International weeks of action to demand the release of the five Water Defenders of Santa Marta and ADES

International Allies Against Mining in El Salvador

(Castellano)

September 23 to October 4, 2024

From October 8-10, 2024, the trial against the 5 Santa Marta Water defenders will be held in El Salvador. They were detained and charged, on January 11, 2023, with committing a crime that allegedly took place more than 33 years ago in the context of the Salvadoran civil war.

The Water Defenders were quickly sentenced to six months of pre-trial detention and in February, 2024, a judge allowed the case to go to trial despite the lack of evidence and a series of irregularities with the testimony of the sole secret witness presented by the Attorney General´s office. Although the ruling of the judge was appealed by the defense team on several grounds, it was upheld by the appeals chamber. Given the concerted domestic and global outcry over the arrests, the five Water Defenders were released to house arrest, but the serious changes against them remain.

Social organizations in El Salvador have denounced that instead of pursuing justice for the victims of the war, the Government of El Salvador is manipulating the judicial system to criminalize well known environmental leaders who for over a decade played a key role in the struggle that led to the country’s ban on metal mining in 2017.  The same leaders had denounced the presence of mining companies in the department of Cabañas, despite the prohibition, while members of the National Roundtable on Mining had denounced measures taken by the Bukele regime to create conditions to repeal the Special Mining Prohibition Law.  

The poor economic performance of El Salvador in comparison with the rest of Central America has led the Bukele government to seek access to quick foreign investment. In 2023, the country continued to rank as the slowest growing economy in the region with the least foreign investment, the highest public debt, and poverty rates reaching over 30% of the population. In response, the Bukele government has intensified an extractivist economic agenda including a larger tourism program that has already generated forced displacement and gentrification in designated tourist areas, and a failed policy on the mining and use of bitcoin as an official currency. The government has also announced that it will begin an oil exploration program as well as a Thorium-based nuclear energy program but has failed to call for any public consultation, nor is it providing access to public information. These policies have led environmental organizations to charge that there is strong evidence that Bukele intends to overturn the mining prohibition.

The popularity of the Bukele regime is based on its controversial public security policies rooted in the permanent suspension of constitutional rights that have resulted in the mass incarceration of tens of thousands. According to human rights organizations, more than 80,000 people have been incarcerated by the regime without a proper trial, of which more than 3,000 are minors, and at least 5,000 are innocent people. At least 351 prisoners have died under suspicious circumstances while in detention. Among those detained are hundreds of political prisoners, human rights defenders, and union leaders who are languishing under inhumane jail conditions that include overcrowding, starvation, lack of medical attention, and torture.

Such is the case of the five Water Defenders.  Given that the judicial system has been coopted by the Bukele regime and lacks the judicial independence to guarantee the right to due process, supporters of the Santa Marta 5 water defenders are concerned that despite a strong legal defense and a high profile international campaign to demand their release, they could still be condemned in an attempt to demobilize opposition to mining. However, a jail sentence could easily turn into a death sentence considering the inhumane prison conditions, and that all of the accused are older adults with diagnosed chronic diseases.

CALL FOR SUPPORT

Since the water defenders were charged, hundreds of national and international organizations and individuals have joined an international campaign to defend the historic mining ban, and to call for the immediate release of the Water Defenders of Santa Marta and ADES. Among those calling for their release are the UN special rapporteur on human rights defenders, 17 Representatives of the US Congress, elected members of the Spanish Congress, and hundreds of civil society organizations around the world. In January of this year, 185 prominent lawyers and academics from 30 countries signed an open letter asking the Salvadoran Attorney General to drop the charges, and in February 245 organizations from 34 countries presented a similar petition.

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During the weeks of September 23 to October 4, 2024, we are asking individuals and groups like yours to join Salvadoran social movement organizations in organizing solidarity actions in different cities around the world. Together, we can help to raise international awareness of the country’s human rights crisis and to show urgently needed solidarity with the Salvadoran social movements and the community of Santa Marta.

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