We DO own our land!

This week we had some GREAT news! We received notification that Yelba Carvajal's attempt to annul our legitimate title and register her false title to our land have been denied! (Remember in February 2008 when she began trying to steal our land?)

This is one of two false titles she used to try to claim ownership of our Center (with our house, offices & volunteer dorm) and the Industrial Park (where the Genesis co-op, the cotton gin and the sewing co-op are all located). Now that her attempt to register our land as her own has failed, we are no longer in danger of getting the ground stolen out from under us!

WOO HOO!

This has been a long fight, but we've counted on important support during the process thanks to more than 1,000 emails you, our supporters, sent to the First Lady Rosario Murillo in a matter of days! Thank you so much for all your support!

We are still waiting notification about her attempt to register her false title on the Industrial Park. Stay tuned to start celebrating when we finally receive that notice! -- Becca

Falsification of documents: JHC files suit

In June we were contacted by the Attorney General's office and advised to file a suit for falsification of land titles against Yelba Carvajal, which we proceeded to do. In the course of working out those details, we discovered that a lawyer who drew up paperwork for the former cooperative that sold us the land has also falsified documents. So we've had to file a suit against him for falsification too. While we feel grateful to have the support of the Attorney General's office, all of this is incurring unexpected legal expenses for us at a time when funding is tight.

We continue to wait for the finalized annulment of Senora Carvajal's false titles to our property, the last step in closing out the two lawsuits she brought against us in early 2008.

If you would like to contribute to help cover legal fees, please go to: http://www.jhc-cdca.org/credit.html

Thanks for all you do!

The End is in sight, we hope!

After long weeks of silence, with no movement in the CDCA's land dispute case to mention, we have good news to report. Our attorney, with the help of the Nicaraguan Attorney General's Office, is hoping to be able to finalize details before the end of 2008 to put these cases to rest! Nothing is finished until it is truly finished, but we are hopeful!

CDCA's thanks passed along

We had the rare opportunity today of accompanying a visiting delegation from the Baptist Peace Fellowship as they visited with President Daniel Ortega and First Lady Rosario Murillo. In the process, we were able to personally thank her for her assistance in connecting us with the Attorney General's office. We have no further news on the lawsuits to report today, but thought you'd like to know that your emails, and the help they got for the CDCA were mentioned again.

Attorney General still in the picture

The CDCA received a piece of good news yesterday, in the first lawsuit that Sra. Carvajal is bringing against us. Her attorney attempted to get the Attorney General's office excluded as a third party in the case, and that attempt was denied by the judge.

Waiting on Survey

As far as we know, the next step in the first lawsuit is an on site visit by the judge, a representative from the Attorney General's office, and a representative from the Surveying office. Our understanding is that they will measure the land and compare it to the official documents that we have submitted, and then at some point a ruling will be made. We don't have any estimate as to when this site visit or final (we think) ruling will happen.

Lawsuit 1 moves into court

As you can see, Senora Carvajal's banner, advertising the free trade zone she hopes to build on her entire tract of land (including the CDCA's land which she's claiming to own) is now hanging on the roadside fence not 20' west of the CDCA's main entrance.

And today, the CDCA received court summons to appear 18 July 2008 in response to Sra. Carvajal's first lawsuit against the CDCA. This is the case in which she claims ownership of the CDCA's land where the sewing cooperative, the new spinning cooperative, the biodiesel production, etc. are located. The hopeful news, from the CDCA's perspective, is that the Attorney General's office has been granted third party presence in the case, weighing in against Sra. Carvajal's claim. She, on the other hand, has been denied her request for a third party presence in support of her claim. We'll know more after the court date on July 18.