José Leonardo Miranda Espinoza is 42 years old; he is a farmer, a preacher and leader in COPINH (Council of Popular Organizations and Indigenous Nations), the representative organization of the Lenca in his community of Montaña Verde. He remembers his arrest as "something very terrible."
"It was terrible," insists Leonardo when we asked to remember the events of the night of January 8, 2003. That night, Leonardo and his brother Marcelino were arrested in an illegal police operation between midnight and 6:00 in the morning.
"When the police came, we were sleeping, because it was 12 o'clock at night. It was terrible. You only think of death, you call out to God," he explained.
"Right now, I feel bad. I have been damaged inside. I am sick, I feel pain in my head, my back, my chest, my whole body hurts, down to my feet, from the beating they gave me. It was a serious beating," says Leonardo. Leonardo is accused by police of shooting and injuring two officers during the incident.
"That's a lie," counters Leonardo. "We didn't have weapons, we could not have shot at the police. The only weapons we have are the ones we use to work, the machete, the hoe, the ax. We don't have anything, we are poor people. You can go to the community to see for yourself. We only work to maintain ourselves, not to buy weapons we don't need."
He also denies that he and his brother belong to a group of bandits, as his detractors accuse. "That is a lie. We are honorable men," he declared emphatically.
The Lenca man considers that the entire conflict "is for the land, the fight for the land. We are fighting for the right to our land, but the landowners want us to quit."
He mentions two families: the Calixes and the Urtechos. It is rumored that members of these two powerful families want control of the Lenca land. But the Miranda brothers were born on this land, as were their parents and grandparents and great grandparents and the generations before them. They work this land, planting it with corn and beans.
Montaña Verde is a picturesque area home to about 800 people, the majority of whom are children.
A Surprise
Raid
He
said that on the day of his arrest, the police came into the community
shooting in all directions, throwing tear grenades, and invading homes
without a warrant.
When he heard the shots, Leonardo thought that the landowners had come to push them of the land, as they had threatened many times. Everything was dark.
"I hid under
the bed until 6:00 in the morning, when we could identify the families
and neighbors by the light of the dawn. I believe we would have been killed
if we had come out earlier."
He came out only because of threats to set the house on fire.
"Then they grabbed me and started beating me. They burned me behind the ear with cigarettes. They shoved my head in a brook. They wanted me to confess to the crimes they are now accusing me of," he said.
He explains also that he does not know when the police were injured. But he can guarantee that the bullets came from outside. "I do not have guns," he states.
We are innocent
Leonardo
declares his innocence in every word and gesture. "They accuse us
of these things only because they want to imprison us, but we have committed
no crimes."
He says that the land in Montaña Verde would be good for growing coffee, and that is the main attraction drawing the landowners.
He tells that a member of the Urtecho family claims 80 manzanas of land to begin planting coffee, and the situation has escalated as the native residents of the land have tried to stop his advance at all costs. The Lencas do not identify clearly exactly who is threatening their land. There are many, they say, men from the most powerful families in the area.
He will return
to his community
Leonardo
says that he is not afraid to go home despite the constant threats against
his life. "I don't have anywhere else to go. I will go home to my
community and work again," he says..
He adds that he will fight for the Lencas' rights to their land for as long as God gives him life. He demands that the government "help us, that we are here for our land."
Leonardo Miranda