Valle Nuevo

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Mission Valle Nuevo

Valle Nuevo

(latest news first -- more background below)
March 25, 2003

July 8, 2002

3/25/03
Sharing #5: Jim Fitz
Warm greetings, friends,

I just returned from seven days with our sister community Valle Nuevo in El Salvador. This visit included visiting with friends of many years, and also seeing signs of new growth.

One of the most significant things was to find out about the big change in their internal relationships. It seems for years now they have been having trouble with bickering amongst themselves about how to proceed with titling the 265 acres of land we helped them buy. The bickering had made any progress almost impossible. Seems an act of God that they have been able to draw together the many factions of their leadership and come to agreement on major decisions like the land titling process. Many confirmed this new direction. At this point there have not been any concrete decisions, though things look more hopeful than they have in a long time.

A major surprise to me was their concern about the war in Iraq,
even though it doesn't directly affect them. Many, many people went out of their way to explain why it is of such a grave concern to them, and then ask us how we felt. They held a march of 2-400 persons and then gathered to pray for peace afterwards. Their main reasoning was that, "we know the suffering of war, and the pain of every one involved. The poor are usually on the receiving end, and there is nothing good about it." Andy Horst, one of our youth on the trip said it well, " I've been against war all my life, but now I know why and why I need to do something about it now."

One activity that we took part in was assisting Valle Nuevo youth with their reforestation project. As a part of their tenth grade studies, Valle Nuevo students have a seminar class, in which the students decide a problem in their community that they would like to study and work on. They chose reforestation. Every morning a group of the students work on preparing the acre they are going to plant trees in, and we were able to help them one morning.

I had many good visits with our many friends: Erlinda, Pedro (who now has a new 1 ½ year old girl, his ninth child) Bachio, Tomasa, Reina, and Juana( mother of Claudia who has a baby and is living in LA.). Juana’s husband is part of the 45 households doing an intense experimentation using organic farming methods, a project which looks very promising. Pedro now owns a truck with his brother, which he plans to use to make money by hauling things. David and I spend a hot afternoon loading and unloading 200 adobe bricks. It felt good to help him and in a small way pay him back for the work on the farm here he did for us several years ago.

We were international observers for their election. The farmer’s party FMLN lost by 120 votes; they claim there was fraud and are contesting the election. They held a march to show the support they had for contesting the election, and several thousand participated. They claim that 2- 400 of them were denied the right to vote unfairly, and that the opposition has a history of cheating.

For the 1st time we visited Los Hernandez, Honduras, a community of 500 who took in 5000 El Salvadoran refugees, including Valle Nuevo folks, in 1981. We heard the stories of how the refugees escaped a "search and destroy” mission of the El Salvadoran military, and arrived hungry and many without shirts on their backs. We also heard about the way these very poor Hondurans organized and shared their little to meet their needs, despite the Honduran military having a gun in their face at the same time. It was very moving. The Hondurans also prayed and shared their concern for the war in Iraq.

The last day we had a meaningful time with 46 10th graders from Valle Nuevo in San Salvador, visiting the University where the six priests were killed, and the chapel where Oscar Romero was killed. There we were challenged by a priest and a nun in very good ways to commit ourselves to follow Jesus, the way these martyrs did in working for peace and justice.

I want to say thanks to those of you who contributed financially to enable me to go on this trip. The cost was less than expected, so I was able to give $ 182.00 to the Youth Group toward pipe for the irrigation system for their soccer field.

I would like to close with a story from the good-bye gathering that they had for us. One of the young schoolteachers, Victor, who is an excellent guitarist and songwriter, announced he was going to sing a song. And just then Margarita, a lady in her 70's, said she would like to sing a song that she just wrote about their war history. He immediately deferred to her, and figured how he could accompany her with his guitar. Margarita sang her dozen or so verses in her singsong manner and Victor did an excellent accompaniment. Then everyone applauded stronger than any other time of the evening. Seeing the honor they gave to Margarita was a wonderful impression to come home with.

Join the prayers for peace every day,

Jim Fitz

July 8, 2002

Dear Yvonne and friends in the Shalom Mission Communities and others interested in the "Picacho" project in Valle Nuevo:

Yvonne, thank you for sending a copy of the letter from the Valle Nuevo directiva (now an ADESCO!).

Greetings to you all from Indianapolis.

Some of you I know, others I have not met, so I'll briefly introduce myself. I am Tim Crouse, staffperson for Companion Community Development Alternatives (CoCoDA), based in Indianapolis.

Alfonso Rivas is CoCoDA Projects Coordinator in El Salvador -- he is based in Suchitoto, El Salvador.

Yvonne makes mention of the "Picacho" project in Valle Nuevo.

I though some of you may be interested in having a background and an update on the project. For those of you who have been living this project with us over the years, you might want to skip the "Background" section, and go straight to the "Update" section. Essentially, the Land Commission is not able to take any action until some outstanding issues are resolved with the directiva (community council) and a work plan with delegated responsibilities, calendar and budget, agreed to. That discussion is presently what is being work on.

If any of you want to be added to our Picacho Updates listserve, please email me back and let me know.

For a global community founded on just relations,

Tim Crouse

CoCoDA Staff

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"El Picacho" Land Purchase Project in Valle Nuevo, Cabañas, El Salvador

July 8, 2002

Background

We (CoCoDA) have been coordinating with various people and directivas and commissions in Valle Nuevo over the past 10 years to try to bring a sound, long-term conclusion to a land purchase project which has come to be known as the "Picacho" project -- "picacho" refering to a big, rugged hill that is on the property. The land is mostly rugged farming or grazing land, although over the years a number of families have moved onto the property. The primary objective of the project, as proposed by the Valle Nuevo directiva (community council) in 1992, was to secure farming land for the families of the community, and for much of this time since '92, much of the land has served this purpose.

The project has cost over $75,000 to date -- $34,000 sent directly to the community directiva by Reba Place Church and Plow Creek Fellowship in 1992 to make a first payment on the purchase of the land; $16,100 paid by a CoCoDA-contracted attorney to the land owners in 1993 to complete the sale, and $25,000+ that has been spent over 9 years, consulting attorneys; hiring outside Salvadoran facilitators to work with the community to reach transparent, democratic decisions; CoCoDA staff and volunteers making numerous trips sometimes with consultants; various phases of survey work and maps, etc... This in addition to the positive presence and role of the annual March delegations from Plow Creek, Reba Place - now Shalom Communities - over the years, and Yvonne's visits and conversations... It has been a long and expensive journey.

Plow Creek and Reba Place have raised a significant part of the funds for the project; residents of Valle Nuevo who worked summers at Plow Creek have contributed; and numerous churches, organizations and individuals througout the midwest and eastern United States have contributed over the years.

For several years, from 1995 to 1998, the project was essentially stuck. Mostly the problem, in my opinion, has been politics and political divisions and vendettas in Valle Nuevo and the communities of Cantón Santa Marta. There have been difficulties with the legal process now and then, weaknesses on all sides in communications at different times, but all the difficulties (not unusual for such a project) could have been resolved -- can still be resolved -- with a spirit of cooperation and shared vision for the outcome of the project.

COMMUNITY'S DECISION FOR THE FUTURE OF PICACHO

After two and a half years of neighborhood meetings (1999-2001), general assembly meetings and various consultations all made possible thanks to the work of a Land Commission of Valle Nuevo residents, an assembly with 100+ Valle Nuevo families represented voted nearly unanimously to parcel out the land and distribute among families who returned from Mesa Grande refugee camp in 1989 by means of a raffle. CoCoDA proposed and negotiated conditions accepted by the same assembly: to leave ecological and social areas titled in the name of a community land association; in case of a married couple both male and female would be listed on the title; and to not permit sale of family plots for 10 years (to try to prevent a massive cashing-in of lots and reconcentration of land, essentially the un-doing of the project's purpose: to provide farmland to families of Valle Nuevo). Our proposal to the community was to title all the land as a community land association, in one title, but that was outright rejected by the community assembly.

THE TASK AT HAND - WHERE WE ARE NOW

The task before us now, then, is to complete all the legal and survey work to comply with the community's decision and the conditions proposed by CoCoDA and negotiated with the community assembly. Through a contact at the Jesuit Central America University (UCA), we have gotten legal counsel (all volunteer to this point) from a Salvadoran attorney named Ana Mercedes Rivas, who has laid out in detail in community assembly meetings in Valle Nuevo what legal steps need to be taken (they are complicated because of the present legal status of the Picacho property).

About a year or two ago, a new directiva was elected in Valle Nuevo, which brought back into leadership some residents who were very involved at the outset of the Picacho project, but who had not participated in the consultations over the past few years, or who had participated but were outspoken in their skepticism of the process, of Ana Mercedes (a general distrust of attorneys), and of CoCoDA (in part because of the complicated history of the project, in part because of politics, particularly CoCoDA's long-term partnership with the Association for Economic and Social Development, Santa Marta (ADES)).

Last March, Alfonso and I met with this new directiva, and the remaining members of the now mostly inactive Land Commission. The Land Commission is inactive for lack of a solid agreement and work plan backed by the directiva, and by two key people for the legal procedures, Cleofas Villalobos and Salomé Ascencio -- who were President and Vice President of the VN directiva and who are legal owners of a large tract of the Picacho property, and in whose name the community (particularly members of the present directiva) propose the intermediary transfer of titles be named -- essentially the legal representatives for the Picacho project.

Update (as of July 8, 2002)

MARCH 9 MEETING WITH VALLE NUEVO DIRECTIVA & LAND COMMISSION

In our March meeting, two concerns were raised by the directiva (I think all members of the directiva were present but Juana; and all of the Land Commission was there):

1. They said there is a need to purge the list of 153 families that had been compiled by the Land Commission. They said there were second generation families that should not be eligible for a plot of land that were on the list.

2. They said they did not trust our attorney (there is a general distrust of attorneys whom they don't know), and they wanted to work with their own attorney, a Don Hipolito, who apparently lives in Sensuntepeque, Cabañas.

We agreed in the March meeting that Alfonso would follow-up with the directiva and the Land Commission to arrange for a general assembly meeting to work on cleaning up the list of beneficiary families; and I thought we had agreed that the directiva (primarily Pastor, who raised the concern about the attorney) would coordinate with Alfonso to arrange a meeting with their attorney friend and Ana Mercedes to look over all the legal documents and discuss what needed to be done. I also mentioned that the REDES Foundation, another associate NGO of CoCoDA in El Salvador with survey equipment and technicians, would do the remaining survey work on Picacho, and there were no questions raised to this point.

Since that meeting, Alfonso has made numerous trips to Valle Nuevo, usually having to arrive a day or two in advance of planned meetings, to go to homes of members of the directiva and the land commission to get the meetings organized. The meetings that follow represent significant time and initiative on Alfonso's part in getting them organized.

APRIL 20 VALLE NUEVO ASSEMBLY MEETING

On April 20, a general assembly meeting was held in Valle Nuevo, with relatively good attendance and participation from beneficiary families. Two points were acheived:

> The list of benefiaries was purged of some 57 families leaving now 96 beneficiary families, which those present at the meeting seemed to accept. To date, we do not have a copy of this purged list, nor am I entirely clear on the criteria used by the directiva.

> That a meeting with Ana Mercedes (attorney) be arranged with the directiva and the Land Commission on May 9 to discuss again the legal issues needing to be attended to (Pastor had not attended any of the past assembly and directiva meetings in which Mercedes explained these things).

MAY 9 MEETING WITH VALLE NUEVO DIRECTIVA & LAND COMMISSION

On May 9 in Valle Nuevo Alfonso and attorney Ana Mercedes Rivas met with the Valle Nuevo directiva and Land Commission (all were present but commission member Margarita Avilés). The discussion became quite heated, with Pastor in particular raising doubts about attorneys. At the end of the meeting, Pastor said repeatedly that the directiva had an agreement with the community that Cleofas and Salomé would not sign any document without first signing transfer of ownership to each beneficiary. There are a number of legal documents that Cleofas and Salomé will have to sign in the legal process to get one, fully-registered title for the property (which will be in their names), to then sign the transfers to each beneficiary.

It was agreed there would be an assembly meeting of the 96 beneficiaries on May 17 specifically to authorize Cleofas and Salomé to sign legal documents with attorney Ana Mercedes during the process.

MAY 17 ASSEMBLY MEETING WITH BENEFICIARY FAMILIES

Alfonso was present for the assembly meeting, which the Land Commission convened by written announcement to all the beneficiaries. Of the 96 beneficiaries, 43 came to the meeting. Of the Land Commission all were there but Margarita Avilés. Of the directiva all were there but Pastor and Pablo -- two outspoken, highly critical members who should have been there. Cleofas and Salome did not come either, but they have not come to any meeting for the past couple years (on some occassions even after being consulted personally in their homes the day or night before).

The focus of the assembly meeting changed to discuss the proposal that the attorney to be hired be an attorney from Sensuntepeque, someone that the community knows. A number of people spoke in support of this, including Tomasa of the directiva. Apparently Salomé Asencio had proposed this to the directiva.

Alfonso, feeling that he did not have the authority on behalf of CoCoDA to concede to this, agreed to get back with the directiva and the Land Commission on this proposal. He also emphasized in his remarks that if all work together we can do what needs to be done -- but it will depend on all the beneficiaries and others involved working together.

FOLLOW-UP TO THE MAY 17 ASSEMBLY MEETING

Alfonso consulted with Ana Mercedes about the community's proposal, and she said she could not work with the community if they distrusted her, and that she would still be available to provide oversight of the process to CoCoDA as things proceed with whomever the community chooses to hire to do the legal work.

On June 18, 2002, after consulting with me, Alfonso personally delivered a memo to the Valle Nuevo directiva and Land Commission, which agrees that the community hire the attorney to oversee the process, but with the following points of understanding:

A. Their attorney present a written assessment of the work to be done, with a detailed budget for what it will cost -- so that the directiva and the land commission can make a decision based on solid information (Ana Mercedes provided this).

B. That Salome Asencio and Cleofas Villalobos participate on the Land Commission, and the directiva also participate on the Land Commission.

C. That a work plan be agreed to that lays out tasks, responsibilities, calander with goal dates for completing major tasks, and a budget for this final phase of the project. This work plan will be the base of understanding for CoCoDA, the directiva and land commission, and the attorney.

D. To clarify the criteria used to purge the list of beneficiary families and to validate the list with a general assembly of the community, to ensure there won't be problems down the road.

Tomorrow, July 9, Alfonso plans to go to Valle Nuevo again and spend the rest of this week doing follow-up with the directiva and the land commission.

(report by Tim Crouse, July 8, 2002, with information provided by Alfonso Rivas)

CoCoDA - Companion Community Development Alternatives.

A non-profit organization that supports community-based projects for social and economical development in the Central American country of El Salvador. CoCoDA's national office has been located at Broadway UMC in Indianapolis, Indiana since 1992 (presently on the 3rd floor). Contact Tim Crouse or Kelly Lubeck (317-920-8643) for more information.