El Salvador: COFOA leaders continue local and national campaigns for water access and land reform

COFOA leaders are mounting a national land reform campaign called RENACER (Reborn) organizing thousands of families defrauded by development companies to secure legal title to their homes. These companies not only failed to register the deeds with the national government, they also failed to complete promised roads, parks and other improvements. Without clear titles, families cannot take out loans or pass property on to their children. Locally, communities are meeting with mayors who are responsible for local development oversight. Nationally, COFOA is pressing for legislation to close loopholes in the existing land law.

Because COFOA leaders waged a successful yearlong campaign to press their mayor and the national water company to open a capped well, thousands of families in Conacaste have water for the first time in twenty years. While five local communities in Soyapango and San Juan Opico have secured access to clean water over the past year, COFOA leaders know too many communities still do not have daily access to clean water. To build community support, leaders are conducting door-to-door outreach censuses in five departments where they organize. Water access is emerging as a top priority for most of the communities.

While COFOA’s is building the power to hold government officials accountable to address the needs of their people in El Salvador, we in the United States can be their allies by electing officials committed to addressing the root causes of migration from Central America and making sure millions in foreign aid get to the real needs of people in the communities in which we support organizing. Please support COFOA and vote.