The Santa Marta 5 faced a retrial on politically motivated charges stemming back to the civil war despite a unanimous verdict confirming their innocence in October 2024

San Salvador and Washington, D.C. –  As president Nayib Bukele offered to subcontract part of El Salvador’s deadly prison system to the United States during the U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s Monday visit, a group of internationally-recognized Salvadoran environmental defenders publicly challenged the legitimacy of the country’s judicial system by refusing to show up as defendants in a politically motivated case against them.

In January 2023, police arrested five prominent water defenders from the rural community of Santa Marta on charges allegedly dating back to the country’s civil war and held them incommunicado for over eight months. 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, a ban recently overturned by Bukele and his party.

When finally tried in October 2024, the tribunal dismissed all charges against them due to lack of evidence. However, in a ruling 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 starting February 3.

On the morning of the trial, in the absence of the five water defenders, an academic from the University of El Salvador read to those gathered in solidarity outside the Court an open letter the five had penned: “To environmental organizations, Salvadoran social movement, churches, universities, academics and society in general…”

“We have decided not to lend ourselves to continuing the game of [appeals court magistrates] and the government to manipulate this case,” wrote the Santa Marta 5, as they have come to be known internationally. They classified the retrial as “a political decision, not a legal one,” writing that the court magistrates have “lent themselves” to a “manipulation of the judicial process, evidencing a total dependence of the Judicial system to the executive power.” As a result, they wrote, “There is no guarantee of a fair and legal trial and to expose ourselves to this political decision puts our lives at risk.”

“This decision,” they continued, “is an action of resistance against abuses and judicial arbitrariness. We are innocent and do not want to validate a farce of a Judicial System co-opted by the regime on duty and that offers no guarantee of due process and our security and integrity, so we have decided to protect ourselves to protect our integrity.”

Prior to the scheduled hearing, over 300 organizations and 180 academics from 44 countries called on the government to drop the charges and to reject metals mining in the aftermath of a new law adopted in December 2024 that allows mining back into the country, omits environmental impact assessments, lacks transparent information on mining activities, and does not require consultation and consent of the communities that will be impacted.

Responding to the news from outside the courthouse, the International Allies against Mining in El Salvador, which led the organizational sign-on letter effort, said, “While we are surprised by the news, we understand the water defenders’ decision, given that risks they faced going into this sham trial were tremendous. Despite having already proven their innocence in court, they could have been immediately imprisoned for a crime they didn’t commit and once again been denied access to due process. Given their advanced age and serious health conditions, being jailed again would be tantamount to a death sentence. These five are not just water defenders; they are justice defenders.”

Salvadoran human rights organizations have documented the deaths of over 300 people in custody since Bukele suspended constitutional rights and due process under a “state of exception” that has been renewed monthly since March 2022.

As the water defenders made clear in their open letter that was read to the crowd that had rallied outside the courthouse yesterday morning, “Since the beginning of this political persecution against us, more than two years ago, we warned that the real reason [behind the detentions] was the intention to reactivate metallic mining. The presidential announcement to repeal the law prohibiting mining in the country a few days after the ruling which released us leaves no doubt that extractive interests are behind this criminalization against us … Our real crime is to oppose the pollution and environmental destruction of mining projects that threaten the water, health and life of the population of the department of Cabañas and our entire country.”

In a January press conference, a spokesperson from the Economic and Social Development Association of Santa Marta, denounced that members of nearby communities have reported an increased military presence in the areas previously identified by mining interests.

“We are extremely concerned for the ongoing safety not only of the Santa Marta 5 but for all the communities on the frontlines of protecting El Salvador’s fragile waterways,” said John Cavanagh of the Institute for Policy Studies. “We call on the Salvadoran government not to retaliate against the community of Santa Marta in any way for the decision made by the five to protect their own lives, and we issue a call to the international community and governments around the world to be alert and attentive to the safety of the communities in this area in the days, weeks and months to come.”

Press contacts:

• John Cavanagh, Institute for Policy Studies (IPS), co-author (with Robin Broad) of The Water Defenders: How Ordinary People Saved a Country from Corporate Greed, (202) 297-4823, johnc@ips-dc.org
• Pedro Cabezas, Central American Alliance on Mining (ACAFREMIN), (503) 7498-4423, stopesmining@gmail.com
• Christie Neufeldt, The United Church of Canada, cneufeldt@united-church.ca
• Aideé Irina Tassinari Azcuaga, Universidad Autónoma de la Ciudad de México, aidee.tassinari@uacm.edu.mx