Salvadoran environmental defenders detained for decades-old crimes

Five prominent environmental defenders who played a crucial role in securing a historic mining ban in El Salvador have been detained accused of civil war era and gang-related crimes, in what rights groups fear is a ruse to restart mining.

The military is accused of dozens of human rights violations and crimes against humanity in Santa Marta, the community where the five detained defenders live and work, but no one has ever faced justice.

Hundreds of national and international activists and organisations have condemned the detention as politically motivated.

Rights groups fear that the community leaders, who are being held at a police station in the capital, San Salvador, could languish in overcrowded cells for months before formal charges are filed in court. The ongoing state of emergency has suspended a wide range of civil liberties and led to widespread arbitrary detentions and other abuses, according to United Nations experts.

Environmental organisations fear that the arrests were a calculated attempt to destabilise community opposition as the economically stressed government seeks to overturn the mining ban.

Bukele is under enormous pressure to find new revenue streams after his ill-advised embrace of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin failed spectacularly.

In recent months, local officials in Cabañas have reportedly been approached about mining projects, while unknown individuals have offered to buy land where former mines are located.

Detainee Antonio Pacheco, director of the Association of Economic and Social Development (Ades) and former guerrilla leader, had alerted officials and organizations about these suspicious activities.