"Five community leaders and environmental rights defenders of the Santa Marta community under house arrest", 01 August 2024

...On 2 July 2024, the Court of Sensuntepeque notified human rights defenders Alejandro Laínez García, Miguel Ángel Gámez, Pedro Rivas Laínez, Antonio Pacheco and Saul Rivas Ortega that the public hearing was adjourned until 8 October 2024. The three leaders of the Santa Marta community and two representatives of ADES have been under house arrest since 5 September 2023, and were sent to trial on 10 April 2024 by the same court...

On 10 April 2024, the Court of Sensuntepeque sent the five defenders to trial based on unsubstantiated allegations linking them to a murder purportedly committed in 1989, during the Salvadoran civil war. The start of the public hearing was scheduled for July 2024, but on 2 July, the human rights defenders were notified that it was postponed until 8 October. Their legal defence has filed two appeals on the case that to this day have not been resolved.

The five human rights defenders have been under house arrest since September 2023...Chronic diseases they suffered before the detention worsened and they developed additional illnesses, affecting their physical and mental health. The families of the defenders have reported that the police has not complied with the judicial order to take the human rights defenders to their medical consultation when they require it...

The lack of answer over the appeals filed by the legal defence, as well as the lack of proper medical attention, affect the physical and phycological health of the human rights defenders. Front Line Defenders believes this constitutes a form of reprisal for their work of defence of the environment and community land, particularly the work they have done to tackle the negative effects of metallic mining in the country...