Dia de la Cruz

Dia de la Cruz

 Cada tres de mayo, frutas, adornos de papel y una cruz de jiote son los elementos para celebrar el tradicional Día de la Cruz.  Esta celebración invita a pedir por una buena cosecha y evitar que "el Diablo baile en nuestras casas". Pero más que una celebración religiosa es una representación del sincretismo en la cultura salvadoreña.

Every May 3rd, we celebrate the day of the cross with paper decorations and a cross.  This celebration is an opportunity to ask for a good harvest and avoid 'the devil dancing in our homes'.  More than a religious celebration, it is a representation of Salvadoran culture.










Los y las estudiantes de la Escuela junto a sus docentes hicieron todos los preparativos para dar gracias por sus frutos a la Madre Tierra: hicieron las decoraciones, sembraron la cruz y la adornaron; al final disfrutaron de "las ofrendas"

Together with their teachers, our Spanish students prepared the necessary decorations in order to give thanks to Mother Earth.  They made the decorations, planted and decorated the cross, and finally, they enjoyed the 'offerings'.

The Events of Marco Antonio Sarmiento Martínez’s Brutal Torture and Assassination November 16, 2012

Centro de Intercambio y Solidaridad (CIS)

Human Rights Alert

Since March of 2005, when the Romero Community settled in Tonacatepeque, community members have been threatened by farmers from the Hondonada Cooperative due to a land dispute.  There are 277 manzanas (about 478 acres) of land that form the Vertientes and Guayacán Property, which belongs to the Salvadoran Institute for Agrarian Reform-ISTA. Many communities (November 2^nd, Paso Puente, Romero Community), cooperatives (Sagrisa, Distrito Italia, La Hondonada, Guayacán), and independent farmers live on and farm the land.  The government has negotiated with each community, cooperative, and independent farmer.  They have offered 8.5 manzanas (about 14 acres) for the 78 families that make up the Romero Community.  They have offered the cooperatives and independent farmers ¾ of a manzana (about 1.29 acres) per family.  The Romero Community has accepted the negotiation.  However the cooperatives want 2+ manzanas (about 3.45 acres) per family (which there is not enough land for) and they want to appropriate all of the land and will not accept the negotiations with ISTA. (For more context and history please read this section on our website.)

The needs of the Romero Community members, due to the extreme poverty in which they live, force the men and woman of the community, especially the youth to survive by gathering fire wood, green wood, and some coconuts from the nearby mountain.  This mountain is abandoned and people from many communities in the area go there to do the same thing, in order to survive. 

About six days before his death, the young 16-year-old, Marco Antonio Sarmiento Martinez, told us that he had previously been discouraged from getting fire wood from the mountain.  During the time of the mango crop he was told not to gather mangos and coconuts because he and other youth were threatened by the farmers.  Months went by and the people planted and harvested corn and beans.  During this time many community members went to the banks of the river to farm. 

At the start of November the women of Romero Community brought in the corn harvest from their small plots of land.  Despite the fact that many people told the youth not to go to the mountain, they decided to go in order to make a few dollars. They went with adult women from the community. Marco said that while they were helping the women, four men came down from the hill that surrounds the river. At that point, the only thing they could do was grab the sacks full of corn and run away.  The men were yelling at the women that they were going to kill them; they chased them all the way to the area that’s called “the trash can” in the Residencial Libertad. 

Back in the community tired, drained and worried, Marco Antonio told the men what had happened. The men said they had told him not to go. No one knew who the men were that had threatened the group because Marco could not describe them.

On Friday, November 16, the day of Marco’s disappearance, Raúl Acevedo and another neighbor warned Marco not to go out, since his mother would have to shoulder the burden of the family. Later the same day, Mr. Acevedo came back to a worried community, they told him that Marco had disappeared and they couldn’t find him. Last they had heard was that he was going to gather firewood and coconuts.

On Saturday November 17, they found his body in the south of Distrito Italia Number Three in Tonacatepque.  They found he had numerous injuries made with a machete and his hands were tied behind his back with barbed wire.  His hands, ears, and other extremities were cut off, and there were other machete cuts on his face which left him unrecognizable. He had been blindfolded.  His cranium was destroyed.  A young CIS scholarship student had to go identify the body because they would not allow the mother of the young man to see the state in which the police had found him.

After these events, Mr. Raúl Acevedo, a community leader and another youth have received threats that say “they will be next.”

For these reasons we demand:

•   A thorough investigation of the crime
• Protection for the community
• Justice for Marco Antonio Sarmiento Martínez
• No More Impunity!
• Protect the youth and their human rights

Picture: Marco Antonio Sarmiento Martínez, December 2008

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