On Friday the Sentencing Tribunal of Sensuntepeque unanimously absolved five anti-mining leaders from Santa Marta, Cabañas, after 13 months under house arrest on now-dismissed charges of deprivation of liberty and murder of a woman in 1989, during the Salvadoran civil war. The men, Pedro Rivas, Antonio Pacheco, Alejandro Laínez, Saúl Rivas, and Miguel Gámez, former FMLN combatants and members of the Economic and Social Development Association (ADES) in Santa Marta, were released that same day.
ADES had denounced that the leaders’ arrest in September 2023 amounted to persecution of environmentalists warning of a possible reactivation of metallic mining in the country. The Association was involved since 2005 in efforts to secure the 2017 prohibition of mining across El Salvador. “Today more than ever, we need the organizations and social movement to stay united. If they detain someone in isolation, we don’t know what could happen,” said Rivas upon leaving the Sentencing Tribunal.