Sr. Rodolfo Antonio Delgado Montes
Fiscal General de la República (FGR)
Calle Cortéz Blanco Poniente No. 20,
Edificio Farmavida, Urb. Madre Selva 3
Antiguo Cuscatlán
San Salvador, El Salvador
April 23, 2024
Dear Attorney General:
We are concerned that the State of Exception is weakening democratic institutions and that the criminal justice system is being used to prosecute innocent people. We are particularly disturbed about the number of human rights defenders who have been detained—some released, many not. Media reporters have also been unjustly detained, along with environmental defenders, trade unionists, and others. According to human rights organizations Humanitarian Legal Aid (El Socorro Jurídico Humanitario) and the Network of Women Rights Defenders (la Red de Defensoras de Derechos), around 34 human rights defenders remain imprisoned.
Sabino Antonio Ramos, age 71, began working for the city administration of Panchimalco, San Salvador Department, in 2014. As he was entering work on April 28, 2022, police detained him, although he has no criminal record. His family is unaware where he is currently detained, or whether he is still alive.
Misael Itamir Gómez is a trade unionist from Ciudad Delgado, San Salvador Department. He was arrested on June 8, 2022 after showing solidarity with a protest by the San Martín union.
Giovanni Aguirre López is a union member who works in the San Salvador mayor's office. He was arrested on May 8, 2022, later released, then re-detained on May 1, 2023—only to be released again in June 2023.
Many human rights organizations denounced the arrest of Verónica Delgado on March 11. Active in the organization Missing Persons Search Block (Bloque de Búsqueda de Personas Desaparecidas), she has been searching for her daughter Paola Jimena Arana, who has been missing since May 26, 2022. Verónica Delgado was released from detention on April 3, 2024.
Some have died while in detention. Franklin Gabriel Izaguirre was employed at the City Hall of Soyapango, San Salvador Department, and was a member of SITMUSOY (Municipal Workers Trade Union). Detained in June 2022, he passed away while still in detention on September 29, 2023. Detained in April 2022, José Leonidas Bonilla, a union member working at the Mayor's Office of Mejicanos (a municipal zone of San Salvador), died on September 3, 2022 after suffering health complications due to lack of timely medical treatment for his high blood pressure.
We strongly urge that you work to end the arbitrariness of the system and expedite judicial processes for those detained. To effectively address the problem of insecurity, there must be criminal processes and sanctions that guarantee due process under the law. Without guarantees of due process, all Salvadorans lose.
Sincerely,
Brian J. Stefan Szittai and Christine Stonebraker-Martínez
Co-Coordinators
copies:
Sr. Presidente Nayib Bukele, Presidente de la República ~ via email and US mail
Licda. Raquel Cabellero de Guevara,, Procuradora para la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos/ Human Rights Ombudsman of El Salvador ~ via email
Carmen Milena Mayorga de Monterrosa, Ambassador of El Salvador in Washington, DC ~ via email & US mail
Carlos Bernal Pulido, Rapporteur for El Salvador, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights ~ via email & US mail
William H Duncan, Ambassador of the US in San Salvador ~ via email & US mail
US State Department: El Salvador Desk ~ via email
US Senators Brown & Vance ~ via email
US Representatives Beatty, Brown, Johnson, Jordan, Joyce, Kaptur, Latta, Miller, Sykes ~ via email
17 MAR 2024_LaPrensaGráfica _El Salvador
