Background on Chicuma

Chicuma is located in Canton El Gavilan, Municipality of Nueva Concepcion, in the northern Department of Chalatenango, El Salvador.  The Lempa River, the country’s principal source of fresh water, runs alongside the community.  The closest town is Nueva Concepcion – approximately 20 kilometres away by rough country road that is often washed out in winter.  Chicuma is a “re-populated” community, re-founded in 1992, after years of social struggle, with the signing of the Chapultepec Peace Accords.  Families in Chicuma were driven from their land by attacks and constant bombings by the military during the civil war in the 1980’s. One of the agreements reached in the Peace Accords was that land would be put aside for families in combat zones as a settlement opportunity (one of the primary drivers of the civil war was the long history of inequitable land distribution for peasant farmers in the country).  Not only did the original families that survived the war return to Chicuma to rebuild their lives; they were also given access to low-cost loans to purchase land.  Despite this initial support, there has been little-to-no follow up in the subsequent twenty years following the Peace Accords by prior governments.

 

Most community members dedicate themselves to subsistence agriculture.  There are 203 families that live in Chicuma, and the surrounding communities of El Salitre and Hacienda Vieja.