Category Archives: Uncategorized

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

Gunboats follow sanctions in U.S. strategy for regime change in Venezuela

by Jim Hodgson

U.S. claims to have bombed a supposed “drug vessel” in the southern Caribbean were met with considerable scepticism and calls for action to stop an invasion.

Action suggestion from the Alliance for Global Justice (AFGJ): Please send an email to UN Secretary General António Guterres asking him to intervene to stop a possible U.S. invasion of Venezuela.

“Earlier this morning [Tuesday], on my Orders, U.S. Military Forces conducted a kinetic strike against positively identified Tren de Aragua Narcoterrorists in the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility,” President Donald Trump said in a Truth Social post. “The strike occurred while the terrorists were at sea in International waters transporting illegal narcotics, heading to the United States. The strike resulted in 11 terrorists killed in action.”

He added that TdA is a “foreign terrorist organization” that operates under the control of Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela’s president.

Mexico’s La Jornada shared Images of the U.S. boat attack

Neither Trump nor the video showed any proof that the boat was carrying drugs, nor that it came from Venezuela, nor that it had anything to do with TdA, much less that its destination was the United States. There is no indication of who the crew was. Why would 11 people be on a small boat that is supposedly carrying a large amount of drugs? Could they have been migrants? Human traffickers? It’s more common that such craft are stopped and searched. If anything is found, arrests follow. Not summary executions.

On social media, Venezuelan news outlet Venezuelanalysis speculated on how U.S. SOUTHCOM knew the small boat was carrying drugs without carrying out an inspection. On Monday, President Maduro said his country was at “maximum preparedness” and denounced the expanded U.S. military presence in the Caribbean as, “an extravagant, unjustifiable, immoral and absolutely criminal and bloody threat.”

In Colombia, President Gustavo Petro said he doubted the veracity of the U.S. claim. “We have spent decades capturing civilians who transport drugs without killing them.”

In Mexico, where Trump’s secretary of state Marco Rubio arrived Monday night, news of the attack was felt to be a warning to President Claudia Sheinbaum about methods the United States might use in its effort to dismantle Mexican cartels.

In previous weeks, the United States had deployed as many as eight warships, a nuclear-powered submarine and 4,500 troops as part of Trump’s anti-drug cartel operation, projecting military force into the Caribbean Sea. Among useful news analyses: The Cradle (left, a publication usually focused on events in West Asia). Newsweek (right), unusual among mainstream U.S. media is sharing multiple articles about a new “Trump Doctrine.” It’s similar in effect to the Monroe Doctrine, ostensibly about curbing European influence in the Americas, but used to justify U.S. interference in Latin America and the Caribbean since 1823.

In March, Trump used the Tren de Aragua myth as a justification to justify the extraordinary rendition of young Venezuelan men to El Salvador. A New York Times article in April showed that Tren de Aragua is not invading the United States. Nor is it a “terrorist organization,” and to call such “criminal groups terrorist is always a stretch since they usually do not aim at changing government policy.” The article goes on to show that Tren de Aragua is not centrally organized, much less that it colludes with the Maduro government. 

Maduro said in March that TdA “no longer exists; we defeated it.” The Venezuelans held in El Salvador were finally returned home in July.

Left: Chevron is once again moving Venezuelan oil to the United States. Right: President Nicolás Maduro speaks with foreign reporters.

This new chapter in Venezuela’s drama plays out in the context of historic U.S. refusal to accept the development in this hemisphere of a political and economic model other than the capitalist one. Since 1998, Venezuela has embarked upon a “Bolivarian Revolution” (named for Simon Bolivar, the hero of the 19thcentury independence struggle) and intended to break capitalist hegemony over every aspect of the lives of the people.

Since 2005, U.S. administrations have made the annual determination that Venezuela has “failed demonstrably to adhere to its obligations under international narcotics agreements.” A year later, the United States began applying sanctions (“unilateral coercive measures,” the UN calls them). These and other measures have been strengthened since 2015, eventually driving a severe economic crisis and exodus of millions of people who sought better opportunities elsewhere.

In this second Trump administration, some see incoherence. On the one hand, ongoing verbal threats and this military build-up. On the other, easing of sanctions to allow Chevron to import Venezuelan oil to the United States. Conjecture persists about the relative influence of corporations like Chevron that want back in, the south Florida Venezuelans and Cubans who are Rubio’s constituency, and the isolationist sector of the Trump-MAGA base that wants out of all foreign wars.

Land rights defender Leocadio Juracán arrested in Guatemala

Jim Hodgson

Friends and allies of Leocadio Juracán, Agrarian Reform Coordinator of the Campesino Committee of the Highlands (CCDA), are protesting his arrest Wednesday as he was about to fly to South Africa for an international conference.

“He is being criminalized for his work as a land and human rights defender,” said the Maritimes-Guatemala Breaking The Silence Network (BTS) in an urgent action request. He faces multiple charges, including aggravated trespass (usurpación agravada), directly related to his advocacy for Indigenous and farming communities across Guatemala.

(More details of the urgent action request and of Leocadio’s arrest follow below.)

Leocadio continued talking with reporters even as police escorted him from the airport and into a waiting room vehicle. Right: details of the conference he was to attend in South Africa.

I worked with Leocadio and other members of CCDA in May 2022 and March 2023, travelling with them to communities in Quiché and Izabal departments that face threats from people or companies purporting to be the true land-owners. In those communities and in scores of others across Guatemala, CCDA works with Indigenous and small-farmer communities to document their history on the land and to submit legal justification for their claims.

Leocadio and other CCDA members are known in many parts of Canada because they work with coffee farmers whose product is sent to roasters linked to Café Justicia in British Columbia and Just Us! in Atlantic Canada in a “fair trade plus” arrangement.

More details of the BTS Urgent Action request (including a template for letters in Spanish):

On August 13, Leocadio Juracán, Agrarian Reform Coordinator of the Campesino Committee of the Highlands (CCDA), was detained at La Aurora Airport as he was leaving the country to participate in a Translocal Social Movement Learning conference in South Africa. 

Leocadio is being criminalized for his work as a land and human rights defender. He is currently facing multiple charges, including Aggravated Trespass (usurpación), directly related to his advocacy for Indigenous and campesino communities.

We need your immediate action:

With the following Canadian officials copied:

In your message, please call on them to:

  • Ensure his protection until such time as he is released.
  • Follow recent UN Special Rapporteur advice to enact an immediate moratorium on evictions and grant amnesty for all criminalized land defenders.
  • End criminalization of the members and leadership of Indigenous and campesino communities and organizations.

Many of these government officials are Spanish speaking. If possible, write this letter in Spanish. Otherwise, you can also send it in English.

If you’d like to send it in Spanish, you may say:

Me dirijo a usted para exigir que:

  • Liberen inmediatamente a Leocadio Juracán.
  • Garanticen su protección hasta el momento de su liberación.
  • Sigan las recomendaciones recientes del Relator Especial de la ONU de declarar una moratoria inmediata de los desalojos forzados y de otorgar la amnistía a todos los defensores criminalizados.
  • Pongan fin a la criminalización de los miembros y líderes de las comunidades y organizaciones indígenas y campesinas.

After you write this email, please share with several of your friends and contacts. Thank you so much for your urgent support to help get Leocadio Juracán free.

Leocadio Juracán, March 21, 2023, speaking with the people of an Indigenous Q’eqchi’ community known as Macho Creek near Guatemala’s Atlantic coast. (Photo: Jim Hodgson)

Leocadio Juracán, campesino leader and former congress member, arrested

Prensa Comunitaria

Leocadio Juracán Salome, leader of the Highlands Committee of Small Farmers (CCDA), was detained Wednesday morning (Aug. 13) at La Aurora Airport in the Guatemalan capital as he was preparing to travel to South Africa for an international conference.

According to his defense attorneys, the crimes for which Juracán was arrested are aggravated trespass (usurpación agravada) and causing forest fires.

“Today, as I was preparing to travel to participate in this conference, I was arbitrarily detained at approximately 11:05 a.m. at La Aurora International Airport,” said the former congress member from the now-defunct Convergencia party.

Juracán asked his family to remain calm and told his fellow CCDA members that he is proud of their struggles “because these repressive practices by the State and corrupt officials only demonstrate that they cannot stop our just struggles with criminalization alone.”

The news of his arrest has generated expressions of solidarity from various individuals and sectors. The CCDA, the organization of which he is a member, stated that this arrest is an act of criminalization and prosecution against those who defend land, territory, and social justice and demanded his immediate release.

Representative and campesino leader

When he was elected representative for Convergencia (2015-2019), Juracán supported campesino organizations and other social sectors in their demands. In March 2017, along with then-representative Sandra Morán, he filed a preliminary lawsuit against former President Jimmy Morales in the Hogar Seguro case, which was unsuccessful.

Juracán remains one of the representatives of the CCDA, an organization dedicated to promoting rural development for Indigenous and small-farmer communities. Founded in 1982 during the military dictatorships, the organization was formally established in 1989.

Currently, CCDA supports Indigenous communities and land defenders facing issues of eviction and criminalization in several departments of the country, including El Estor, Izabal, and Cobán, Alta Verapaz. …