La Isla

REPORT ABOUT THE PROCESS OF THE CASE OF LA ISLA
May 11, 2006

Appreciated brothers and sisters:

We want, in the first place, to give thanks to all of you for having sent your letters of solidarity and support to the organizations that we requested you to send your faxes. We learned that the letters were received in the different offices.

We also want to inform you how the process in the case of La Isla is going. As many of you know in 1994 the Constitutional Court gave a definitive resolution to the Community La Isla in which it said that the land of the community did not have an owner. In that way we (the people in the community and the church) obtained the right to live and work in this community. After six years (2000) of having obtained this resolution a new fight about the land of the community started again with a small group of people from the same community. This group has always had the personal interest of negotiating with the lots of land of the community in order to sell them. Since this moment (year 2000) we have had six years of constant struggle because of the land of this community. At this time this group has finally achieved its goal since a supposed owner of the land of the community appeared. This supposed owner has a title of the land of the community in the Official Registration of Property in Guatemala City dated 2005. This supposed owner is a former government official of the FRG party and has much influence. (FRG = Frente Republicano Guatemalteco / Guatemalan Republican Front). He is now selling the lots of land to all of the inhabitants of the community La Isla.

Unfortunately he was legally recognized as owner; even the Fondo Nacional para la Vivienda, FOGUAVI (National Fund for Housing) has recognized him as the owner. In this way the land of the community La Isla is private land in which now we do not have any rights.

We have been knocking on many doors; we talked with the Secretary of the Vice Minister of Communications and Public Works of Guatemala (Ministerio de Comunicaciones y Obras Publicas de Guatemala) and the answer that we obtained was that they cannot intermediate in this problem since it is private property. In this way they ignored all the years of work that the Iglesia Luterana Agustina de Guatemala has been doing in this place and all the time and resources that we have invested.

In the same way we communicated with FOGUAVI (National Fund for Housing), and we also talked with the Office of the Governmental Institution of the Secretary of the President of the Republic’s Wife and we received negative answers. Now we are going to communicate with the Legal Department of the Ministry of Education in order to let them know that the Iglesia Luterana Agustina de Guatemala built the school in La Isla and that we have been working for many years with the children of scarce resources.

We have also requested a few meetings with the supposed owner, but he up until now ignored us. Now he has told the people from the community that he will send to Padre Horacio Castillo a letter saying that he is not against the church. He wants the two groups from the community, the one that is in favor of the church and the one that is against the church, to decide and come to an agreement about what they want to do with the properties of the church. We believe he is making a political move so that he is not seen badly to either group. The properties of the church have belonged to the church since 1991. The properties of the church include: the school, the church which are in the same lot of land; the clinic, women’s workshop, and other lots that were not designated for ministry, yet, because of the problem. This person, the supposed owner, does not even know us since we have not been allowed to participate in the Assemblies that have been held with the members of the community because the group against the church has threatened our integrity.

Now our destiny is in the hands of the community since previously the community decided to give the lots of land to other institutions. But, there will be two more Assemblies in order to decide who will keep the lots of the Iglesia Luterana Agustina de Guatemala. If the decision is not favorable for the Iglesia Luterana Agustina de Guatemala we will act legally in order to rescue the economic investment we have made in La Isla.

We still have the hope in the Divine justice and trust in God that not all is lost and we ask you for your prayers so that our Lord illuminates us and shows us the right path that we should take.

Now, all this problems have affected our work, our time and have affected us emotionally and in our health because we have been harassed by unknown people and from the group that is against the church. This group has dedicated its time to interrupt the work of the Iglesia Luterana Agustina de Guatemala in the community La Isla. We have gotten to the point that Padre Horacio Castillo had to go to the hospital on Tuesday, May 09 because he had high blood pressure. Horacio Darynel and the Missionary Amanda Olson took Padre Horacio to the emergency room of Hospital San Pablo (St. Paul Hospital) in zone 1 in Guatemala City. A Doctor checked Padre Horacio and prescribed him a medicine to reduce his tension and to diminish his high blood pressure because he was in risk of suffering a stroke.

We ask all of you for your prayers so that God makes justice and gives us the necessary strength in order to continue His ministry.

We continue with our constant work and we will continue sending you our communications about this process.

We hope that our God of life continues to bless you and multiply all your efforts that you all do in order to support the pastoral-social work of the Iglesia Luterana Agustina de Guatemala.

In Christ,


Pastoral Team
Iglesia Luterana Agustina de Guatemala


Translated by Horacio Darynel and Amanda