Category Archives: El Salvador

No to mining, Yes to life

Family members of the ‘Santa Marta 5’ file legal complaint over delay in final ruling

by Jim Hodgson

After four postponements in delivering the final written ruling to confirm the acquittal of the defendants, family members of five anti-mining leaders in El Salvador have filed an official complaint against the judges who provided only a verbal not-guilty verdict after trial five months ago.

The defendants are people that I have known for nearly 25 years through their involvement in the Santa Marta Association for Economic and Social Development (ADES).

The text that follows is a based on a text published this week by the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES), supplemented by other media reports.

The complaint against the judges was filed with the Judicial Investigation Directorate of the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) Jan. 20, 2026, and adds to a series of public actions undertaken by the families, organizations, and human rights groups to demand the definitive closure of the judicial process against the water defenders. They had previously been part of a successful struggle to stop a gold mine from re-opening in the northern part of Cabañas department.

The Santa Marta 5 were arrested Jan. 11, 2023, and charged in connection with the alleged disappearance of a woman during El Salvador’s civil war. The charges were widely denounced as political persecution: the community leaders had been sounding the alarm over indications that the Nayib Bukele government was seeking to overturn El Salvador’s 2017 ban on metal mining, the first and only in the world. 

They were imprisoned for eight months while awaiting trial and subsequently placed under house arrest, a measure that was granted only after pressure from national and international human rights organizations and elected officials.

In December of 2025, El Salvador’s legislature, dominated by Bukele’s New Ideas party, did in fact overturn the law prohibiting mining in the country.

The defendants were acquitted of all charges in October 2024. The Attorney General appealed the decision, and in November 2024, the Cojutepeque Criminal Chamber overturned the dismissal of the charges and allowed a retrial in a new jurisdiction.

When the second trial concluded in September 2025, the San Vicente Sentencing Court reached the same conclusion in its oral ruling, acquitting the defendants of criminal charges. But the court has since delayed delivering its final written ruling four times, unjustifiably prolonging the judicial process and leaving the case without definitive closure.

On Jan. 9, the judges once again postponed the delivery of the written ruling until Jan. 30, a decision that the families believe could constitute a delay of justice in violation to the principle of “prompt and fair justice” and keeps a process indefinitely open that already has two acquittal rulings.

In the document they submitted to the CSJ, the families of the defendants requested an investigation into the delays as they have prevented the sentence from becoming final. Without a written ruling, the procedural deadlines for either a possible appeal or the definitive closure of the case cannot commence.

Media and social media coverage of the new legal complaint.

Milton Rivas, son of Pedro Antonio Rivas, one of the defendants, explained to the media that the judges “have been delaying the final ruling” and that the complaint filed seeks to demand justice for his family members. “We are not asking for anything, nor have we come to beg for anything; we have come to demand justice, because it is unacceptable that it takes them about five months to submit a document that they could have delivered the same day the hearing ended,” he declared.

Social movements, human rights groups, community representatives, and family members of the defendants denounced the court’s stall tactic during a press conference on Jan. 13. Rivas, joined by community leader Alfredo Leiva, stated that the failure to deliver the written ruling has both prolonged the legal uncertainty and kept the defendants, their families, and the community in a constant state of anxiety.  “This delay keeps our family members in a situation of constant anguish and constitutes a denial of justice,” they declared.

A representative of the University Movement for Critical Thought also warned of a broader context of increasing persecution and criminalization in the country. Currently, at least 38 human rights, environmental, labour, and political activists remain imprisoned, while human rights defenders and community journalists continue to report receiving threats, police harassment, and intimidation campaigns against them.

“We demand an immediate end to [this] persecution and respect for the right to defend the environment, to inform, and to organize,” the organizations stated, issuing an urgent call to Salvadoran society and the international community to remain vigilant given the risk of additional arbitrary arrests targeting critical voices and community organizing efforts.

Finally, they reported that a permanent vigil is being held in front of the Metropolitan Cathedral in San Salvador every day at six in the evening as a peaceful act of protest and a demand for justice, freedom, and respect for human rights.

International allies against mining in El Salvador applaud new “not guilty” verdict

by Jim Hodgson

I write to share the statement Wednesday, Sept. 24, celebrating a second not guilty verdict in the political persecution of five environmental protectors in El Salvador. They should never have been arrested. See below for an action request. The statement comes from allies around the world who came together more than 15 years ago to accompany communities in El Salvador in their defence of water resources against a Canadian mining company….

San Salvador – On September 24, the presiding tribunal in San Vicente, El Salvador, found five prominent water defenders from Santa Marta, Miguel Ángel Gámez, Alejandro Laínez García, Pedro Antonio Rivas Laínez, Antonio Pacheco, and Saúl Agustín Rivas Ortega, innocent of charges of murder,  kidnapping, and illicit association. 

Once again, the five prominent Water Defenders who faced politically-motivated charges have been declared innocent — and they should never have been arrested. International Allies against Mining in El Salvador calls upon the Salvadoran Attorney General to abstain from further legal action and demands that all civil liabilities are dropped.

Representatives from the governments of Canada, France, and Germany appeared at the court today to observe the ruling, a reminder that governments and international civil society are watching this case closely.

“We call on the Attorney General’s office to respect the decision of the tribunal, to abstain from appealing this decision and stop wasting government resources to keep up the farce,” stated Alfredo Leiva from the community of Santa Marta, whose leading members were among those on trial. “Rather than insisting on prolonging this process any further, the Attorney General’s office should apologize to the five and to the community, and should dedicate themselves to investigating the real war crimes, starting with the massacres that were committed against Santa Marta and other communities.”

“The five Water Defenders should never have been charged, and the Salvadoran government’s willingness to pursue these accusations despite their clear innocence signals a worrying willingness to persecute the movement that these five water defenders represent. We call on the Salvadoran government to forgo future sham prosecutions and uphold the democratic rule of law in future pursuit of true justice,” said John Cavanagh, Senior Advisor at the Institute for Policy Studies. 

“We celebrate that the Water Defenders have on two occasions now been found innocent of all the charges laid against them. However, we are deeply concerned that the judicial system may continue to be used as a tool to persecute the leaders for their role in protecting the country’s scarce water resources. We ask that the findings of the two courts be respected. We look forward to the day when the Defenders can return to their community and families in full liberty, free from the threat of further persecution,” said Christie Neufeldt, Global Partnerships Coordinator for Latin America, The United Church of Canada.

“Despite the positive results, the international community should be aware that the struggle is far from over. The Attorney General still has the possibility of appealing the case and taking it all the way to the Supreme Court level, and it may take years before the Santa Marta Five are declared fully innocent,” said Pedro Cabezas, coordinator of the Central American Alliance on Mining.

“As was the case in their trial in Sensuntepeque in October 2024, the five water defenders of Santa Marta who were subjected to another trial have today again been found innocent of the charges of murder, kidnapping, and illicit association,” said Prof. Bernie Hammond, an international observer at the trial. “It is to be hoped that the Attorney General will have the good sense to let go of this case against the five. It has become clear to the legal community and to the general public that these charges were politically motivated and are a clear example of “lawfare” in which anti-mining advocacy on the part of the five were criminalized in order to change the 2017 law prohibiting mining in El Salvador.” 

In January 2023, police arrested the five prominent water defenders from the rural community of Santa Marta and the Association for Social and Economic Development of El Salvador (ADES) on charges allegedly dating back to the country’s civil war and held them incommunicado for over eight months and then placed them on house arrest until their trial date. The five had played an instrumental role in the country’s heroic and successful struggle to pass a historic 2017 law prohibiting toxic metals mining in El Salvador,  and were the first ones to denounce President Nayib Bukele’s intentions to  overturn it.

When the five were finally tried in October 2024,  after a long legal defense campaign that denounced a series of irregularities with the proceedings, the tribunal dismissed all charges against them due to lack of evidence, ruled that all five were completely innocent of the two sham charges of murder and illicit association that were laid against them. However, in aruling that has been widely condemned as a travesty of justice, an appeals court annulled the innocent verdict, allowing the Attorney General’s Office to try them again on the same charges.

Beyond the lack of evidence, the Salvadoran Attorney General’s pursuit of this case even after the original determination of innocence in October 2024 has dealt a serious blow to the Salvadoran government’s credibility, belying its claim that it remains a democracy and that it holds no political prisoners. The unceasing and courageous pressure from grassroots organizations in El Salvador – in concert with international solidarity – may have worked in favour of the Water Defenders today, but hundreds of political opponents, labour leaders and human rights defenders remain imprisoned. The community-led movement of water defenders still stands strong in the face of future attempts to undermine land and water protections for communities in El Salvador.

Our organizations support the call by Salvadoran civil society groups that the Salvadoran Attorney General should apologize to the five defendants, whose health has suffered greatly over the past two years that they have stood accused of false charges, and to the Santa Marta community, which suffered from genuine military atrocities during the Salvadoran Civil War in 1980-1992. 

Media contacts:

Action Request:

Can you join us in uplifting the calls of the community that the Attorney General [ @FGR_SV ] respect the tribunal’s ruling? The International Allies Against Mining in El Salvador is calling on our network to:

1) Share the International Allies against Mining in El Salvador’s statement with your networks (here in Spanish). You can also share posts from the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador on X and on Facebook.

2) Call on the Attorney General not to appeal the ruling and, in the words of the Santa Marta community, “end this judicial farce.”

Sample tweets:

  • I applaud this week’s ruling that found no basis for the charges brought against the #SantaMarta5 water defenders of El Salvador & call on the @FGR_SV to cease their unjust persecution. #NoALaMineria #EyesOnSantaMarta http://bit.ly/46Udt53
  • Aplaudo la decisión del tribunal que dejo absueltos de todas las acusaciones en contra de los defensores de agua de #SantaMarta y hago un llamado a la @FGR_SV que deje su persecución injusta en contra de ellos. #NoALaMineria #SantaMartaNoEstaSola http://bit.ly/4nlIZyD

El Salvador’s Bukele arrests rights defender Ruth López

El Salvador’s government has arrested Ruth Eleonora López, a prominent human rights lawyer, as it steps up attacks on rights defenders, environmentalists and journalists.

López leads anti-corruption work at Cristosal, one of the country’s leading human rights groups. It was created in 2000 with backing from the global Anglican communion in 2000. “To this day, our work is inspired by the Anglican communion’s commitment to justice and the dignity of every human being and demonstrated through the role of the church during El Salvador’s civil war,” its website states.

Cristosal helps document evidence of state crimes under El Salvador’s ongoing three-year state of emergency.The measure is used to arrest people believed to be associated with gang violence, but other people have been swept up as well. It restricts the right to gather, to be informed of rights and to have access to a lawyer. It extends to 15 days the time that someone can be held without charges. Associated Press says that some 85,000 people have been arrested under the state of emergency.

Al Jazeera reported that Cristosal has also tried to assist more than 250 Venezuelans who were sent by the United States to a jail in El Salvador.

On Sunday night (May 18), two weeks before Nayib Bukele reaches his sixth anniversary in power in El Salvador, the Attorney General’s Office announced the arrest of López via X (formerly Twitter). As of late afternoon Monday, her whereabouts were still unknown and her family joined Cristosal in demanding the government provide more information.

The English-language service of El Faro newspaper—itself under attack by the Bukele regime— said the arrest derives from accusations of embezzlement, but the case file is declared secret. Prosecutors claimed to have gathered information during raids carried out against Eugenio Chicas, a former president of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal arrested in February, and who remains in custody.

“The only reason for this detention is that I am a human rights defender and work for an NGO uncomfortable for the government,” López said upon her arrest. She told the officers: “Have some decency; one day this will all end. You must not play into this.”

El Faro said May 5 that a reliable source had told its reporters that the Bukele-controlled Attorney General’s Office is preparing at least seven arrest warrants for members of El Faro. The source reached out following the publication of interviews with former leaders of the Revolucionario faction of the 18th Street Gang (Barrio 18) about Bukele’s years-long relationship to gangs. 

If carried out, such arrests would be the first time in decades that prosecutors seek to press charges against individual journalists for their journalistic efforts.

One of the gang leaders said that he had been secretly released from custody at the height of the country’s ongoing state of exception as part of his gang’s continued negotiations with Bukele’s government. The interview focus attention on the extent to which Bukele’s rise to power was tied to secret negotiations with the country’s gangs.

The NACLA Update summarizes the interviews this way: 

El Faro’s reporting shows that the links between the Barrio 18 gang and Bukele began all the way back in 2014, when Bukele was a council member of small-town Nuevo Cuscatlán looking to run for mayor of San Salvador. During his campaign for mayor, a close Bukele ally warned gang members of impending police raids and delivered community development projects to the gang’s turf; in exchange, gang leaders cracked down on opposition activists and forced community members to vote for Bukele.

Ties between Bukele and the country’s gangs, including MS-13, have long been documented by El Faro and other outlets and have caused tensions with the United States. Nevertheless, news that a gang leader convicted of murder was released at the height of the crackdown brings unwanted scrutiny on the Salvadoran government at a time when Bukele has enthusiastically sought favor with the Trump administration.