Government reneged on land for guns deal

By Dara MacNeill

Former guerrillas in El Salvador have warned that there will be a return to war unless the government begins to honour the 1992 peace accords. The warning was made by the Association of Ex-Combatants & Victims of the War (AEVG) in response to official inaction over the peace accords.

Under the 1992 deal, ex-combatants were promised land in exchange for their weapons. However, while thousands of guerrillas have fulfilled their part of the bargain, the AEVG says the government shows no signs of honouring the deal and appears to lack the political will to do so.

There are an estimated 14,000 ex-combatants in El Salvador, including former soldiers who were demobilised in the wake of the 1992 peace agreement.

Crucially, the AEVG has accused the government of misusing and wasting large amounts of money donated to El Salvador by foreign governments and international bodies. The money was supposed to have been used to help El Salvador `demilitarise'. In particular, the money was to have been invested in job-creation schemes for the newly-demobilised soldiers and guerrillas.

In addition, land for cooperatives which had been promised has not been delivered. Official inaction on the issue in the five years since the signing of the accords has led to a growing mood of anger and militancy among the former combatants, many of whom feel they have been cheated of what is theirs by right.

It is no accident that El Salvador retains one of the most inequitable land distribution systems in Latin America. Thus, in order to re-distribute land among the former guerrillas and soldiers it would probably be necessary to tackle this structural inequality. Thus far, officialdom has baulked at that particular challenge.

Indeed, many landowners who deserted their massive estates during the war - when a particular area came under the sway of FMLN forces - used the cover of `peace' to simply retake their properties. Often, the FMLN had redistributed that land among local farmers and farm labourers. Almost 20 years after the start of the uprising in El Salvador, the burning issue of land redistribution remains unresolved.

Protest over Columbus anniversary

12 October 1492 is an important date in the calendar of the Americas. Officially that is the date on which Christopher Columbus is said to have landed on American soil - today that occurrence in known to as `The Discovery.'

Which is more than a little insulting to the millions of indigenous people throughout the Americas. After all, the vast continent which Columbus is said to have discovered had been their home for thousands of years before Columbus even set sail.

For Latin America's indigenous, in particular, 12 October 1492 does not represent Day One of the Discovery, rather it is Day One of The Conquest.

However, in many countries throughout Latin America October 12 is set aside as a national holiday. This, more than any other factor, is a telling illustration of the real history of the region over the last 500 years.

For where the indigenous peoples of the Americas were once dominant, they now form a minority of the continent's population. In only two Latin American countries are they in the majority: Guatemala and Bolivia. Everywhere, however, they are at the bottom of the social pile.

However, on 12 October last, the indigenous people of Honduras protested the official celebration of the destruction of their civilisations. Having marched into the capital Tegucigalpa, some 300 indigenous promptly set about destroying a huge statue of Christopher Columbus that has been erected in the city centre.

How, they asked, is it possible to erect monuments to a person who is responsible for the theft of our lands?

Dismissing official criticism of their actions, the coordinator of the Council of Popular and Indigenous Organisations (COPI), Salvador Zúñiga stated that the destruction of the statue was not, as had been claimed, a shameful act. Rather it was a patriotic one.

In El Salvador, meanwhile, indigenous peoples marked 12 October with a gathering at the ancient monument of Atonal and declared that henceforth the date in question should be marked as The Day of Disgrace.

Spokesman Adrian Esquino Lisco explained that 12 October had initiated a process of genocide which had wiped out in excess of 70 million people, and begun the destruction of ``Mother Earth''.

In neighbouring Ecuador, the scene was repeated with the arrival in the capital Quito of thousands of indigenous protesting the official celebrations of 12 October.

The region-wide protests occurred as indigenous leaders from all over Latin America began meeting in Honduras. The objective of the meeting is to open a dialogue between their peoples and the governments of Latin America.

Throughout the region, there are an estimated 12 million indigenous, divided into some 56 peoples who, between them, speak in excess of 40 distinct, ancient languages.