"Court issues arrest warrant against community leaders and environmental defenders of Santa Marta", 01 May 2025

...On 2 April 2025, the Sentencing Court of the District of San Vicente issued an arrest warrant against five community leaders and environmental defenders, Alejandro Laínez García, Miguel Ángel Gámez and Pedro Rivas Laínez, from the Santa Marta community, and Antonio Pacheco and Saúl Rivas Ortega, representatives of the Asociación de Desarrollo Económico Social “Santa Marta” (ADES).

On 11 February 2025, the same Court notified the five environmental defenders that the prosecutor’s office had requested an order for their arrest and for them to be declared as 'in absentia'. This was following the five environmental defenders stating that they will not appear in court due to the lack of guarantees of a fair and lawful trial. The prosecutor requested the arrest warrant due to the defenders' absence from their court hearing, scheduled on 3 February, which was consequently postponed to 9 April 2025 but was again suspended and rescheduled to 26 May 2025.

This new judicial process is taking place following a decision on 25 November 2024 by the Second Chamber of Justice of Cojutepeque to annul the Sentencing Court of Sensuntepeque's unanimous ruling on 18 October 2024 acquitting the community leaders. This acquittal released the defenders after twenty-two months of detention, thirteen of which were spent under house arrest.

This arrest warrant has been issued amid an increasingly deteriorating climate for environmental protection in El Salvador, coinciding with the approval of a law that allows the reactivation of metallic mining eight years after it's prohibition. The defenders were key actors in the movement advocating for the prohibition of metallic mining in the country, achieved in 2017 with the Law on the Prohibition of Metallic Mining. This milestone was later repealed in December 2024 by an initiative of the current presidential government.

Front Line Defenders condemns the decision of the Sentencing Court of the District of San Vicente to issue arrest warrants against the five community leaders and environmental defenders. The organisation is highly concerned by the continued criminalisation of the five defenders of Santa Marta despite their acquittal due to lack of evidence of a crime they did not commit. Front Line Defenders asserts that this criminalisation is a direct reprisal for their legitimate work in the defence of the environment and their involvement in the prohibition of metallic mining in the country.

Front Line Defenders calls on the authorities of El Salvador to respect international standards for the protection and recognition of the work of human rights defenders...