History

The Beginnings of MASCP:

 Arcatao is located in the Department of Chalatenango, up in the mountains on the border of Honduras–near the Sumpul River.  In 1986, the government of El Salvador, supported by the US government in the form of military aid and training at the infamous School of the Americas, was practicing a scorched earth policy in the northern regions of El Salvador including Arcatao. There were systematic massacres, murders and disappearances of civilians throughout the area. Archbishop Oscar Romero had already been assasinated in 1980 for his outspoken support of the poor and their demand for fairer wages and more humane working conditions.

 

Late in 1985, activists in Madison were contacted about the sister city movement in El Salvador and organized hard and fast to acknowledge Arcatao as our sister city.   Madison sistered with Arcatao in April of 1986 to bring international attention to the horrific situation for civilians living in the midst of brutal repression and war. Mary Kay Baum, a Madison activist who was a leader in the sister city effort, attempted to take the newly passed Common Council Resolution to Arcatao in 1986 but the authorities stopped her from making it all the way to Arcatao. Nevertheless, the news got through. People who were living in Arcatao at the time, remember that when they found out that a city they had never heard of, far away in the US knew about them and was telling their story to the world, they were astounded and felt more hopeful and courageous than ever.The first visitors from Madison finally made it to Arcatao in 1989.  They made the 35 kilometer trip from Chalatenango City on horseback.

Later:

As the repression intensified, some young Salvadorans felt forced to form  informal militias to defend themselves and their families.  Eventually, these militias turned into a cadre of well trained  guerrilla force called the FMLN– Farabundi Marti National Liberation Front. 

Their resistance to the government forces was so effective that the war continued on until 1992 when the US finally stopped funding the Salvadoran military and the Salvadoran government was forced to the negotiating table.  The Peace Accords were signed on January 16, 1992 in the Castillo de Chapultepec in D.F., Mexico. The Peace Accords brought reductions to the  the armed forces,  strengthening of democratic institutions as well as long overdue social and economic reforms. In Arcatao, we see the fruits of the peace accords in the land that many families now have for raising their own crops and livestock and in the quiet and beauty that now reigns in the mountains above Arcatao.

Today:

Twenty-five years later, El Salvador has its first FMLN president, Mauricio Funes. Many things have changed  in El Salvador but there are still economic and social struggles there that are often intertwined with or caused by the economic and political policies of the United States government. MASCP continues to accompany its brothers and sisters in Arcatao in those struggles by educating and lobbying our elected officials in the US about these issues.

Since 2005 , people in Arcatao and El Salvador have been educating themselves and people thoughout USESSC about the dangers of heavy metal mining. And since 2007, there has been a well organized effort to stop the construction of gold mines in El Salvador. Multinational companies such as Pacific Rim, the Commerce Group and others have been exploring the northern area of El Salvador near Arcatao for potential gold mining sites and most people there are fully aware of the health and environmental devastation that gold mining brings with it. MASCP and all the USESSC committees have been active partners in lobbying and pressuring US companies and US politicians to hear and support the wishes of our sister city brothers and sisters. More about the anti-mining efforts and USESSC and MASCP’s partnership with CRIPDES and the Coalition against Mining in El Salvador  are on the USESSC website. Go to “Links” on this page.