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water defenders
'We're Calling for Justice': Allies Slam Trial for El Salvador Water Defenders
Ahead of proceedings next week, an international coalition continues to back a call to "drop the baseless charges against the Santa Marta Five."
Mar 25, 2024
Nine organizations from around the world on Monday renewed calls for El Salvador's government to drop "politically motivated charges" against the "Santa Marta Five" as the well-known water defenders prepared to stand trial beginning April 3.
Miguel Ángel Gámez, Alejandro Laínez García, Pedro Antonio Rivas Laínez, Teodoro Antonio Pacheco, and Saúl Agustín Rivas Ortega were arrested in January 2023 and accused of murdering an alleged military informant during a civil war over three decades ago. Rights groups worldwide have repeatedly highlighted that not only has the Salvadoran government failed to produce any proof of their guilt, but also the five men should be covered under a 1992 amnesty law related to the war.
"In the spirit of Saint Óscar Romero, these community leaders have embodied the legacy of the preferential option for the poor in their fight for justice and for the well-being of their communities," Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) senior adviser John Cavanagh said Monday, a day after the 44th anniversary of Romero's assassination in San Salvador.
"Now, we're calling for justice for the Santa Marta Five as they face politically motivated charges and attempts to silence their movement," added Cavanagh, whose group gave its 2009 Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award to the National Roundtable on Metals Mining, a coalition the arrested water defenders helped build.
"We recognize the historic and heroic struggle of the community of Santa Marta to build a better future for the most marginalized populations."
The Santa Marta Five, who were released to house arrest in September, helped pass a 2017 legislative ban on metal mining in El Salvador. Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, who was reelected last month, has reportedly been considering reversing the prohibition in response to economic issues resulting from his policies.
"The Santa Marta Five water defenders were part of an emblematic fight to protect their land and waters from Canadian gold mining and ban metal mining," declared Viviana Herrera, Latin America program coordinator at MiningWatch Canada. "However, as in other countries in the region, their environmental struggle has come at an immense cost for them and their communities."
Chris Aylward, national president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, said that "we recognize the historic and heroic struggle of the community of Santa Marta to build a better future for the most marginalized populations, one where universal rights are guaranteed, including to health and water for all."
Acknowledging the global movement that has rallied behind the Santa Marta Five, the United Church of Canada's Christie Neufeldt vowed to keep pushing "for the charges to be dropped and to accompany their work to protect the ban on metals mining."
Along with the Canadian groups and IPS, the coalition supporting the five men includes the Central American Alliance on Mining, Pax Christi International, the SHARE Foundation, Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, and the Washington Ethical Society (WES).
“The Washington Ethical Society has a long history with the communities of El Rodeo and Santa Marta. We partnered with ADES in an eight-year process to build a potable water system for the community," noted Ross Wells, co-chair of WES's sister community program in El Salvador. "Antonio Pacheco, director of ADES and one of the arrested water defenders, was instrumental in making this project possible."
"WES members met with him every year for 12 years. Like the other members of the Santa Marta Five, Antonio was arrested and jailed for political reasons. These men fought hard to protect the waters of El Salvador from the ravages of metallic mining," he continued. "To help prop up an imploding economy, the current regime is making moves to reintroduce mining against the will of the people."
Wells also pointed out that the Santa Marta Five are among the tens of thousands of people arrested under El Salvador's state of exception, which began in March 2022 and has provoked intense condemnation from rights groups that have documented sweeping abuse by security forces, including arbitrary detention without due process.
"WES stands with the people of Santa Marta, in working for a just El Salvador, where human rights and the rule of law are respected," he said. "We pledge to continue fighting with others in the international community to protect the existing law against mining and drop the baseless charges against the Santa Marta Five."
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Groups Demand Freedom for Water Defenders in El Salvador
"We need the continued support of the international community to ensure that basic human rights, such as the right to due process, are upheld in El Salvador," said one local campaigner.
Feb 16, 2024
In the wake of right-wing Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele recent reelection, 245 groups from 31 countries on Friday renewed calls for his government to drop all charges against five Salvadoran water defenders known globally for their anti-mining work.
Miguel Ángel Gámez, Alejandro Laínez García, Pedro Antonio Rivas Laínez, Teodoro Antonio Pacheco, and Saúl Agustín Rivas Ortega—who fought for a 2017 legislative ban on metal mining in El Salvador—were arrested over a year ago. They are accused of murdering an alleged military informant during a civil war more than three decades ago. While they were released to house arrest in September, the "Santa Marta Five" still face charges that critics call politically motivated.
In a joint statement published in English and Spanish, the global coalition pointed to reporting that Bukele's government is "considering overturning the mining ban" due to economic issues in the Central American country as well as his administration's "crusade to criminalize, persecute, and demobilize its political opponents."
"We call on the Salvadoran government to drop all charges against the five prominent water defenders and to protect, not undermine, the human rights of all Salvadorans."
"Rather than investigate or prosecute those responsible for the dozens of cases of human rights violations and crimes against humanity that members of the Salvadoran military committed against the Santa Marta community (including the murders of the Lempa River massacre in 1980, where 30 people were assassinated and 189 were disappeared), the government is now re-victimizing the community by targeting their leaders, who have been outspoken against the policies of the current government," the groups said.
"Over this past year, the Salvadoran government has produced no evidence of guilt for the five, and legal experts argue that the five are covered under a 1992 amnesty that was part of a National Reconciliation Law that passed that year," the coalition continued. "At the same time, hundreds of civil society organizations, elected officials from the U.S., Canada, and Spain, and U.N. special rapporteurs have called for their exoneration."
The Santa Marta Five are among over 75,000 people arrested during El Salvador's state of exception, a nationwide crackdown on gangs that began in March 2022. Human rights organizations say many of those imprisoned are innocent and have documented widespread abuse by security forces.
A U.S.-Canadian delegation visited El Salvador in October and last month released a report on their findings—in English and Spanish. In addition to highlighting the "tens of thousands of innocent people" imprisoned under Bukele and "compelling evidence" that he wants to violate the mining ban, the report states that the president "has taken a series of steps to reduce the independence of the judiciary, to violate basic human rights, and to suspend civil liberties and the rule of law."
The report also emphasizes that "representatives of the executive branches of the governments of the United States, Canada, Mexico, and the European Union have chosen to ignore these massive violations of human rights as they drop their criticism of Bukele's actions and supply financial aid to his government."
Report co-author John Cavanagh is a senior adviser at the Institute for Policy Studies, which is one of the groups behind the new joint statement and in 2009 honored the National Roundtable on Metals Mining, a coalition the arrested water defenders helped build, with its annual Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award.
"We were shocked by the level of fear of arbitrary arrest among ordinary people in El Salvador today," Cavanagh said Friday. "We call on the Salvadoran government to drop all charges against the five prominent water defenders and to protect, not undermine, the human rights of all Salvadorans."
Vidalina Morales, president of the Association of Economic and Social Development Santa Marta (ADES), stressed that "at this time, when President Nayib Bukele has consolidated his dictatorial control of all the democratic institutions of the Salvadoran state, we need the continued support of the international community to ensure that basic human rights, such as the right to due process, are upheld in El Salvador."
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250+ Groups Call On El Salvador to Drop Charges Against Water Defenders
Critics warn that the Salvadoran government is "desperate for revenues" and trying to "demobilize potential grassroots opposition" to reversing a historic nationwide ban on environmentally destructive metal mining.
Jan 20, 2023
More than 250 organizations from 29 countries came together Friday to pressure the Salvadoran government to drop the charges against and release five water defenders who were instrumental in achieving a 2017 legislative ban on metal mining in El Salvador.
Global alarm has been building since Miguel Ángel Gámez, Alejandro Laínez García, Pedro Antonio Rivas Laínez, Teodoro Antonio Pacheco, and Saúl Agustín Rivas Ortega were detained in northern El Salvador on January 11. In a case that critics call politically motivated, they are accused of murdering an alleged military informant over three decades ago and of illicit association, which the government of Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele has used to detain tens of thousands of supposed gang members.
The groups' joint statement highlights that "thanks in part to its ill-advised embrace of Bitcoin, the Salvadoran government is under enormous pressure to find new revenues" and is reportedly considering reversing the historic mining ban—despite environmental concerns and the Central American country's ongoing water issues due to the climate emergency and pollution.
"Among El Salvador's greatest heroes of this century are the brave water defenders, including several of those arrested last week."
"The five are accused by El Salvador's attorney general of an alleged murder over 30 years ago during the brutal civil war in El Salvador that claimed the lives of 75,000," explained the organizations. "The victims of crimes from that war, which saw a U.S.-backed dictatorship and right-wing death squads kill tens of thousands, have, for decades, been calling for justice."
"The current government, however, has chosen to actively uphold decades of impunity," the groups continued. "Rather than investigate or prosecute those responsible for the dozens of cases of human rights violations and crimes against humanity that members of the Salvadoran military committed against the Santa Marta community (including the murders of the Lempa River massacre in 1980, where 30 people were assassinated and 189 were disappeared), the government is now re-victimizing the community by targeting their leaders, who have been outspoken against the policies of the current government."
"This further raises questions about whether the attorney general's true motivation is to attempt to silence these water defenders, especially in light of the current administration's crusade to criminalize, persecute, and demobilize its political opponents," adds the statement, spearheaded by the U.S.-based Institute for Policy Studies (IPS)—which in 2009 honored the National Roundtable on Metals Mining, a coalition the arrested men helped build, with its annual Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award.
The collective demand that Bukele's government "drop the charges against the five water defenders and otherwise release them from prison to await their trial" came a day after a Salvadoran judge ruled that the case should proceed and the leaders of the Association of Economic and Social Development (ADES) Santa Marta should remain detained.
\u201c#SantaMartaNoEst\u00e1Sola| La comunidad Santa Marta es ejemplo de organizaci\u00f3n en defensa de los bienes naturales. El movimiento ambiental acompa\u00f1a sus resistencias y demanda que se respete los derechos de los l\u00edderes ambientalistas detenidos de @ades_sm y la comunidad.\u201d— ADES Santa Marta (@ADES Santa Marta) 1674151327
"Among El Salvador's greatest heroes of this century are the brave water defenders, including several of those arrested last week, who led the 13-year fight that culminated in El Salvador's legislature voting unanimously in 2017 to make that country the first in the world to ban all metals mining to save its rivers," IPS senior adviser John Cavanagh told Common Dreams.
Cavanagh, who co-authored with Robin Broad The Water Defenders: How Ordinary People Saved a Country from Corporate Greed, stressed that Bukele "is desperate for revenues" because he "has so mismanaged El Salvador's finances."
"So for Bukele's government, why not arrest key water defenders if you are exploring overturning the mining ban for the revenues that gold mining brings?" he said. "This is the great fear of water defenders in El Salvador. And, this is why there is now a global outcry over these arrests."
\u201c#SantaMarta | Diversos colectivos ambientalistas est\u00e1n afuera del Centro Judicial Isidro Men\u00e9ndez, exigiendo la libertad de los l\u00edderes comunitarios de Caba\u00f1as.\n\nVidalina Morales, presidenta de @ades_sm, habla de la lucha antiminera que han librado.\n\n\u270d\ud83c\udffb @GuerreroMarvin\u201d— MalaYerba (@MalaYerba) 1674140382
Pedro Cabezas of the Central American Alliance on Mining said in an email to Common Dreams that "different from previous presidents, the government of Nayib Bukele has shown no interest in implementing pending aspects of the mining prohibitions of 2017, like environmental remediation and reparation for the victims of the mining conflicts."
"On the contrary," he explained, "recent government actions signal an imminent reopening of the mining sector: El Salvador joined the Intergovernmental Forum on Mining in 2021, legislation to create a Directorate of Hydrocarbons, Energy, and Mines was passed at the legislature this year, there are rumors that the current secret negotiations of a Free Trade Agreement with China involve negotiations on mining, and there are testimonies from the communities that representatives of mining companies are visiting their territories to offer social programs and to lease large quantities of land."
"With that in mind," Cabezas concluded, "the only explanation for the arbitrary detention of five community leaders of Santa Marta, the community that led the anti-mining struggle for more than 12 years in order to protect the fragile water supply in El Salvador, is to demobilize potential grassroots opposition to the government's plans."
\u201c\ud83d\udea8 Last week, police arrested five prominent Water Defenders in El Salvador. Together with @CISPES & @stopESmining, we call on the Salvadoran government to drop the charges.\n\n251 groups from 29 countries around the world have joined in this urgent call: https://t.co/wkfeRe4MGB\u201d— Institute for Policy Studies (@Institute for Policy Studies) 1674230613
Given Bukele and Attorney General Rodolfo Delgado's track records as well as the state of exception that began in March—under which state security forces have been accused of widespread human rights abuses—advocates in El Salvador and around the world fear for the men's safety.
As Yesenia Portillo, program director at the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES), told Common Dreams: "Under ordinary circumstances, the arrests of internationally recognized water defenders would be major cause for concern. But in El Salvador today, where torture and deadly prison conditions reign under the current state of exception, this quickly becomes a matter of life and death."
While allies of the water defenders have pointed out that "the allegations against them have major holes and contradictions, President Bukele's near-total control over both the judiciary and the prosecution casts serious doubt on whether a fair trial is even possible," Portillo said. "Since Attorney General Delgado was illegally appointed last May, virtually all cases he has brought have been sent to trial—whether there is evidence or not—and even the most compelling petitions for alternative measures to avoid a lengthy pretrial detention get denied."
"We are deeply concerned for the well-being of these men and the dangerous precedent this sets in El Salvador," Portillo added. "With these arrests, the Bukele administration is indicating to the world that their idea of 'justice' is to allow the atrocities carried out by U.S.-backed state forces during the 1980s to remain in impunity, while punishing the leaders of communities, like Santa Marta, who bore the brunt of that very violence."
This post has been updated with comment from CISPES.
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