COFOA Leaders Welcome Potential Breakthrough on Land Titles for 61,333 Families

Zacatecoluca, El Salvador — Salvadoran Housing Minister Michelle Sol announced that the government has regularized the land titles of 61,333 families and is prepared to move forward with delivering official deeds. If realized, this would mark a significant victory for grassroots leaders from Communities of Faith Organizing for Action (COFOA), who have been pressing for action through their RENACER (REBIRTH) campaign since August 2020. The families who would benefit from the announcement were defrauded by ARGOZ, a key focus of the RENACER campaign.

COFOA leaders, representing families from more than 80 unregularized developments across the country, have been demanding justice for the estimated 350,000 Salvadoran families defrauded of their property titles. Over the past four years, they have organized dozens of public actions at the Presidential Palace, the National Assembly, the Ministry of Housing, and the offices of private developers. They’ve also met regularly with Minister Sol and her team. COFOA leaders were at the Ministry of Housing yesterday meeting with Michelle Sol’s staff to press for continued actoin to resolve everyone’s titles.

In July 2021, after COFOA leaders delivered 800 letters from affected families to President Nayib Bukele, he instructed the Housing Ministry to work with COFOA to resolve the title crisis. A technical table was established, including COFOA leaders and legal experts, to monitor progress.

The 61,333 land titles announced by Minister Sol could represent $368 million in family-held assets, based on current property values. Without legal titles, families are unable to sell or borrow against their homes, invest in repairs, or access essential services such as water, electricity, roads, and schools. Regularizing titles is essential to broader efforts to direct public investment to El Salvador’s most excluded communities.

COFOA leaders remain committed to continuing the RENACER campaign until every family receives its deed and all communities gain access to essential infrastructure and services.

This progress comes at a difficult moment for El Salvador’s civil society. The recent passage of a law stigmatizing NGOs as “foreign agents,” the arrests of prominent attorney Ruth López, constitutional lawyer Enrique Anaya, and evangelical pastor José Ángel Pérez, who was detained while protesting an eviction, and the ongoing state of exception threaten the ability of Salvadorans to organize for justice.

The breakthrough on property titles underscores how vital it is for an independent civil society to be free to raise grievances and advocate for laws that reflect the needs of the people.

COFOA is legally organized as a Service Center of the Catholic Diocese of Zacatecoluca and operates as a faith-based movement that organizes for justice and dignity in El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala.

Learn more about COFOA