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water defenders
El Salvador’s Self-Proclaimed Dictator Is On Trial
Nayib Bukele is persecuting water defenders on trumped up charges. In reality, he’s the one on trial.
Sep 29, 2024
Nayib Bukele has proudly called himself “the world’s coolest dictator.” On October 8, his government will begin an unjust trial of five water defenders from El Salvador. These men are heroes of El Salvador — and they never should have been arrested.
In these two weeks leading up to the trial, human rights supporters across the United States, Canada, Germany, and elsewhere are joining counterparts in El Salvador to call for the five to be freed.
In January of 2023, Bukele’s attorney general arrested five prominent environmental defenders and charged them with a murder that took place in that nation’s brutal civil war 35 years ago. It doesn’t matter that the government has no evidence to back up the charges or that the five are covered by a 1992 amnesty. Bukele has no use for domestic or international law as he bulldozes civil liberties in mass arrests under the banner of eliminating gangs.
Opposition to these mass arrests is now rising — some from parents whose children were wrongly swept into his prisons, some from human rights defenders, and some from communities that fear he will undo the seven-year old ban on mining which was won by communities that placed the health of their rivers and lands over the profits of mining corporations.
This is where Bukele’s argument that he is only arresting gang members gets murky. In a fact-finding delegation to El Salvador last fall, eight of us from the U.S. and Canada found that thousands of innocent people had also been arrested. We found cases of torture. And we found that Bukele had been locking up opponents, including labor leaders and leaders of the successful fight against mining.
In reality, it’s Nayib Bukele who will be going on trial on October 8 — the trial of global public opinion. If there is any justice left in El Salvador, these five will be freed and the charges dropped. If Bukele instead is insisting on total control of his courts, then the public will see him for what he is: a vindictive bully who has no respect for either human rights or the environment in El Salvador.
On September 26, at protests in front of Salvadoran embassies and consulates in Washington, DC, Ottawa, Toronto, and Vancouver, people gathered to call for justice. IPS joined the Committee in Solidarity With the People of El Salvador (CISPES), and the Washington Ethical Society at the Washington protest.
Bukele hopes to squash democratic opposition to his policies with this trial, and the groups that IPS joins under the rubric of International Allies Against Mining in El Salvador are responding that they will not be moved.
A word of hope, and a word of shame.
In terms of hope, the efforts of organizations in Canada, German, France, and the UK have convinced those four governments to express discontent over the arrests of the five by agreeing to send representatives to the October 8 trial.
In terms of shame, the United States government stands tall. Despite a clear condemnation of the arrests by 17 members of the U.S. Congress, the U.S. government is shamefully remaining silent on the trial.
IPS’s Trade and Mining Project has worked with allies on the ground in El Salvador since 2009, when IPS awarded its prestigious Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award to the National Roundtable on Metals Mining in El Salvador. And just as IPS has fought for justice for 48 years in the assassinations of our IPS colleagues Orlando Letelier and Ronni Karpen Moffitt, we will fight for justice for the Salvadoran water defenders.
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'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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