In order to garner greater attention for their press conference, members of the gathered communities blocked the streets surrounding Salvador del Mundo. On Friday, May 29, 2009, representatives of the Las Victorias, 15 de Marzo, Romero and La Cuchilla communities staged a demonstration at San Salvador’s historic Salvador del Mundo park to demand a respect for their rights in the face of repressive measures and the threat of displacement. The gathered communities also called on the incoming administration, of the Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional, to commit itself to the nation's poor communities and to make good on President-Elect Mauricio Funes' promise to take the preferential option for the poor as the central axis of his government.
Community leaders speak to the press at the Salvador del Mundo monument in Central San Salvador. In recent months, the communities of La Cuchilla, Las Victorias, and 15 de Marzo have been coordinating countrywide with similar settlements likewise facing the threat of displacement. A collaboration between indigenous, rural, and urban communities, the National Movement for the Defense of the Human Right to Land (Movimiento Nacional por la Defensa del Derecho Humano de la Tierra) has been focusing its energies on the demand for the repeal of Legislative Decree 23, which streamlines the process whereby public authorities may execute the forced eviction of communities lacking titles of possession or ownership of the land.
