The Historical Context of Today’s Struggles for Land and Justice

by Gail Presbey

Today was the first full day of the SHARE Seeds of Hope delegation. We got to meet each other at breakfast and during the day. I enjoyed learning about the work of Centro Romero in North Chicago, and meeting their staff, six of whom are on our delegation, including their Executive Director, Daysi Funes. For the morning session we were joined by several local agriculturalists who are community activists. There was our main speaker, Ricardo Ramirez (a Honduran who has lived in El Salvador now for a long time), and James who works with an organization, Fruit tree Planting Foundation (FTPF) in addition to his work protecting the urban forest in New York City.  Ricardo and James work together on projects. They are both going to set up our tree planting experience in San Miguel on Tuesday.

I also felt a special connection to Ricardo, because he explained that he knew Padre “Guadalupe” Carney, the martyred Jesuit who was “disappeared” in Honduras in 1983. I am the Director of the Carney Latin American Solidarity Archive (CLASA) at University of Detroit Mercy. When Ricardo heard that my university housed the papers of Fr. Carney, he shared that when he was younger and traveling through Nicaragua and Honduras, Fr. Carney had given his group hospitality for the night. He admired Fr. Carney as an advocate for the campesinos and part of the cooperative farming movement. I was glad that Ricardo and I could explore this connection between us.

Ricardo told us that there are farming cooperatives throughout El Salvador in most departments. There’s also an Association made up of only women, with about 500 members. The cooperative movement wants to defend the people’s land from being confiscated. After all, they fought for their land, sacrificing their lives. Now it is in danger because some rich landowners with political connections are trying to take away the land of some large cooperatives. Other cooperatives are threatened by development projects that hope to popularize El Salvador as the new “Cancun,” displacing farmers. When our group members asked, just exactly how do these powerful persons take the land? – Ricardo explained that they do it through influencing the notaries and people who work with civil registries of land. Those persons could side against farmers, even if they have papers showing they own the land.

Gail Presbey with Ricardo Ramirez

James from Fruit Tree Planting Foundation (FTPF)

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.

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Ingrid Escobar

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.

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After these important talks that brought so many of us up to date on the current challenges of El Salvador, we took a walk in the afternoon to the Monument of Memory and Truth in the Cuscatlán Park. The large, long mural in the beautiful public park told the story of the history of El Salvador and followed up with the details of the 75,000 people killed or disappeared during the Civil War era (1980-1992).  The mural begins with artistic references to the folklore of El Salvador’s indigenous people. Violence in the society could be found in 1932 and was heavy in 1980 with the killing of Archbishop (now Saint) Oscar Romero and many thousands of others. The mural was overseen by a committee including many human rights and humanitarian organizations in El Salvador (as well as the University of Central America or UCA), and supported by international organizations including Catholic Relief Services, Oxfam and Save the Children. Our group searched for (and found) the names of St. Oscar Romero, the four Maryknoll churchwomen, and the Jesuit martyrs of the UCA. There were several related sculptures nearby, showing in sculpture from the struggle to maintain hope when searching for the disappeared family members. One statue celebrates the courtroom success in 2014 that stated that the El Salvador government was responsible for the deaths of five children. While the court case was important due to its truthful outcome, the statue also shows the disaster of innocent children losing their lives.

A detail of the Monument of Memory and Truth in the Cuscatlán Park, showing the missing portrait of St. Oscar Romero.

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.

Day One Seed of Hope Delegation
June 30, 2024
by Gail Presbey