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oh times what victories Local struggles become and are celebrated as enormous global victories. Hundreds of people from Santa Marta and other towns in El Salvador gathered last Friday to receive the five water defenders, released after 21 months of arbitrary detention, and with no crime to prosecute (see emotional video https://tinyurl.com/4uphzw34). The accusations against him by the attorney general of El Salvador were politically motivated (see Bukele against water defenders
in The Day, 19/1024). The court ultimately ruled that the five were completely innocent of the two trumped-up charges – murder and conspiracy – against them.
The Association for Economic and Social Development of Santa Marta (ADES), to which the environmentalists belong, now demands that the prosecutor not appeal the decision and that Instead of insisting on prolonging this process further, he should apologize to the five and the community, and dedicate himself to investigating the true war crimes, starting with the massacres that were committed against Santa Marta and other communities.
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The International Allies Against Mining coalition in El Salvador issued the following statement: “The five prominent community leaders known as The Santa Marta FiveMiguel Ángel Gámez, Alejandro Laínez García, Pedro Antonio Rivas Laínez, Antonio Pacheco and Saúl Agustín Rivas Ortega, played a decisive role in the successful campaign to save the rivers of El Salvador from the threat of gold mining. With a unanimous vote in the National Assembly of El Salvador in March 2017, El Salvador became the first nation on Earth to ban all types of metal mining” (see full statement https://ips-dc.org/aviso-declara-inocentes-a-los-cinco-defensores-del-agua-salvadorenos/).
Without a doubt, this case has dealt another blow to the credibility of Nayib Bukele’s government on human rights and its claim that El Salvador remains a democracy and that there are no political prisoners. The heroic and tireless pressure of Salvadoran social organizations – with the support of international solidarity – may have worked last Friday in favor of water defenders, but it has also become visible how several political opponents, union leaders and human rights defenders continue unjustly imprisoned.
The water movement – led by local communities – stands firm against any future attempts to weaken water and community land protections in El Salvador. International groups support the call of Salvadoran organizations for the attorney general to apologize to the five environmentalists, whose health has suffered enormously during their detention, and to the entire community of Santa Marta, which suffered terrible massacres by the military during the Salvadoran civil war. from 1980 to 1992.
As we highlighted in a January 2024 investigative report, national and international campaigns have also condemned the criminalization of environmental defenders, the lack of legal rights and due process under the current exception regime
imposed by the Bukele government, and warned about its intention to reverse the historic national ban on metal mining in 2017 (https://tinyurl.com/25jxtf44).
An international delegation of observers made up of academics and lawyers from Canada, the United States and Mexico – Aideé Tassinaride (Autonomous University of Mexico City), Yvette Borja (University of California, Los Angeles), Jorge Cuéllar (Dartmouth College) and Bernie Hammond (King’s College, University of Western Ontario) – traveled to El Salvador to witness the hearing and observed several transgressions by prosecutors during the proceedings. It was a brave and vital presence to show support for environmentalists (https://tinyurl.com/djyzyf96).
John Cavanagh of the Institute for Policy Studies stated that We applaud this verdict as a sign that justice must prevail in El Salvador. The five prominent water defenders who faced politically motivated charges are heroes of El Salvador, and should never have been detained. But the fight is not over; We have to ensure that the persecution of these community leaders and the environmental movement does not continue
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Vidalina Morales, president of ADES and historical leader of the movement to defend water against mining, declared: We are grateful to the hundreds of national and international civil society organizations that worked tirelessly for more than 20 months to expose this injustice. A conviction would have been a death sentence for our colleagues, since the inhumane conditions of Salvadoran prisons have become a death trap for elderly people suffering from chronic illnesses.
. Insta the attorney general not to appeal this decision to the higher courts; We are willing to turn to the international human rights system, if necessary, to defend his innocence and his life. As we had warned, the acquittal of our environmental defenders was the only legal and fair resolution. The national interest and the good of the country have also prevailed
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The international solidarity movement supports the call of Salvadoran civil society and human rights organizations to end the current exception regime
in El Salvador and that thousands of people who have been unjustly imprisoned be released. And also that the validity of the historic national ban on metal mining of 2017 is guaranteed. The government of Mexico, like others, must join this demand, and defend the Peace Agreements signed in the Castle of Chapultepec in 1992, which put end to political persecution in El Salvador.
*Institute for Policy Studies
