Written by SHARE's Advisory Board Alejandro Artiga-Purcell in collaboration with IPS and allies.

Dear colleagues, 
 
Please consider signing on to an open letter to the Attorney General of El Salvador to express concern about criminal charges that have been brought against five water defenders from the rural community of Santa Marta in Cabañas, El Salvador. Several academics from the United States and Canada joined a fact-finding mission in October 2023 to gather first-hand testimony regarding this case and to investigate the broader context regarding due process and human rights in El Salvador, systematic violations of which have been condemned by major international institutions such as the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights, Amnesty International and others. 
 
As a result of that mission, we are circulating an open letter to the Attorney General of El Salvador and encouraging fellow academics (PhDs, PhD students), and lawyers, including law students, to sign on. Legal, academic, and professional organizations are welcome to sign on as well. Read the full text of the letter here.
 
Click here to sign on by January 2, 2024.
 
Beyond urgent concern that these prominent anti-mining activists are being targeted to pave the way for a return to metallic mining, despite historic legislation passed in 2017 that made El Salvador the first country in the world to ban metallic mining, the case jeopardizes fundamental pillars of the 1992 Peace Accords that ended El Salvador’s twelve-year armed conflict. 
 
The criminal charges being levied against the Santa Marta 5, in addition to being entirely without evidence, are not permitted under the National Reconciliation Law, which provided amnesty for combatants, though, notably, not for those who committed war crimes or crimes against humanity. The Attorney General’s continued prosecution of this case warps important post-war frameworks to promote truth and justice in service of what appear to be politically motivated aims.
 
Please read more in the attached brief (prepared in April 2023, prior to their transfer to house arrest in September 2023 on medical grounds) 
 
While Members of Congress and international organizations have previously raised these concerns and called for the charges to be dropped, the perspective of experts like academics and lawyers is essential to raising the visibility of this case, not only for the potential injustice it represents to the water defenders, their families, and their community but also the fundamental blow it could deal to the upholding of Salvadoran law and the disastrous consequences for the pursuit of justice that could follow. 

Please sign on here by January 2, 2024 so the letter can be delivered and publicized January 5, 2024.
 
With questions, please contact: [email protected]

Estimades colegas,
 
Por favor, considere la posibilidad de firmar una carta abierta al Fiscal General de El Salvador para expresar su preocupación por los cargos penales que se han presentado contra cinco defensores del agua de la comunidad rural de Santa Marta en Cabañas, El Salvador. Varios académicos de Estados Unidos y Canadá se unieron a una misión de investigación en octubre de 2023 para escuchar testimonios de primera mano sobre este caso e investigar el contexto más amplio con respeto al debido proceso y los derechos humanos en El Salvador, cuyas violaciones sistemáticas han sido condenadas por importantes instituciones internacionales como la Oficina del Alto Comisionado de las Naciones Unidas para los Derechos Humanos, Amnistía Internacional y otras.
 
Como resultado de esa misión, estamos circulando una carta abierta al Fiscal General de El Salvador y animando a colegas académicos (doctores y estudiantes de doctorado), y abogados, incluyendo estudiantes de derecho, a firmarla. Organizaciones legales, académicas y profesionales son bienvenidas a firmar también. Lea el texto completo de la carta aquí.
 
Haga clic aquí para firmar antes del 2 de enero de 2024.
 
Más allá de la preocupación urgente de que estos prominentes activistas contra la minería estén siendo atacados para allanar el camino para el regreso de la minería metálica, a pesar de la histórica legislación aprobada en 2017 que convirtió a El Salvador en el primer país del mundo en prohibir la minería metálica, el caso pone en peligro pilares fundamentales de los Acuerdos de Paz de 1992 que pusieron fin al conflicto armado en El Salvador que duraba doce años.
 
Los cargos penales que se imputan a los 5 de Santa Marta, además de carecer por completo de pruebas, no están permitidos por la Ley de Reconciliación Nacional, que prevé la amnistía para los combatientes, aunque no para los que cometieron crímenes de guerra o crímenes de lesa humanidad. El procesamiento continuado de este caso por parte del Fiscal General distorsiona importantes marcos legales de posguerra para promover la verdad y la justicia al servicio de lo que parecen ser motivos políticos.
 
Lea más en el escrito adjunto (preparado en abril de 2023, antes de su traslado a arresto domiciliario en septiembre de 2023 por preocupación por su salud)
 
Aunque miembros del Congreso EUA y organizaciones internacionales han planteado previamente estas preocupaciones y han pedido que se retiren los cargos, la perspectiva de expertos como académicos y abogados es esencial para aumentar la visibilidad de este caso, no sólo por la injusticia potencial que representa para los defensores del agua, sus familias y su comunidad, sino también por el golpe fundamental que daría en contra la defensa de  la ley salvadoreña y las consecuencias desastrosas para la búsqueda de justicia que podrían seguir.
 
Por favor, firme aquí antes del 2 de enero de 2024 para que la carta pueda ser entregada y publicada el 5 de enero de 2024.
 
Si tiene preguntas, póngase en contacto con: [email protected]

San Francisco, CA - On December 2, 1980, forty-three years ago, 4 US-church women were abducted, raped and assassinated at point blank by Salvadoran soldiers and buried in a shallow grave in San Luis Talpas in the Department of la Libertad not far from the Salvadoran International airport.

Our sisters -- Ita Ford, Dorothy Kazel, Maura Clarke, and lay woman Jean Donovan -- were missionaries accompanying the people – particularly the orphans, refugees and displaced -- of El Salvador as the ferocious 12-year civil war was breaking out, a war that claimed more than 75,000 lives and displaced millions more.

Their bodies were unearthed thanks to a courageous campesino as other Maryknoll sisters prayed alongside the gravesite while then US-Ambassador, Robert White looked on. The Ambassador had just celebrated Thanksgiving dinner with two of the church women, Jean and Dorothy. He subsequently lost his job for condemning the Salvadoran military’s role in the sisters’ murders, the coverup and U.S. complicity. He dedicated the rest of his life to human rights.

The women’s deaths shocked the world and galvanized a cry for an end to US military aid to a death-squad government, and the need to address the underlying causes of the conflict, including the structural violence of systemic and pervasive poverty and exclusion.

Much like the outbreak of violence today in the Middle East, the roots of war ran deep. It was the culmination of generations of struggle against persecution, land theft, discrimination, abject poverty, and a political and economic model of exclusion and domination. And it was executed in the geopolitical context of the Cold War.

Every December 2nd, the anniversary of our sisters’ deaths, we remember their lives, their love of the people, their simple acts of kindness and solidarity.

Some ask, “Why were they killed? What was their crime?” And what lessons can we draw as we face the suffering peoples of today? How might their witness call us to respond to the current context of suffering and war in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories?

The sisters were truth tellers.

They recognized the humanity and suffering of the Salvadoran people alongside their courage, beauty and determination to create the “beloved community” and to live with dignity.

They accompanied the poor, documenting the grinding poverty that the prevailing economic and political model reinforced. They bore witness to devastating war crimes, the overwhelming majority of which were perpetrated by the Salvadoran military and paid for with US tax dollars.

They provided a safe harbor for the children – the beautiful children, many of whom were orphaned and displaced – who had witnessed unthinkable crimes against humanity, against their parents and communities. They held them, laughed and cried with them, and sang songs with them. They took refuge in the beauty of nature, “roses in December,” the majestic mountains and florid landscapes, and the faith of the community. They shared the profound grief that comes with violence and loss and lifted up stories of hope.

In a letter written to a friend just two weeks before her death, Jean Donovan shared “Several times I have decided to leave El Salvador. I could almost, except for the children, the poor, bruised victims of this insanity. Who would care for them? Whose heart could be so staunch as to favor the reasonable thing in a sea of their tears and helplessness? Not mine, dear friend, not mine.”

The sisters contradicted the official narrative of the US Administration.

They exposed government-sponsored repression sweeping the country – a violence that targeted students, labor leaders, church leaders, Christian community members and the rural poor. In 1980, in a country of less than 5 million people, 1,000 people were being killed a month. Hundreds of thousands were internally displaced and hundreds of thousands were forced into exile.

They challenged US policy, echoing Archbishop Oscar Romero’s appeal to the US to stop US military aid, to end the repression and to seek a negotiated political solution. The Archbishop would later be slain while saying Mass just months before the sisters’ lives were cut short.

The Reagan Administration blamed them for their own deaths. U.S. National Security Advisor Jean Kirkpatrick declared, “The nuns were not just nuns. The nuns were also political activists.” And U.S. Secretary of State Alexander Haig sought to justify their deaths by saying, “Perhaps they ran a roadblock,” as if there is any justification for rape and murder.

Their witness reverberates today, as we witness the horrific events of October 7th, including the brutal attack by Hamas on Israeli civilians, the unfolding genocide in Gaza, and the precipitous rise in antisemitism and islamophobia across the globe.

Like our sisters, we are called to listen to and accompany our sisters and brothers in the birthplace of Jesus, to share in their grief and their hope.

I believe they would join Pope Francis and the United Nations in calling for an immediate ceasefire and an end to siege, the provision of humanitarian aid, the release of all prisoners and hostages, and the pursuit of a political solution to the generations-old conflict.

I believe they would challenge us to summon the courage and the moral imagination to join with our sisters and brothers in Israel and Palestine to birth an alternative to war and occupation; to recognize that the security of the Israeli people is inextricably intertwined with the security of the Palestinian people.

I believe they would invite us to dare to recognize our shared humanity, our shared grief, and our hopes and aspirations.

I believe they would commit to repairing the breach, and to work toward reconciliation and a life grounded in equality, dignity and joy.

Jesuit theologian Jon Sobrino – in the aftermath of the 1989 brutal assassination of his 6 Jesuit brothers, Elba and her teenage daughter Celina by elite forces of the US-trained Salvadoran Atlacatl Brigade – preached that our task is straight forward: we must stay close to the people – especially the suffering and oppressed; fight to change the structures and policies oppressing them; repair the divide (reparations), and most importantly, we must keep singing.

As Ita, Maura, Dorothy and Jean so eloquently showed us, this is what Yahweh requires of us:

For more information about the SHARE Foundation and the 4 US Church Women, visit the SHARE Roses in December museum

To join the December 2nd, 2025 Organizing Committee
contact [email protected]
Phone 510 8488487