The following notes have been edited to correct errors and to add explanations and updates. Parenthetical notes and remarks from the original are enclosed in parentheses. Present day [2022] updates are italicized and enclosed in square brackets.
Sunday, 13 October 1991 – 2:30 PM - Exodus 29 October
We are visiting a community on the outskirts of San Salvador which was occupied on 29 October 1989 by people who had been displaced by a bad storm. They occupied previously vacant land and put up housing with the help of the CCM, The Council of Marginalized Communities. Our guide through the community is A., a member of the CCM directorate. CCM provided the tin siding, and the rest the people had done for themselves. Before coming here some had lived along the banks of the sewage rivers which run through the capital, or in tenements which had fallen down. Others had been evicted from their homes when the rent got too high.
After they were established, they asked the city for permits to hook up to the city water and electric supplies, but there was no action for months. So they tapped into the water main and into the power lines themselves. Once the city saw that the hook-ups were an established fact, the permits were issued. Now both electricity and water are legal and metered. Water is available to them on week-ends and after 6:00 PM on week-days, but all day during the week it is turned off.
Most of the people in the community do not have jobs with regular wages. One of the men who has joined in showing us around is one of the fortunate ones. He works in a battery factory, where he makes 23 colones per day ($2.87), which is the minimum wage. The women in the community make tortillas to sell. Others go into homes to clean.
There is no school in the community, but some children go to a public school. The primary school is about three blocks away. Usually public school is "free," but they have to pay a registration fee, then buy books and uniforms, so not everyone can afford to send their children to school. He estimates that 60-70% of the children go to school, and the other 30-40% don't go because they cannot afford it.
Question: Do you pool your money and function collectively?
"No, here every family has to find a way to make their way. One needs a recommendation in order to get a job.
"The people who live here were not a community previously. We united as a community because of the project here. In 1989 my house fell into the river. People came around and told me that there was going to be a land takeover. The same thing happened with the people who could no longer afford to pay rent. We can't go to the government for help, because they won't help us. We have to go to an independent agency.
"We don't know who the owner is for this plot of land. We do know that in other places, the owners have come back and evicted the occupiers.
Question: Do the new accords give you much hope?
"They do not afford much hope for us. The accords didn't address the people in the city. If there is any benefit, it is for the people in the countryside. In the next session, there will be a point on the agenda for the people in the city. We do view the accords very favorably, however, for eventually all communities will benefit."
Question: Is this community organized with officers and committees?
"There are twelve directorates which represent seventy-eight families. Their job is the well-being of the overall community. But they are limited in what they can do by the economic reality.
"CCM just operates in San Salvador. We now have a new work in Santa Tekla. There are other related organizations throughout the country doing the same kinds of work. There are eight different committees, of which CCM is one, with close coordination. Then we work with other groups, so that we form a large network. CCM has thirty-five communities in its committee, which makes it the largest of the eight committees in the organization.
"We hope to build permanent housing here. We don't want to have to move."
As we walk along the path and converse with these leaders, they point out a closed, empty house and explain that it is where Martin Ayala Ramirez, the assassinated night watchman, and his wife once lived.
Question: Please tell us about the watchman. Why was he killed?
"He was a member of the directorate in the community, and he supported the work of our broader organization as well. He was the night watchman for our offices. We believe that his assassination was part of a broader campaign. We had just had a land occupation on the other side of the city, and the National Police violently evicted the people. Two children disappeared. Later we heard that they were in the hospital. The army had put them in the hospital for some reason, though they were not sick or injured.
"Martin had received telephoned threats before he was killed. They said that we were Communists and FMLN, but we never thought that they would go that far as to kill him."
Question: Do you feel afraid to continue since Martin was killed?
"Yes, to a certain extent. A number of people have wanted to leave, so it is clear we do have some intimidation. Those who lived near Martin did move. The land takeover was on 30 June 1991, and Martin was killed on 8 July."
Question: How is his wife doing?
"She had twenty-seven wounds. They cut off one of her breasts and she fainted, so that they thought she was dead. She was attacked not with a machete but with a bayonet, such as only the military uses. She had a number of fractures in the back of her head from being beaten against the wall. Now she has fled the country. She was the only witness to what had happened. There was harassment against the family, so it was thought to be better if she went away.
"But the big problem with her not being here is that we cannot pursue the case to find the intellectual authors of this crime. The police picked up some people whom they said did it, but those people are not military. We continue to maintain that it was the National Police, because the way in which Martin's body was left is only done by death squad types. We consider his murder to be an act of terrorism.
"We have told the press and told the human rights committees – we are going to continue struggling for the defense of our communities. We are not going to turn back, because it is very clear that in our country we must struggle to get our rights. We have heard that the judge in the case has said he will put out a complaint against our directorate because we have complained against the military. We are waiting to see if he will do it.
"Fifteen days after the assassination, the police had two people who they claimed did the killing. COPRETA (the military press agency) put one of them on television in a special program where they said that they had captured two involved in the case. They tried to make it look like the two were from our community itself, but we don't know them."
Question: Do you think these two did it?
"They may have been involved, but we do not believe that these two were capable of having planned the assassination. Now the police are also mentioning a woman who is from the CCM community. They say that they caught her trying to flee the country. We know that she never tried to leave. People in the nearby community had seen her, with two men and a Cherokee nearby. (The Cherokee jeep with polarized windows is the preferred vehicle for the Treasury Police and the death squads.) This woman came here one night. We think she had been captured earlier, and pointed out other people, probably under torture.
"We have gone back to the press and said that these people are not the intellectual authors of the crime. We also said that she was not trying to flee the country, but had been seen that very day. We continue to blame the National Police. We deny what the commissions are alleging about the people who they say carried out the killing. We think it is a cover-up of who really carried out the assassination.
"They are trying to discredit the popular organizations. This is the kind of case which needs to be taken up by the U.S. Congress. It serves as a witness to the kinds of human rights violations which occur here. We want to say, Look, this is what happens to all the aid that you send, how it is used to oppress the people here.
"We favor the negotiations, and human rights for our people. The press favors the government. But a majority of the Salvadoran people do not believe the army version because they know what the Salvadoran military is really like."
Sally tells them that we have 22 October appointments with several congressional aides, the day after we get back to the States.
"We believe that international solidarity is very important. One of our roles is to develop this kind of relationship. The other is to denounce human rights abuses."
One man: "It is hard to get the truth published. The press is in the hands of the wealthy. Perhaps it is easier in the international press."
Second man: "We have an example in the Jesuit case. If there had not been international coverage, we would not have seen any movement or any action at all, even what did happen."
Question: Do you get support from the church?
"We have received some support from the Lutheran Church. From the archdiocese, almost never.
"We are at the point of a new dawn with the accords. We have a commitment to help our people, and we will need a lot of international assistance to do this."
The two young men who are speaking to our delegation are students at the UES. One is studying business administration and the other is studying accounting. Fees are very low at the university, but the government is giving very little assistance now, so people must pay for their education themselves.
One man: "I want to raise a concern. All the U.S. aid has gone to the military, which has made rich those who have oppressed their own people. We need the kind of aid which will help us lift ourselves up."
Question: What channels for aid would you suggest?
"We would prefer aid through the popular organizations. USAID is not much help. The funds come as a loan, with a high interest rate. It doesn't help the poorest of the population.
"Because of USAID and World Bank policies, we now have the policy of privatization. They close the organizations, and people are put out of work. The aid comes with all of these conditions. We need aid, but with self-determination so that we can decide how to use it.
"We had an incident recently. A young man was captured and held for five days beyond the 72-hour limit for detentions. Then he was released on the condition that he tell the church that he was picked up because he was an FMLN member or a thief. They told him that if he didn't say this, he would disappear and they would kill his family. We moved his family to protect them, because we were afraid that the army would come back and kill him. We got them out of their home at 11:00 PM and at 1:00 AM that same night the police came back. These people were very lucky to have escaped.
"As long as these kinds of things happen, as long as there is no economic or social justice, we will continue to struggle. We have put forward a plan for a program of urban reform, to be accomplished in phases. The first phase is land reform. The second phase is relocation of people to more habitable places. Reform is an on-going process.
"Don't faint in your work. Together we will build a better world. Our struggle is just."
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