New Report from Leading Research and Civil Society Organizations Reveals New Information on the Arrests of Water Defende

[Judi Lynn]

New Report from Leading Research and Civil Society Organizations Reveals New Information on the Arrests of Water Defenders and the State of Human Rights in El Salvador under the Bukele Administration

The new report highlights the full extent of human rights abuses under the Bukele administration, as well as evidence that the Bukele administration would like to bring back mining.

January 11, 2024
John Cavanagh, Pedro Cabezas, Olivia Alperstein

San Salvador and Washington, D.C. – On January 11, the Central American Alliance on Mining (ACAFREMIN), the Institute for Policy Studies, MiningWatch Canada, Pax Christi International, the Public Service Alliance of Canada, the SHARE Foundation, the United Church of Canada, and the Washington Ethical Society co-released a new fact-finding report on the “State of Deception/ Estado de Decepción” in El Salvador . The report draws on interviews and careful analysis of evidence and materials from a fact-finding delegation to El Salvador sponsored by the Institute for Policy Studies and the SHARE Foundation that took place October 15-20, 2023.

The report comes a month before the critical general elections in El Salvador on February 4, 2024, when voters will elect the president, vice president and all 60 deputies of the Legislative Assembly, all of whom will set major policy decisions for the next five years and thus have a critical impact on the state of the economy and the state of democracy in the country for many years to come.

The fact-finding report carefully examines the weak, politicized case against the five prominent water defenders known as the “Santa Marta 5,” and the politicized nature of the arrests of 17 prominent Salvadoran labor leaders. The report authors call on the government to drop all the charges against these community leaders and to release them, and call on other nations to hold the government accountable for these wrongful arrests and for human rights violations.

The new report also highlights the full extent of human rights abuses under the Bukele administration, as well as evidence that the Bukele administration would like to bring back mining, in part due to fallout from economic policy decisions such as overreliance on cryptocurrency.

This report was published a week after the January 4 release of a letter in Spanish and English co-signed by 185 respected academics and lawyers calling on the Bukele administration to drop all charges against and to immediately release the five prominent water defenders who were arrested exactly a year ago on January 11, 2023, and to release the 17 prominent labor leaders in El Salvador currently held on politically-motivated charges.

More:
https://ips-dc.org/new-report-from-leading-research-and-civil-society-organizations-reveals-new-information-on-the-arrests-of-water-defenders-and-the-state-of-human-rights-in-el-salvador-under-the-bukele-administration/