The first construction works on El Salvador’s Pacific Airport, a signature Bukele infrastructure project, have displaced 225 families from the communities of Condadillo and Flor de Mangle, in the municipality of Conchagua, La Unión. Since December 2024, machines have razed 462 manzanas —a unit of measurement in El Salvador just under double an acre— of land, including tropical forest, agricultural plots, and part of the mangrove swamp adjacent to the site. Seven communities lost access to water sources.
In April 2022, a rumor circulated among residents: the threat of eviction and the government’s offer to buy their land. Many refused; some gave in easily. Others said they would not move until they were forcibly removed. A month later, they denounced the arrival of employees of the Autonomous Executive Port Commission (CEPA) and the Ministry of Public Works who marked many trees with orange paint. In December 2024, those same trees were cut down at the same time that many agricultural plots were razed to the ground.
The construction of the airport will cost $328 million, Óscar Avalle said on the Salvadoran television program Frente a Frente on Dec. 2, 2024. Avalle is the representative in El Salvador of the Development Bank of Latin America (CAF), the institution financing the project.
Ángel Flores, coordinator of the Indigenous Movement for the Articulation of the Struggles of Ancestral Peoples (MILPA), maintains that the construction of the airport was imposed with disregard for the population’s own interests. However, the surrounding communities are more concerned about the long-term consequences of the arrival of other economic initiatives that will promote gentrification and more displacement of campesino settlements. Some fishermen fear that they will no longer be able to work.
José Candelario Gavidia, president of the Indigenous Movement for the Articulation of the Struggles of Ancestral Peoples, reports that at the end of December 2024, heavy machinery arrived where the Pacific Airport will be built and indiscriminately cut down centuries-old trees surrounding the water source that had supplied Condadillo for decades. “Look at the size of the trees they cut down,” he said. “I assure you that if a poor person cuts down a tree they will take him straight to prison, but look at all the destruction they did here.”
Part of the land where the Pacific Airport is being built is crossed by a river that the inhabitants of Condadillo call Ojo de Agua (Eye of Water). The river flows into the mangrove swamp of the El Tamarindo estuary, where at least 600 families from Volcancillo and Condadillo used to get their water. According to MILPA, the source of the river will disappear when it is filled with concrete to build the airport runway.
In May 2022, despite threats of eviction, some families kept building their homes. At that time, the community was afraid and had many doubts. Nobody knew for sure what the government’s plans were for the area. Almost three years later, this same house survived the eviction for now because it is located only five meters from the line where the airport construction area begins.
On June 22, 2022, more than 30 residents gathered on the Condadillo soccer field. There were also leaders from Flor de Mangle and La Criba, the other cantons near Condadillo, who had also heard rumors about evictions and about forced sale of land for the construction of the airport. They showed up that afternoon to get the official information that never came.
Around 462 manzanas of forest have been cut down between Condadillo and Flor de Mangle since the intervention began in December 2024. This has affected local agriculture and livestock. The deforestation of these lands has also affected the mangrove swamp, a source of subsistence for the locals who dive into the forest every day to look for shellfish in the mud.
In January 2023, sitting on the wall protecting his community’s spring, Will Claros was certain that the forest behind him was going to disappear. Two years later, he was right. Will answers a phone call while cleaning his fishing boat at El Embarcadero, the artisanal fishing dock in front of El Tamarindo Beach in La Unión, where he has made a living for many years. “I haven't gone to see for myself because it's very sad. There is no longer any access to the spring and there won’t be,” says Will, who fears that the construction of the airport will rob him of the workspaces with which he has always fed his family.
These communal washing places had already been built before José Candelario Gavidia, 63, was born. People from the surrounding cantons would come on horseback for water and to wash. It was surrounded by a hill and trees that no longer exist. Since the bulldozing began in December 2024, no one has been able to reach the water source to wash, for fear of the CEPA workers who constantly monitor the site and question the presence of residents.
José Escobar is 60 years old and is a curilero (shellfish gatherer) from Condadillo who has worked for the last 45 years in the mangrove swamp of the El Tamarindo estuary. The mangrove swamp is located about 100 meters from where the construction work for the Pacific Airport is being carried out. The curileros have less and less direct access to the salt forest where they extract shells and fish to support their families. “There are at least 95 curileros here in Condadillo,” says José after a day’s work. “That means that there are about 95 families that may lose their source of work when the airport site is closed.”
Most of the inhabitants of Condadillo began to leave their homes in March 2024. The first stages of construction of the airport have displaced 225 families. Ángel Flores of MILPA maintains that this project will also displace more inhabitants in the long term, due to the arrival of other economic initiatives in the vicinity of this construction and along the coastal strip.
According to community leaders, at least 13 families were evicted and relocated to land outside the airport construction perimeter. All that remains on the land are the foundations of old buildings, such as that of mason’s assistant Manuel Hernández, who built on land inherited from his father. None of those who sold speak about the payment received for the land, for fear of reprisals from the government, said the president of MILPA, José Gavidia.
The clearing of forest for construction affects seven communities surrounding the airport project: Condadillo, Flor de Mangle, Volcancillo, Loma Larga, Llano Los Patos, El Tamarindo, and El Ciprés. Their inhabitants used to get their water from the Condadillo, Managuara, Los Lagartos, and Condadillo river basins. Since construction began in December 2024, these communities have been unable to access these water sources for fear of reprisals from CEPA employees.
Support Independent Journalism in Central America
For the price of a coffee per month, help fund independent Central American journalism that monitors the powerful, exposes wrongdoing, and explains the most complex social phenomena, with the goal of building a better-informed public square.
Support Central American journalism.Cancel anytime.
