It appears some progress has been made in efforts to resolve a conflict that has slowed completion of the Puerto Escondido-Oaxaca highway.
Agrarian authorities from the municipality of San Vicente Coatlán delivered a “Letter of Intent for Peace and Reconciliation of the Brother Peoples of San Vicente Coatlán and Villa Sola de Vega” to Governor Salomón Jara on Wednesday in a bid to end a conflict over 19,600 hectares of territory.
During the meeting held in the state capital, Coatlán’s communal assets commissioner, Tomás Hernández Osorio, told Jara that the document contains a request to the municipal authorities of Sola de Vega to reach a definitive resolution in the return of 50% of the disputed land to Coatlán.
The document, continued Hernández, aims at encouraging talks to move forward at the negotiation table, solving the conflict through dialogue and creating conditions for the development of both municipalities.
Governor Jara celebrated the fact that both parties are working toward the resolution of the decades-long conflict, adding that he was “grateful for this political attitude. This opens up the opportunity for dialogue between San Vicente Coatlán and Villa Sola de Vega to resolve the conflict over the dispute . . . . The Letter of Intent is important and encouraging because we are going to work to end the land dispute.”
Jara Cruz instructed a cabinet minister to call a meeting at the state government headquarters where municipal and agrarian officials from Coatlán and Sola de Vega will sit at the table.
Likewise, he proposed that Coatlán allow work to continue at the highway construction site, lifting the months-long blockade set up by local authorities and residents.
The governor remarked that the conflict has to be solved to make way for a peace process.
That, and a shorter drive from the Coast region to the state capital. Two Puerto residents have told El Sol de Puerto that the new highway is passable though not with a low-slung vehicle. And the travel time is much less than the existing routes.
One reached the capital from Puerto in three hours, the other in 3 1/2.
With reports by Revista Mujeres
