An El Salvador court has acquitted five community leaders and antimining activists from Santa Marta, a municipality in the southeastern department of Usulután, of charges tied to a 1989 kidnapping and murder during the country’s civil war.
Human rights groups have called the prosecution politically motivated, suggesting it was brought against the activists in retaliation for their opposition to mining projects and water contamination.
The five men, known as Los 5 de Santa Marta (the Santa Marta Five) are Miguel Ángel Gámez, Alejandro Laínez García, Pedro Antonio Rivas Laínez, Antonio Pacheco and Saúl Agustín Rivas Ortega.
They were arrested in January 2023 and initially acquitted in October of the same year. However, prosecutors appealed and forced a retrial. They also added three additional men to the case: Fidel Dolores Recinos Alas, José Eduardo Sancho Castañeda and Arturo Serrano Ascencio. Prosecutors sought prison sentences of 39 to 41 years. On Sept. 24 this year, the judges again found all the men not guilty.
“Today, justice has prevailed, legality has prevailed, and we have won this trial for the second time,” Pedro Cruz, the lead lawyer for the defense team, told local media on Sept. 24. “What is clear is that the defendants are innocent, that we have always been right in saying that the evidence was insufficient, that the incriminating evidence is irrelevant.”
The Santa Marta Five, as well as the three other men included in the case, were cleared of the criminal charges of illicit association, as well as the murder and kidnapping of María Inés Alvarenga. Alvarenga’s children attest that she was kidnapped, beaten and killed in August 1989 for refusing to attend a guerrilla meeting and being a suspected informant for forces under the U.S.-backed military government that ruled El Salvador at the time.
The defense argued there was insufficient evidence connecting any of the accused to the crime, adding the case relied almost entirely on an anonymous eyewitness. They also cited the National Reconciliation Law of 1992, which pardons political crimes from the civil war period.
Judges determined that for four of the accused, the case could continue in civil court, meaning they could still face liability for damages despite being acquitted of criminal charges.
The nonprofit Association for Economic and Social Development of Santa Marta (ADES), which the five men were associated with in their antimining work, called the case “a judicial farce” aimed at criminalizing environmental activism.
Prosecutors have not confirmed whether they will close the case or file a new appeal to the Supreme Court.
“The struggle is far from over,” Pedro Cabezas, coordinator of the Central American Alliance on Mining, said in a statement. “It may take years before the Santa Marta Five are declared fully innocent.”
Banner image: The Santa Marta Five. Image courtesy of Lisbeth Ayala.
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