The five men, were at the forefront of an over decade-long campaign to ban metal mining in El Salvador, in order to protect the country’s diminishing water sources and farmlands from continual contamination.
By Marco Lopez
Five environmental activists from El Salvador are currently on trial in that Latin American nation facing life imprisonment for alleged civil war crimes. The men, all over the age of 60 are identified as, Miguel Angel Gamez, Alejandro Lainez Garcia, Pedro Antonio Rivas Lainez, Antonio Pacheco, and Saul Agustin Rivas Ortega.
These men were arrested in January of 2023 for the alleged killing of army information in 1989 during the El Salvador civil war. The men were combatants for Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front during the time of the 13-year civil war in El Salvador.
The trial opened on Tuesday, October 8, 2024, in Sensubtepeque, in the department of Cabanas, El Salvador. This case has reportedly progressed in total secrecy amid international condemnation. It is being viewed as a political trial riddled with legal violations.
To date, repeated calls to drop the charges from United Nations representatives and over 100 legal experts have been ignored.
The five men, were at the forefront of an over decade-long campaign to ban metal mining in El Salvador, in order to protect the country’s diminishing water sources and farmlands from continual contamination.
They were arrested among the more than 70,000 people who have been detained under the State of Emergency ordinance sanctioned by President Nayib Bukele in 2022.
These elderly men, all who live with various medical conditions, were subjected to nine months of harsh prison conditions, and lack of medical care for months in an overpacked Salvadorian prison before finally being transferred to house arrest.
A publication sent by a group of UN special rapporteurs and the vice president of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said, “We fear that the case is an attempt to intimidate those who seek to defend the environment in the country, and especially, those who defend human rights from the negative impacts of mining.”
President Bukele has implemented a series of institutional changes that rely on extractive industries like mining. The Energy, Hydrocarbon, and Mines Directorate was given a budget hike, while most other departments in the nation faced cuts.
Experts comment that the case against the activist should never have gotten this far.
The state’s case, according to the pre-trial hearing, relies on the testimony of a man who initially claimed to have witnessed the murder. He later dialed back on his claim – saying he had only heard about the incident from some other person who claimed the accused men were on the scene of the crime.
No weapon or body was found in the case.
International legal experts have argued that the arrests of the men violate El Salvador’s reconciliation law – passed following the 1992 peace accords that brought an end to the 13-year civil war between the army and civilians.
The military, supported by the US-backed dictator and rightwing death squad has never faced justice for the human rights violation and crimes against humanity perpetrated across El Salvador and specifically in Santa Marta – the community where the give detained men live and work.
Approximately 75,000, majority civilians, were killed during the civil war period from 1979 -1992.
