National Coordinating Body for Inhabitants of Marginalised Areas, CONAPAMG

The National Coordinating Body for Inhabitants of Marginalised Areas, CONAPAMG, an organisation working on issues of housing access, social infrastructure, and the legalisation of occupied land. In the month of November of 2006 we brought to a close the activation of our Support Network which was activated in order to show our preoccupation with the security of Roly Escobar, Coordinator General, who received a death threat on the 10th September 2006.

Currently: In March we continued ouraccompaniment through regular visits to the office and accompanying members of CONPAMG in their follow up meetings relating to the housing problems.

Background: We have accompanied CONAPAMG since July 2004 when their office was broken into and robbed of lists, invoices, floppy discs and money. Many of the communities affiliated with CONAPAMG have either been evicted or are awaiting eviction. The security situation of CONAPAMG continues to be vulnerable. Miguel Zapeta González, resident of the community Esquipulas in Zone 21 of the capital and member of the organisation, was murdered in March 2005. On the 18th August 2006, Carmen Sagastume, another member of the organisation, was brutally murdered. After this act, on the morning of the 10th September, General Coordinator Roly Escobar Ochoa was informed that armed individuals in the community Carmen del Monte were threatening to kill him, supposedly because of his denunciation of the murder of Carmen Sagastume. During the following weeks he and his family found themselves under heavy surveillance.