because they don’t like the imported beans!) Seventy percent of their vegetables come from Guatemala. He is concerned that this dependence on food imports leaves El Salvador vulnerable. There is more security when a country produces its own food.

He is currently an advocate of planting trees, and thinks that a wide variety of trees will go a long way in feeding El Salvadorans. As James also chimed in, growing trees is easier than annual crops like corn that must be replanted anew each year. Instead, trees just grow bigger and bigger. Also, planting trees brings people together in community, to take care of the trees. FTPF and their partners have planted 80,000 trees in the U.S., Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, the U.K. and Uganda. James has worked with SHARE for ten years now.

I asked, how can they ensure the trees are maintained, since they need effort for several years before bearing fruit? Ricardo explained that trees have something to offer the community. The community is involved in deciding which trees they want to plant and where they should be planted. James also noted that sometimes one needs to promote public policy that will protect trees, to ensure that “development” projects don’t destroy trees. He told us about an unfortunate case in Brazil where the government decided to build a bridge that destroyed community trees. When he mentioned that example, it reminded me of a presentation I saw recently about the Israeli government destroying olive trees in Palestine. The very old and established olive trees survived in the climate of Palestine, but government policies and actions led to the death and destruction of many of these life-giving trees. I even remember the Olive Tree Circus (that performed at my university over ten years ago) doing a skit that approached with humor a very serious topic – how the wall that Israel built has in some cases separated Palestinian families from their trees, making it hard or impossible to maintain them and care for them.  We really do need to defend trees which in turn help humans. And, as James said, we have to pay attention to the cultural importance of certain trees to communities as well as the issues of climate and context appropriateness of certain species of trees.

Farming trees has deep symbolic meaning in addition to practical meaning. Ricardo even quoted Silvio Rodriguez, the Cuban songwriter, who encouraged his listeners to write a book, or have kids, or plant a tree! The implication is that all of those actions are very forward looking. By investing in the future in actions like that, we show we have faith in the future.

A second speaker we met and heard was Ingrid Escobar, who works with Socorro Judicio Humanitario, a group that defends the human rights of El Salvadorans, especially many innocent people who are being imprisoned currently during the “State of Exception.” The constitution says that such exceptions can only be up to 30 days’ duration, but now it has been going on for 27 months. During this time Bukele has said he arrested and detained 80,000 gang members. While he has detained that many people, Escobar says, many of them are not gang members at all. Not only are many of them innocent people, including young children of 10 and 11 years old, but also, many of them (at least 34) are actually human rights defenders. The government detains them and passed a law (called the 103 decree) that says they have up to four years to investigate their detainees. So they can be held without evidence for a long time. In the meantime, they are harmed in jail. They are underfed, and not provided medical care. Many are dying in prison without being charged. There were 300 deaths within seven months. The government also charged some people (including Veterans of the Armed Forces and ex-FMLN fighters) with being “terrorists.” These prisoners have been older than sixty years old, and some had medical conditions and are receiving no treatment.

Escobar’s organization has been doing good work to draw international attention to these problems. They testified about these problems to the Washington Office on Latin America, U.S. Representative Jim McGovern, the Latin American Working Group, and even to U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris. Escobar is convinced that the gang problem wasn’t really seriously resolved overnight. Rather, there were negotiations with gang leaders. There is evidence of such negotiations that has been provided to the U.S. government. Other countries should be cautious about their misplaced enthusiasm for repeating these anti-gang “methods” in their countries.

Escobar ended her talk by sharing very emotionally the perspective that not everyone feels safe in the “new” El Salvador. If you care about truth and human rights you could feel very vulnerable, because there is a concern that the current government could detain you for a long time, without evidence. Despite these concerns about her own safety and that of her co-workers, they are dedicated to pursuing these cases that will prove the innocence of many detainees. Their work has freed 52 people so far. They hope to free more people, and to bring attention to the unconstitutionality of many of the current practices, to bring an end to such practices.

We were so moved by visiting this memorial. It is so important to keep memory alive. The government has not spent money to restore some crumbling parts of the memorial. Not enough El Salvadorans are being taught about this part of their history. Shockingly, there was a place in the mural where there had been a portrait of Oscar Romero, but the mural was vandalized and his portrait was removed. I stared at the empty spot on the mural wall. Of course, we won’t let the memory of Romero be so easily erased. I, for one, was glad that our week traveling in solidarity with struggling El Salvadorans was framed historically by reviewing the struggles and sacrifices of so many others.