International community calls for release of El Salvador antimining activists

[Judi Lynn]

by Maxwell Radwin on 2 August 2023

International community calls for release of El Salvador antimining activists
by Maxwell Radwin on 2 August 2023

Calls from the international community are growing for the release of five environmental activists fighting water pollution and mining in El Salvador who were arrested in January.

A lack of evidence behind the allegation that they were involved in a civil war-era kidnapping and murder has raised questions from U.S. officials and the U.N. about the legitimacy of the charges.

A group of 17 U.S. members of Congress is the latest to call for their release and a closer look at the steps the government is taking to renew a defunct mining sector.

The five “water defenders” say there’s insufficient evidence in the case and that they’re protected from prosecution by a post-war reconciliation law.


The arrest of five environmental activists fighting water pollution and mining in El Salvador is drawing international criticism following questionable developments in court proceedings that suggest the case against them is politically motivated.

The activists were arrested in January in connection to an alleged 1989 kidnapping and murder during the country’s civil war. But a lack of evidence in the case has led to calls for their release and a closer look at the steps the government is taking to renew a defunct mining sector.

“We are concerned these arrests are politically motivated and intended to silence the overwhelming opposition to mining in the country. We also have concerns that these men have been denied their basic right to due process,” 17 U.S. members of Congress said in a letter earlier this month.

Known locally as “water defenders,” the five men helped lead a campaign to ban metals mining in 2017 and protect El Salvador’s primary source of clean water, the Lempa River Basin. The countrywide ban was the first of its kind anywhere in the world and was celebrated as a landmark step for environmental policy.

More:
https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/international-community-calls-for-release-of-el-salvador-antimining-activists/