source: CISPES
In an early dawn raid on January 11, 2023, police arrested Antonio Pacheco, Saúl Agustín Rivas, Alejandro Laínez, Miguel Ángel Gámez, Pedro Antonio Rivas y Fidel Recinos for an alleged murder dating back to 1989 disappearance of Maria Inés AIvarenga. They were jailed for over eight months before being released to house arrest due to risk to their health. When the trial finally occurred in October 2024, the tribunal absolved the Santa Marta 5, finding that there was “no crime to pursue.”
However, the Attorney General’s office moved quickly to appeal, and, despite no new evidence having been presented, the process was scheduled to begin again in a new jurisdiction. Environmental organizations and international allies sounded the alarm that the goal of the continued persecution was to continue intimidating organized communities like Santa Marta that are once again on the forefront of the battle to save El Salvador’s water; Nayib Bukele overturned the historic mining ban in December 2024 despite broad popular opposition to mining. After multiple delays, including a successful petition by the defense to remove a judge who was a former member of the National Guard, the trial has resumed in what has become an increasingly repressive political climate against organized communities, attorneys and human rights defenders.
In their statement prior to the start of the trial, community leaders from Santa Marta and diverse organizations in El Salvador expressed their hope that the new judge would “act in accordance with the law, rule on the basis of legality, and ensure justice by absolving the environmental activists. We call for this due to a fundamental reason: there is no actual proof that the alleged crimes were committed in the first place, let alone their participation in them.” (Read a translation in English here)
The community noted that the Attorney General’s case is “based on the contradictory testimony of a suspicious protected witness” who first claimed to have been an eyewitness but later admitted he had only been told what allegedly happened. Though the charges include murder, the body of the victim was never found, despite an intensive search by the Attorney General’s office in July 2023.
For more details on the case, please see the Institute for Policy Studies report State of Deception in English and Spanish.
Since the start of the Attorney General’s persecution against the Santa Marta 5, legal experts have expressed concern that the state’s prosecution violates the 1992 National Reconciliation Law, which provided limited amnesty to former combatants with the revolutionary Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front in order to facilitate their transition into civilian life. The law, which does not apply to war crimes or crimes against humanity, was a pillar of the United Nations-negotiated peace process that ended the twelve-year civil war (1980-1992).
At the conclusion of the first day of the trial, defense attorney Pedro Cruz said the defense was prepared to show that - despite the Attorney General’s accusation - there was no pattern of human rights violations committed that would constitute a crime against humanity, let alone the involvement of the defendants.
A witness for the defense, former electoral magistrate Eugenio Chicas, is expected to testify once again in the retrial. However, in February 2025, Chicas was arrested on charges of illicit enrichment; organizations in El Salvador denounced the arrest as politically motivated. According to Salvadoran press, prison authorities blocked his in-person appearance in court, stating that he is now also under investigation for organized crime, and that he would appear virtually.
The trial is scheduled to continue on Thursday, July 31, with both parties expected to present their closing arguments.
For news as the trial unfolds, please follow: ACAFREMIN, Comunidad Santa Marta and the Foro Nacional de Salud
additional article:
El Salvador Retries Environmentalists Over 1989 Wartime Killing
Tico Times. July 28, 2025
A new trial against five Salvadoran environmentalists, accused of murdering a woman in 1989 during the civil war, will take place on Tuesday, announced the NGO they belong to, denouncing the case as a form of “persecution” for their anti-mining activism.
The environmentalists, who were guerrilla fighters at the time of the crime, were acquitted on October 18 along with three other former rebels also accused of the murder. However, a higher court overturned the ruling and ordered a retrial.
Prosecutors accuse the eight of killing María Inés Alvarenga in August 1989 in the town of Santa Marta, allegedly because they believed she was an “army informant.”
“The case is criminalization and persecution of environmental activism (…) they are key figures in the community resistance against metal mining,” said Alfredo Leiva, a board member of the Santa Marta Association for Economic and Social Development (ADES), during a press conference.
The five environmentalists helped push through the 2017 ban on mining, which was repealed last December by the pro-government Congress at the request of El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, who supports gold mining operations.
The hearings, scheduled to last three days at the Judicial Center in the capital San Salvador, will be held in absentia as the whereabouts of the eight former guerrillas are unknown.
The accused who became environmentalists after the civil war (1980–1992) are Teodoro Pacheco, Saúl Rivas, Alejandro Laínez, Miguel Gámez, and Pedro Rivas. “The only ‘crime’ these environmentalists committed is defending water, the environment, health, and the lives of present and future generations, which are now seriously threatened by the revival of metal mining,” said Leiva.
The other three accused are former commander Fidel Recinos and fellow ex-guerrillas José Sancho and Arturo Serrano, members of the leftist Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN).
Leiva stated that “there is no evidence” against the environmental leaders and that the prosecution’s case relies on a “contradictory account” from a suspect who is a “protected witness.” El Salvador’s civil war ended in 1992 with the signing of peace accords. The conflict left 75,000 dead and more than 7,000 missing.
In 1993, Congress approved an amnesty law that pardoned wartime crimes, but in 2016 the Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional.
