The El Salvador water defendants’ trial and house detention is a complex internationally investigated case of a political and legal character with the following technicalities.
El Salvador is a Spanish-speaking country in Central America gaining their independence from the Spanish Empire by signing the Act of Independence of Central America in 1821 and 17 years later declaring itself a fully independent republic. With El Salvador’s civil war lasting during the peak of the Cold War, the conflict resolved around pro-US bloc – Salvadoran Government (mostly elite and right-wing) and pro-USSR bloc – Leftist Guerrilla Groups such as Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) the water defenders of Santa Marta were a part of.
The five human rights defenders of Santa Marta – Alejandro Laínez García, Miguel Ángel Gámez, Pedro Rivas Laínez, Antonio Pacheco and Saul Rivas Ortega – were part of the anti-mining movement which led El Salvador to become a first country in the world to impose an overarching ban on any forms of metal mining in a unanimous vote in 2017. The ban protected the Salvadorian waters from pollution with toxic chemicals, heavy metals and waste matter. The consequences of the ban are reduced health risks, increased sustainability and environmental indicators, yet reduced economic growth, sector bankruptcy and socio-political tensions.
The five water defenders are a part of the 8-people group from FMLN which was accused of killing María Inés Alvarenga Leiva on the 22nd of August 1989. All the accused were arrested for illicit association and the murder on January 2023 being charged and imprisoned until September 2023 appeal when the sentence was softened to a house arrest, with no charges being lifted still. The water defenders’ case had a severe lack of evidence and under international law custom of presumption of innocence, the accused men are innocent until proven beyond reasonable doubt guilty by the prosecution.
The movement supporting the water defenders of Santa Marta stands on the liberation of the anti-mining activists based on the earlier mentioned facts and the relation of charges with the potential intention of Bukele’s government to lift the mining ban. The water defenders play a key role in El Salvador’s community and the 2017 anti-mining protests; therefore, the anti-mining activists see the charges pressed against the water defenders as an attempt to threaten the community into not being part of the anti-mining protests not to be falsely accused.
Mariia Kurova – LASC Communications Intern