IRTF News

Tens of thousands of Salvadorans have been jailed since President Nayib Bukele declared a State of Exception in March 2022, suspending several constitutional rights in the name of getting tough on violent crime. We wrote to the attorney general of El Salvador about the arbitrary detentions of innocent people, representing serious violations of due process. We have read reports of people captured without any proof of their ties to criminal gangs and who in some cases have been recaptured.  Criminal law specialists in El Salvador have criticized these irregularities. They affirm that if a person has been released because it is determined that he or she does not incur criminal responsibility, and is captured on a second occasion for the same crime, that is an illegal detention. 

We are urging that officials in El Salvador work to end the arbitrariness of the system, exhibited by the recapture of Salvadorans who were already released due to lack of evidence connecting them to criminal activity.  Without guarantees of due process, all Salvadorans lose.

We have been following the developments regarding the El Fénix nickel mine in El Estor, Izabal Department, and the resistance to the nickel mine since 2009. The mining operations are damaging the environment in El Estor by contaminating Lake Izabal and other local water sources, threatening fishers’ source of income. Local communities (more than 90% of El Estor’s 82,500 inhabitants are indigenous Maya Q’eqchi’) have become victims of land grabbing, arson, and repression.

We are glad to learn that on December 15, 2023, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruled that the government of Guatemala is responsible for human rights violations against the Indigenous Maya community that opposes the mine. The court found that various acts of aggression and violence have included attacks on life and harassment and threats to members of the community. We wrote to the Ministry of Energy and Mines of Guatemala and requested a statement from the government about their plans to adopt various reparation measures as ordered by the court.

Because of confrontations between armed groups in their territory, the Awá Indigenous community of Telembí in Nariño Department has been victim of confinement over recent months. Armed actors restrict their movement. There is a high risk to residents trying to leave their reservations to seek safety. Anti-personnel mines have been placed on ancestral roads. Authorities are prevented from attending meetings, even those called by state institutions. There is tension, worry, and a sense of danger.

On December 7, 2023, a pamphlet was left at the home of the Awá Indigenous Governor of Telembí, Alberto Nastacuas. The threat declared him a military objective and ordered him to leave the territory.

Robert Fernández was an active leader in the Campesino Workers Association of Cajibío, a municipality in Cauca Department. He was working on behalf of local campesino families who were awaiting the distribution of formerly private tracts of farm land from a large private farm that was being titled to them through the government’s National Land Agency (ANT). He was a well-respected leader with a multitude of affiliations. He was a member of the local Community Action Board, National Association of Campesino Reserve Zones (ANZORC), Process of Popular Unity of the SW of Colombia (PUPSOC), and the Social and Political Coordinating Body of the Patriotic March.

When Robert Fernández arrived home from work on December 11, 2023, he went outside to feed some chickens. From the house, his wife heard a motorcycle arrive. Then she heard an unknown man yell to Robert. Then she heard two gunshots. Running outside, his wife saw the hitman climb onto a black motorcycle and sped away. Her husband lay dead with two gunshots to the head.

La Guajira is home to many Wayúu communities, the largest Indigenous community in Colombia. It is also the department with the highest prevalence of food insecurity. “El Niño” weather patterns have been causing droughts and heatwaves, affecting yields of food staples such as rice and corn. Exacerbating the situation is migration from Venezuela and the presence of armed groups, which, according to the Office of the Human Rights Ombudsman, creates the potential for massive displacements related to territorial disputes. 

President Petro signed a State of Emergency (Decree 1085) on July 2, 2023, giving the Executive Branch broad powers to address the humanitarian crisis. But the Constitutional Court on October 2, 2023, declared the State of Emergency. “inapplicable.”  It ruled instead that the court would do an individual analysis of each of the thirteen decrees that were part of the State of Emergency. It is disheartening that the CC has already repealed ten such initiatives, and more rulings are pending.