Anti-Militarism: News & Updates

In the highlands of Izabal Department, the courts are siding with influential landowners who are contesting  ancestral claims of Indigenous Maya Q’eqchi’ communities. (It is also worth noting, as we did in our letter to authorities on April 14, 2025, that many of these same communities that are involved in land disputes are also resisting the expansion of large-scale metallic mining.)

For three days in a row (March 5-7), the National Civilian Police (PNC) fired gunshots in the Maya Q'eqchi' community of Río Tebernal, Livingston municipality. They forcibly removed a few dozen families from their homes.  The living conditions of the families post-eviction are dire. Between March 18 and April 7, observers from a Costa Rican human rights commission documented lack of food, drinking water, electricity, healthcare, and children’s education.

Authorities are also criminalizing land defenders. On March 15, Luis Xol Caal, a leader from the Q’eqchi’ community of Chaab’il Ch’och’ (also in Livingston municipality), was arrested by the National Civil Police (PNC) on false charges of aggravated usurpation, threats, and illegal detention. Luis Xol Caal, a member of the Campesino Committee of the Highlands (CCDA), was detained despite the fact that the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) had previously granted precautionary measures to his community, which is situated near the Chocón Machacas nature reserve and with access to the Caribbean Sea. In 2018, community residents testified before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights that the private individuals who are claiming land ownership had been using their land for drug trafficking.

We are urging that authorities end the practice of enforced eviction while land rights are still being disputed in the court system. We also urge that they end the criminalization of land defenders.

The government is falsely criminalizing those whose work is to expose and challenge abuses by the state. It’s a blatant attempt to silence them.

The Courts Against Organized Crime are, according to the government, reserved for gang members. Yet the charges of agrupaciones ilícitas  (illicit groupings) brought forth against human rights attorneys Ivania Cruz and Rudy Joya by the Attorney General's Office (FGR) and the National Civilian Police (PNC) place them in this court, where they are scheduled to appear on May 5. Their criminal proceedings jeopardize the right to legal defense of the inhabitants of La Floresta. As we wrote in our RRN letter of 13 APR 2025, 24 community leaders from La Floresta have been falsely charged them with usurpation of property, irregular marketing of subdivision parcels, illegal restriction of movement, and aggravated threats connected with illegal criminal groups (i.e., gangs). Also arrested and imprisoned is Fidel Zavala, spokesperson for UNIDEHC (Human and Community Rights Defense Unit of El Salvador), which is supporting La Floresta.

We are urging that the government: 1) release Fidel Zavala from detention and drop all spurious charges against the residents of La Floresta and members of UNHIDEC, including attorneys Ivania Cruz and Rudy Joya; 2) uphold the right to due process and defense for all of those being criminally charged; 3) respect the right to free association as stated in Article 7 of the Salvadoran constitution; 4) stop the misuse of criminal law to persecute political, social and community leaders who engage in the legitimate defense of human rights

Since the implementation of the State of Exception in March 2022, authorities in El Salvador have adopted measures that reflect a widespread pattern of state abuse, including thousands of arbitrary detentions, the systematic use of torture in detention centers, and hundreds of deaths in state custody. Community activists and other human rights defenders are being swept up in the dragnet of mass arrests.

The rural community of La Floresta (in San Juan Opico municipality, La Libertad Department), has been facing eviction threats that could displace over a hundred families, many of whom have lived in the area for more than a decade. UNIDEHC (Unity of Defense for Human and Community Rights) has been providing legal support to the community in its struggle for land rights. In February, the National Civilian Police (PNC) arrested La Floresta community leaders Medardo Rodríguez and Alejandra Cañas. Two weeks later, they arrested José Alberto Pérez Ramírez and María Margarita Flamenco, two members of the community steering council. More than 20 residents of La Floresta have now been arrested and falsely charged with land ursurpation. Police also raided the home of the UNIDEHC director and the organization’s headquarters, arresting its spokesperson Fidel Zavala.

After starting judicial proceedings against Fidel Zavala and the others in March, he was transferred to the notorious Mariona Prison in early April. This is of particular concern because Fidel Zavala has previously denounced torture or other ill-treatment in penitentiary centers, including the abusive treatment of detainees by prison guards at Mariona. We are deeply concerned for his physical and mental well-being. We demand that he be immediately released.

After the Peace Accords were signed between the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) and the national government, some factions of the FARC (“dissidents”) broke off into other armed bands, rejecting the peace deal. They continue to manipulate vulnerable communities for armed political objectives, endangering civilians in ways that violate international humanitarian law.

In several rural zones of Cauca Department, the Residual Armed Organized Group (GAOr) Carlos Patiño (FARC dissidents) are deeply involved in drug trafficking, extortion, and environmental destruction, particularly in the Micay River basin. Last month, because of the presence of the National Army in Argelia municipality, a commander of the the GAOr threatened the local campesinos if they did not work with the GAOr to violently expel the soldiers. In a radio communication, he said: “…gather everyone around, and if anyone doesn't want to leave, shoot them and they'll be hidden from the military.” If the civilians did not join the GAOr in setting fire to Army armored vehicles, he further threatened to halt the purchase of coca leaves from the campesinos—whose livelihoods depend heavily on coca cultivation—if they did not violently confront the military presence in the region.

This manipulation of vulnerable communities for armed political objectives is unacceptable. We are urging that government authorities consult with local civilian leaders to create protection schemes to ensure that they are not subjected to collective punishment, manipulation, or coercion by any armed actors. We additionally urge that the government strengthen civilian institutions and implement lasting, community-centered alternatives to coca cultivation in the region.

Indigenous Women for the Conservation, Research, and Use of Natural Resources

Danger to social leaders is real in Oaxaca, the state with the fifth highest number of attacks on human rights defenders and journalists. Sandra Domínguez, an Indigenous Zapotec activist who had denounced Oaxacan government leaders, was disappeared a few months ago.

On February 27, while she was away at an intergenerational human rights workshop, the home of Zapotec defender Silvia Pérez Yescas was burgaled and her computer equipment stolen.  She had already been forcibly displaced from her home for more than a year because she fears physical assault should she return. As the founder of Indigenous Women for the Conservation, Research, and Use of Natural Resources (CIARENA, AC), she and others with CIARENA decided to close the office temporarily out of safety concerns.

We are urging that top officials in Oaxaca request that the National Mechanism for Women Human Rights Defenders strengthen protection measures and guarantee the safety of the members of CIARENA.