Flor del Campo: The Story Continues

More than 50,000 community members demand rights to their land

“And what will I have to pass on to my children?” is the question that Deysi Alvarez has wrestled with for many years. Although she has lived in her modest home in Flor del Campo with two of her four children for the last 22 years, she has been unable to register the property under her name despite the multiple attempts made to do so. “We have the title in the Department of Registration but the process in getting it approved has been stopped,” says Deysi, “and what are we going to do when my mom (whose name is listed on the title) is no longer with us?,” she asks.

It is also impossible to count the number of individuals and families who have, because of this land tenancy issue, had to face rejection from banks and private businesses time and time again while trying to apply for a loan. Without property registration forms in their possession they have no way of proving official landownership.

The problem found in Flor del Campo becomes intensified for two reasons: when other individuals, such as Lawyer Oscar Siri Zuñiga, claim to be owners of the land these families are living on despite that there exists evidence showing otherwise, and when the authorities become negligent towards the case or only act when the case has entered into one of the capital’s court buildings.

There are 69 neighborhoods in Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras, that continue to have problems legalizing their land, however, it is in approximately 12 where supposed land owners, such as Lawyer Siri Zuñinga, show major interest in obtaining and declaring the land as their own due to the potential monetary value that these areas of the city now have.
What is the most disheartening about all of this, more than the many obstacles that have been set up over the years, or the number of ambitious land mongers like Siri Zuniga who have tried to claim the land as their own, more than the negligence of city officials who have fallen asleep on their laurels, is that very few know and many have ignored that now Flor del Campo residents can actually register their land titles.

Siri Zúñiga and the Judicial tangle of a mess

Despite that in 1981 the municipal authorities of Tegucigalpa legally recognized that the land pertaining to Flor del Campo belongs to the community, many families who live in these neighborhoods still have not been able to register their land titles due to the legal actions that Oscar Siri Zuniga has taken up with the courts, claiming that the land is his.

Siri Zuniga has put together a series of legal actions starting back in the 1990s when he demanded that the Mayor’s office give him the amount of money they had received from community residents to pay for the land.

After being denied by the municipality, Siri Zuniga began to place claims in the courts, wanting them to legally recognize him as the owner of the majority of the land in Flor del Campo and neighboring communities. He also wanted all the money that the Municipality had been paid for the land to be turned over to him. He began to press his claims in other ways as well leading to a records file in the Second Civil Letters Court in Tegucigalpa that currently contains more than 1,000 documents concerning his position.

The First Civil Letters Court also has in its possession more than 700 documents containing charges placed against the city, asking for a payment of more than 1,000,000 Lempiras for damages. Along with this, in the Supreme Court, at least some 100 claims exist that have been made by Siri Zuniga, where he calls the courts unconstitutional.

According to Tomás Reyes Herrera, president of the community council in Flor del Campo, the Basic services such as drinkable water, sewage system, electricity and telephone service, are the influential reasons that push people like Oscar Siria Zuniga to try and claim the land, because they have increased the value of the land considerably.

“Already they have measured off what land is theirs in the community, without having invested anything themselves, not one penny, charging between 550 and 700 Lempiras a square yard,” says Reyes Herrera a Revistazo.com.

Siri Zúñiga has been working on his law suit against the municipality for over ten years, according to AJS attorney, Gilda Espinal. “The game that Siri Zuniga is playing in this case is to overwhelm judges with a mass of documents that for the most part will never get read, permitting legal actions to accumulate including some which they just sign off on in order to avoid the possibility of community members exercising their rights to housing.”

The city’s negligence

Siri Zuniga has accused the city of not paying what they owe him, for the land that he claims is his own. He has tried to insist that he be paid the money that community residents have put towards the land, adding up to more than 100,000,000 Lempiras (18.5 lempiras/$1).

Fernando Anduray, former City Registrar and Coordinator of the Land Commission for the city, says “Siri Zúñiga has used all his contacts and resources in the Supreme Court as well as the local courts, and eventually, City officials at a determined moment were converted into accomplices of Siri Zuniga when they failed to act with the urgency that they should have to resolve this matter. They have allowed Zuniga to take the right away from the city to support residents in getting their land titled,” said Anduray.

The laziness of the Municipality has turned into disinterest in attending to this problematic situation. Proof of this, say Espinal, is the fact that there has been an avalanche of conflicting cases starting back many years before. For Siri Zuniga and the majority of residents, the city has not come forward to resolve the situation as they are ordered to by Law.
Residents win approval

One of the key successes that the residents of the disputed land areas have obtained, through the pressure put on the former President of Congress, Rafael Pineda Ponce, was in the year 2000. A law article 125-00 was established stating that anyone who tries to take legal actions to keep city residents from registering their land titles would not be heard by the courts.

Siri Zúniga’s legal actions lack foundation

With accustomed negligence, city officials did not give weight to what the new article implied. Taking advantage of this, Siri Zuniga, took action to try and get the article overturned. The Supreme Court heard his case and declared it to be unfounded months later.

Not conforming to the Supreme Court’s resolution, Siri Zuniga once again attempted to overturn the article in 2002. The Justice Supreme Court declared his case unfounded. It was then established that article 125-00 does not violate the Constitution of the Republic of Honduras as Oscar Siri Zuniga tried to claim. However, despite this resolution, the Office of Property Registration still continued to reject applications turned in by city residents to have their land titles registered.

AJS’ role in the case

The Association for a more Just Society, AJS, found out about this problem four years ago and have since been very involved in the case, carrying out a series of actions in favor of Flor del Campo residents.

In 2002, AJS investigated the ownership history of the land in question. The investigation lasted for around a year and consisted of searching for and analyzing case documents that existed in the Office of Property Registration. Through this intensive process, AJS was able to legally determine that the land that the Zuniga Family claims as theirs in Flor del Campo and outlining communities does not belong to them.

In January, 2003, AJS decided to publish the whole story and legal documents supporting their case on Revistazo.com. There now was proof that the land Siri Zuniga was claiming as his own did not belong to him.

Although the evidence was there, the ownership history and the articles published by Revistazo.com were not enough to resolve this land dispute in favour of Flor del Campo residents. It was then that AJS, through the work of Attorney Gilda Espinal, decided to take legal action, demanding that community members in Flor del Campo be allowed to register their land titles.

“The strategy to place a complaint before the Supreme Court of Appeals, came about after we were left with no other way to achieve the registration of these land titles,” says Espinal, making reference to the measure through which AJS was able to win the registration of the first land titles of three community members in 2003.

The petition was made in February 2003. Through this petition, those that were affected asked the Court of Appeals to order the Office of Property Registration to let them register their property.

They had to wait a year to hear the Court’s decision but finally, in February, 2004, the Court decided in favour of the Flor del Campo residents.

Court orders the registration of land titles

With the idea of registering more land titles Flor residents presented more claims through the support of AJS. From April to May of 2004, a group of community members from various parts of Flor presented seven more claims to have their land titles registered.

With the same result as from the first claim presented, the Court declared, that if the only motive for denying this claim is because another law suit against it is still open, the property should still be registered.

The panorama from before clearly established that everything had been resolved and that without anymore obstacles Flor del Campo residents would be able to register their property, however, what came as a surprise to everyone is that the city officials returned to not caring about what the Court had established, nor would they present the applications for registration to the appropriate council, telling the courts that they should not continue to taking cases concerning city property.

AJS demands that the law be applied

On October 5, 2005, Espinal decided to present legal claims to obtain titles from the Office of Property registration to remove all barriers that keep community members from being able to register their land. Espinal also asked that the public titles authorized by the City officials be registered. Because of this solicitation and the complaints made by residents who have been affected, the Office of Property Registration authorized that people of Flor be allowed to register their land. It is confirmed that there are no longer obstacles standing in their way.

Espinal adds, “Now it’s just a matter of waiting, that what has been clarified by the courts carries more weight than the particular interests of whomever tries to violate the rights of these residents. Now, those who try to infringe upon their rights will have to deal with the legal consequences.

AJS continues to support these residents and has sent in a public request to the Office of Property Registration in order that the residents’ land titles are processed without more delay. Many have been waiting for over 20 years, since they paid the city for their land, to become its legitimate owners. Their continued faith and hope is now paying off.

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