The Sound of Progress

A local man speaks his mind at the land conflict resolution meeting between Milagro and Tierra Linda. Photo: Roger Burks/Mercy Corps Photo: Roger Burks

In the disputed territory of Tierra Linda-Milagro, dozens of men and women stream into a sweltering school room where Spanish moss hangs from the rafters. The dress of those entering the room is illustrative of the untamed frontier feeling of this part of Guatemala: the women wear colorful, traditional hand-made skirts and nearly all the men sport white cowboy hats.

It seems like all those wearing white hats fancy themselves as the "good guys." With not a single black hat in sight, there are presumably no outlaws here. Everyone believes his cause is just.

As the meeting gets underway, that feeling is echoed again and again.

This meeting, a land conflict mediation session sponsored by Mercy Corps and facilitated by local partner JADE, has been called by the residents of two communities — Tierra Linda and Milagro — to work out boundary disputes. Residents from both towns are here, as well as representatives of regional government and business interests. In all, there are at least 80 people crammed into this small, poorly-ventilated room.

It feels like sitting on a powderkeg, with the fuse getting ever shorter and the temperature rising.

The crux of both communities' arguments stems from a phenomenon left over from the long-running Guatemalan civil war: abandoned land. During the most brutal years of the civil war, indigenous families were forcibly removed from areas like this. Sometimes, the land was "redistributed" among Guatemala's ruling class, but it often just sat for years with no residents or ownership.

The terrain where both Tierra Linda and Milagro are situated was once abandoned land. In the late 1970s, families in both communities began moving into this area and starting new lives. They built schools, businesses and other infrastructure to serve their needs, create a local identity and foster a sense of permanence. They fashioned towns where nothing had existed for over a decade.

However, in the years that passed, con-men and commercial interests duped the residents of both towns. Con-men posing as government officials persuaded community leaders to pay them to conduct false surveys and draw up worthless maps to demonstrate the town's right to exist. Companies ran oil pipelines through the area, citing a lack of ownership when area residents demanded compensation.

That's where Tierra Linda and Milagro find themselves today: as communities that don't legally exist, on land that was once abandoned and is still owned by nobody.

A common goal

Mercy Corps and JADE have come to this area at the request of both towns in order to mediate a peaceful, lasting solution to the communities' common dilemma. Representatives from JADE and another local organization, FONTIERRAS, facilitate the meeting. Spokesmen from Tierra Linda and Milagro take turns discussing their situation and airing their grievances.

The proceedings are generally civil and polite. However, at times, a resident will rise, angrily shake a decades-old map of the area and shout insults at his neighbor. Suddenly, the atmosphere grows tense and one wonders how long it will be before machetes and guns are drawn.

With the help of the mediators, cooler heads always prevail and the meeting gets back on track.

Both commmunities want the boundaries they claim to be certified as valid and legal. Since the boundaries they cling to are not recorded in any legal land registry, though, this is not an option.

Mercy Corps and JADE propose to representatives of both communities, and other interests attending the meeting, that FONTIERRAS survey the land, draw a new map of each town's boundaries according to negotiated settlements and register the results legally with the Guatemalan land registry. Townspeople from both Tierra Linda and Milagro are still skeptical.

David Depaz, a legal aide for FONTIERRAS, quiets the crowd and discusses the gravity of inaction: "You need to get the boundaries recorded in the National Register," he says. "If you don't, there's no way to register or legally recognize either Milagro or Tierra Linda. When the legality of the boundaries are recorded in the General Registry of Property, lots can be divided more easily."

The townspeople visibly warm to the idea. Even though the crisis has often erupted into heated debate during the course of this meeting, the fact remains that both towns have a common goal: recognition and stability, once and for all. Even as feuding neighbors, they have often collaborated to build up this area — constructing schools, businesses, roads and wells side-by-side. Beneath the simmering dispute, these are people working together toward a better future and a sense of destiny.

Nothing is immediately resolved at this particular meeting, but residents of Tierra Linda and Milagro agree to consider Mercy Corps' solution and meet soon to decide on a course of action. As men in white cowboy hats file out of the unbearable heat of the school room, they stop to shake hands and share a laugh with their sometimes-combative neighbors.

That laughter is the sound of progress.