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| Troops attacked the hamlet with artillery and fire from two helicopters. The villagers and other people displaced by the operation attempted to cross the Sumpul river to take refuge in Honduras. Honduran troops deployed on the opposite bank of the river barred their way. They were then killed by Salvadorian troops who fired on them in cold blood. |
Day Six: except from Tour Builder
All day: A visit to Chalatenango province with a focus on
the model town of San José Las Flores
(a town repopulated by internal refugees during the civil
war) to learn more about the work of
CRIPDES and CORDES in the region. The visit will include an
interpretive eco-tourism hike to
the Our Lady of Resistance statue of the Virgin Mary erected
by community members as an
emblem of community opposition to large-scale metal mining
(much of it Canadian) in the
region (with possible short workshop on popular opposition
to Canadian mining in El Salvador
by the civil society National Roundtable on Metal Mining).
San Jose las Flores is the town we stayed in for most of our
last trip. This is a beautiful place with a tragic history during the war. Here is a selection from the journal entry
describing our first day in the town:
We have now moved our group to Chalatenango. We will be in this very interesting and
beautiful part of the country for the next eight days. We began our journey by meeting members of the
The Association of Communities for the Development of Chalatenango-CCR was
founded in June of 1987 during the armed conflict in El Salvador, as an answer
to the need to repopulate the communities of the North-eastern part of
Chalatenango that had been destroyed by the armed conflict. (Sister Cities
website) One of their board members is
Nelson Orellana-Secretary of Popular Education, from San José Las Flores. Nelson will be our host while we are in san
Jose Las Flores. We also met other board
members working on women’s issues and health.
The CCR started as a response to the displacements caused by
the war. People in the region no longer
had access to health care and education.
For the first time, we learned that the children during the conflict learned
under the trees in the mountains. People
developed methods of popular education based on the desire to keep basic
education services going even though the war raged al around them. Nelson started as a teacher when he himself
was in grade 5. This was typical of the
teachers at that time.
Over time, these volunteer teachers were trained and
certified to work in towns throughout the department. They are unified by their desire to build a
better society out of the ruin on the war years. There are now 19 schools and over 1700
students in the communities surrounding Chalatenango.
Another major theme that was discussed in this introductory
session was mining. This is a topic we
will come back to later in this journal.
It makes a great deal of sense that this is a major concern for the people of Chalatenango. Members of the CCR spoke to us about their
struggle to return to the land in the midst of the war. They tell stories of people being escorted
back to their communities by nuns, priests and members of the international
community. People continued to be killed
by the military for years after they returned to the towns and villages. People who have struggled so valiantly for
their lands will not now easily give up territory to mining companies from the
North. More on this later.
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| Our first meeting with members of the CCR |
Having said this, there is great value in being in this
community. As mentioned earlier, San
Jose las Flores was at the center of the conflict throughout the war. The Sumpul River Massacre occurred close to here in 1981. Over 300 men, women and children were killed
by Salvador and Honduran military in one day as people tried to flee the
approaching Salvadoran army.
Everyone we know in San Jose las Flores lost a family member
during the massacre. We spent two days
talking about this terrible time during the sharing sessions we had every day
with the teachers from Nelson's school.
These conversations were some of the most powerful I have had on any
trip to the Global South. They were
completely open with us as they described the horror and the grief they still
feel. Nelson's story is typical of what
we heard over the two days:
Nelson was two years old when the massacre took place. He lost his mother and his seven-month old
brother at that time. She disappeared, he drowned in the river. The family of Nelson’s mother was totally
wiped out at this time. In total, 15
people from his family were killed, many drowning in the river as they fled the
army who was determined to clear the area of anyone who could support the
insurgents. Nelson was obviously
traumatized by what he experienced. He
still sees dead people when he sleeps and sometimes he gets depressed. He says it helps when he talks to his
daughter Ireni. Sometimes they try to
imagine what her uncle would look like now if he was alive. His experiences have motivated him to do the
best he can for the current generation of students.
There is so much to this town and its people! We will take in as much as we can, including
local resistance to Canadian mining companies.
This is truly one of the highlights of the trip and I can't
wait to get back there!
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| The Sumpul - we liked to sit in the river and enjoy the lovely cool water |
