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El Salvador’s Attorney General’s Office to convict environmentalists

San Salvador, Feb 3 (Prensa Latina) The Attorney General's Office (FGR) of El Salvador will seek to convict a group of environmentalists acquitted by a court starting today, Monday, and until February 6th.

The group of environmentalists and social activists from Santa Marta, in the department of Cabañas, was acquitted by a Sentencing Court in Sensuntepeque, Cabañas, after a lengthy process in which prosecutors failed to obtain evidence to support the case.

After this and in response to an appeal by the FGR, a Criminal Court in Cojutepeque reversed the decision to acquit the eight defendants. “The resolution of what the Chamber says is that it proceeds to annul the sentence issued by the Sensuntepeque Sentencing Court because that court did not rule on the merits of the case, which is about the existence of the crime and the probable participation of the accused,” said defense attorney Pedro Cruz.

The file reached national relevance and crossed the country’s borders because the government is supposedly seeking a conviction to silence opposition to the reestablishment of metal mining in the country, a proposal launched by President Nayib Bukele and approved by Parliament.

According to the Cojutepeque Criminal Chamber, the trial must be repeated, but now it will be in the San Vicente Sentencing Court,

The Santa Marta Community maintains that its environmental leaders are innocent and that this is a political case. Regarding this process, the UN special rapporteur, Mary Lawlor, assured that it gained even more importance after eliminating the ban on metal mining in El Salvador at Bukele’s request. “We don’t trust what can happen,” said Peter Nataren, a member of Ades Santa Marta, who witnessed a 20-month judicial persecution against environmental activism.

Protests of “El Salvador is better without mining” are on the rise, while organized communities express their rejection of the new gold rush, according to a report in the newspaper Voces.

The environmentalists of Santa Marta, according to evidence presented by the defense, are persecuted for their defense of the environment and for becoming the flag of opposition to government plans.

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