Dec
News from Communities, Politics
Military Occupation Threatens Voters Before Elections: January 6, 2009
Military Occupation in Suchitoto CommunitiesThreatens Voters Before Elections
January 6th, 2009
On Tuesday December 16th 2008, 150 soldiers armed with heavy artillery entered the community of el Papaturro, in the zone of La Bermuda, Suchitoto. The soldiers set up a military camp and stayed in the community, then moved to the neighbouring community of Primavera, claiming that they were doing ¨military manoeuvres.¨ After representatives from the communities accompanied by the Commission for Human Rights of El Salvador declared it illegal to run military operations on private property without permission, the troops left the zone on December 18th.
This act of aggression came after the Salvadoran government declared that it had intelligence of 40 secret armed groups active in various parts of El Salvador, including the region of La Bermuda, Suchitoto and Chalatenango, San Vicente, San Salvador and Morazan. The government implied that these supposed groups were a revival of guerrilla soldiers from the Civil War, and a threat to the Salvadoran military. The government publicized that it planned to ask the help of the FBI in the investigation, with the evidence of seven photos that they claim gave evidence to the stated armed groups.
The community members of Papaturro and the Association for the Development of El Salvador CRIPDES believe that this is a fear tactic by the government and an attempt to provoke violence. The action came one month before the January municipal elections in El Salvador, and the opposition party, FMLN, continues to lead in the polls for both the presidential and municipal elections, threatening 19 years of dominance by the governing party.
At present, the government is no longer making declarations about these supposed armed groups. It is unclear exactly why the government has stopped making comments, whether it be because of the public outcry around this issue, because of lack of evidence to support their claim, or because it is now so close to the January 18th municipal elections.
Community members in Papaturro worried that the military entered the community in order to try to provoke conflict or set up a situation to make it look like community members are part of secret armed groups. Community leader Francisco Martinez said ¨We worry that the military will come and put weapons in a cave, and then come back and photograph them. They have taken photographs of us while we were at marches or other activities, and it would be easy to change these photos on a computer and publicize them in the press.¨ Many people connect today’s situation to the case of the Suchitoto 13, when the government tried to provoke violence in the same region on July 2nd 2007
Representatives from the community directive of Papaturro are currently working with Human Rights groups to denounce the military´s presence to the Attorney Generals office.
Community members in Papaturro report that the entrance of the soldiers into this small community caused panic and fear within the population. For many, the presence of so many soldiers brings back the trauma of military attacks on civilians during El Salvador´s civil war.
