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By Lisa Sullivan  Morning arrived early at the beach town of el Cuco, and by 6 am, some of us were savoring a wonderful cup of coffee under palm trees in the hotel patio. Women from several distant communities were arriving, and we had the chance to chat over breakfast. I had the privilege of sitting with Elsie Oriana and heading her extraordinary history of serving as a front-line nurse with the Frente from the very young age of 13 until 18, after her entire community was forced into hiding. She never looked back on this commitment to community health, even after the war, and went to the university, get a degree in social work, and then continue health work with PROVIDA. After breakfast, we gathered with some 40 women from 6 different communities for the workshop titled Women Constructing Health with a Social Focus on Self-care. We started with a round of introductions followed by a moving testimony by Ruth, who had battled cancer with the support of women from PROVIDA, who accompanied her from diagnosis to treatment and provided emotional, practical, and economic support through her total recovery. Later we divided into pairs - one from the community and one from the delegation- to share messages and conversations, leading to a lovely sense of connection and comfort.
After taking leave of this wonderful group of women we traveled 4 hours through green mountains. cattle and corn fields, and winding rivers to Guajirla, Chalatenango where we were welcomed by the team from CCR. We had a delicious meal of pupusas. We had a rich interchange at my table with Miriam Alas and Francisco Mejia of the Community. They shared the amazing efforts to create a center for Memory and Reflection at the House of the Massacre - a place which holds the ruins of a massacre that took place in 1990, only months after they were relocated from the Mesa Grande refugee camp in Honduras. The Western University of Toronto is sponsoring this. Francisco and Miriam also shared about the very disconcerting situation of repression under the current regime. Nine young people were randomly selected to be taken to jail a year and a half ago, with no basis of any connections to the maras. Also, on March 24 of this year, some 500 soldiers suddenly appeared in their community, demanding to use community spaces to sleep and private homes to bathe and eat. They stayed for a week, interrogating and intimidating community members. They outnumbered this small community of only some 200 people. After another week they returned with the same intimidation and demands. The overall feeling in the community was that they were being warned and that their every move was being monitored by the regime to attempt to keep them in fear and conformity and not speak out.Paragraph. Haz clic aquí para editar. by Amy Argenal “Esta lucha no podemos hacer solos” |
| This July, I joined Share Foundation’s Planting Seeds of Hope delegation, along with 15 others from around the United States. We spent one-week visiting communities, cooperatives, and collectives that are working with rural communities to access health resources, like ProVida, access to land, and cooperative ways of being, like Confras, working with communities to preserve the historical memory and defend the land in communities that were heavily affected from the war and repopulated in the late 1980s, like CCR and ADES. On July 7th, one of the last days of the delegation, we left the beautiful, nourishing land of Chaletenango after spending three days with CCR, planting, making colorful pupusas, and learning of how a community provides and defends itself. It was another powerful visit of many on this trip. From Chale, we drove through curvy roads with amazing views of the countryside to Santa Marta, in the department of Cabañas, to meet with communities there fighting against mining, and the state of exception.Paragraph. Haz clic aquí para editar. |  |
Santa Marta, Cabañas, like Chaletenango, was a region heavily impacted by the years of conflict and many were forced to flee until the late 1980s, when the region was repopulated. Santa Marta was repopulated in 1987. Both regions received very little support to rebuild their communities from the government, and through their work supporting each other, and with international and faith based solidarity, were able to return home to create new lives. In Cabañas, this struggle for a life of dignity and freedom continues, as the community has been impacted by the possibility of mining companies, and the state of exception, which allows the police to arrest anyone and hold them indefinitely on the charges of terrorism, or being a gang member. Migration from the region has always been high, previously due to lack of job and educational opportunities, but more recently due to the fear that the state of exception has left with the youth. We learned previously in the delegation that there have been over 80,000 arrests under the state of exception, and 2300 of those are adolescents between the ages of 12 and 17 years old. Between March 2022 and June 2024, 304 people have died in police custody. CRISTOSAL has a new report out sharing the horrific impacts of the state of exception.
Our visit was with some of the men recently arrested for the role they played in the movement of the 80s, however, most believe that to be a farce, and recognize their arrest as an attempt to silence the community for their role in defending the land against mining.
Santa Marta has always been on the government's list of communities that will resist oppressive laws. It is a community with a deep legacy of resistance, but, with much cost to the community. Everyone in Santa Marta lost at least one family in the civil war. In 2014, in collaboration with UCA (University of Central America, El Salvador), Santa Marta held a people’s restorative tribunal where they charged the state responsible for five massacres, the largest being that of the Rio Lempa Massacre in 1981, where Salvadoran and Honduran troops opened fire on communities fleeing across the river into safety.
The state used this pretext to “investigate” the crimes, however, they then turned the information against the actual victims of these massacres to charge the Santa Marta 5 with crimes of illicit association and murder. On the 11th of January 2023, the police came in the middle of the night to arrest them. The five men spent eight months in various different prison cells in the country before being released to house arrest, which is how we were able to visit them. The conditions of the prisons are horrific, and even though the five men were technically not arrested under the state of exception, much of their treatment was very similar. Under the state of exception, families must pay to have their relatives receive food, but reports from inside show that if they receive it at all, it is a fraction of what the family sent. If you do not follow orders, you risk being beaten, and there is no access to any health care inside. Many of the men from Santa Marta are older and shared that if they had not been released to house arrest, they would have surely died inside. The state of their case is ongoing, and the community is expecting some sort of a trial in October 2024, however, all know that this trial is not at all about justice. It is about silencing a community with a long history of struggle in defending the land, and a continuous history of violent repression against them.
Our visit was with some of the men recently arrested for the role they played in the movement of the 80s, however, most believe that to be a farce, and recognize their arrest as an attempt to silence the community for their role in defending the land against mining.
Santa Marta has always been on the government's list of communities that will resist oppressive laws. It is a community with a deep legacy of resistance, but, with much cost to the community. Everyone in Santa Marta lost at least one family in the civil war. In 2014, in collaboration with UCA (University of Central America, El Salvador), Santa Marta held a people’s restorative tribunal where they charged the state responsible for five massacres, the largest being that of the Rio Lempa Massacre in 1981, where Salvadoran and Honduran troops opened fire on communities fleeing across the river into safety.
The state used this pretext to “investigate” the crimes, however, they then turned the information against the actual victims of these massacres to charge the Santa Marta 5 with crimes of illicit association and murder. On the 11th of January 2023, the police came in the middle of the night to arrest them. The five men spent eight months in various different prison cells in the country before being released to house arrest, which is how we were able to visit them. The conditions of the prisons are horrific, and even though the five men were technically not arrested under the state of exception, much of their treatment was very similar. Under the state of exception, families must pay to have their relatives receive food, but reports from inside show that if they receive it at all, it is a fraction of what the family sent. If you do not follow orders, you risk being beaten, and there is no access to any health care inside. Many of the men from Santa Marta are older and shared that if they had not been released to house arrest, they would have surely died inside. The state of their case is ongoing, and the community is expecting some sort of a trial in October 2024, however, all know that this trial is not at all about justice. It is about silencing a community with a long history of struggle in defending the land, and a continuous history of violent repression against them.
“We don’t know where one struggle ended and started the other.” -Community member in Santa Marta
In 2009, Marcelo Rivera was kidnapped, tortured, and murdered for his activism against the exploratory permits granted for mining in the region. There was no search when his family reported him captured, and with community support the family was able to discover his body at the bottom of a thirty-foot well. Five people were prosecuted for the murder of Marcelo but the masterminds were never brought to justice. One of the accused was a minor, who was later murdered while in prison.
In 2017, El Salvador, after years of struggle and a huge impact on human life, as demonstrated in the killing of Marcelo, banned all mineral mining, open-pit and underground. It was a huge victory for the communities, but one which has been short lived.
With the recent arrest of the Santa Marta 5, the community once again knows it is an attempt to silence them, as more and more gestures by the government appear to signal a move to allow mining to return to the region. In 2020, El Salvador joined a network of other countries that have mining industries called the Intergovernmental Forum on Mining, Minerals, Metals and Sustainable Development. In 2022, a parallel law was passed that allowed for special economic zones, “Zedes”, as they are known in Honduras. These zones allow a company to by-pass national legislation for the purpose of economic development. This law, if implemented in the region, could circumvent the ban on mining. During the fight to ban mining in the early 2000s, many scientific experts were brought in on behalf of the community to investigate what the harm would be, and it is well documented that mines completely destroy the livelihood of rural households. Multinational corporations are able to exploit the natural resources while receiving huge tax-breaks, and while they often offer cash payouts to mayors with the promises of jobs, schools, and hospitals, the long term destruction of the land can no way compare with the short lived promises of the mining companies.
There are key takeaways for all over the world from what is happening in Santa Marta. The first is that the struggle cannot be done alone. Honduras, Guatemala, Peru, Chile, the Congo, Nevada, US are all hot spots of mining. In Guapinol, Honduras, a place I know well, the community has been fighting for years against an open-pit iron-ore mine. It has cost them a great deal, including the murders of their family members and large-scale displacement. Studies there show that if the mine continues to operate at its potential, the risk of contamination could come all the way down to the Caribbean, including contaminating every single fresh water source in the Bajo Aguan. The same is true in El Salvador and Guatemala, where the impacts could be felt all the way down to the Pacific Ocean. The risks of mining, the polluting of the waters, the suctioning of waters from communities, removes their autonomy and possibility for a dignified life, and will continue to lead to migration.
As the communities of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras continue to support each other in their demands to end mining in the region, we in the Global North must do the same. From the Zero Blanca mine in Guatemala, to the Pinares/ Ecotek mine in Tocoa, to Mina Dorado in El Salvador, we must stand with our companeras to say “Fuera La Mineria”!
In 1987, when the community of Santa Marta began returning home, some asked why they were allowed to return. The soldiers told them, the world knows that Santa Marta exists. One community member shared that “it is hard for the government to continue to repress us when the world knows that we exist''. It is our call to be PRESENTE for Santa Marta and movements against mining in the region.
In 2017, El Salvador, after years of struggle and a huge impact on human life, as demonstrated in the killing of Marcelo, banned all mineral mining, open-pit and underground. It was a huge victory for the communities, but one which has been short lived.
With the recent arrest of the Santa Marta 5, the community once again knows it is an attempt to silence them, as more and more gestures by the government appear to signal a move to allow mining to return to the region. In 2020, El Salvador joined a network of other countries that have mining industries called the Intergovernmental Forum on Mining, Minerals, Metals and Sustainable Development. In 2022, a parallel law was passed that allowed for special economic zones, “Zedes”, as they are known in Honduras. These zones allow a company to by-pass national legislation for the purpose of economic development. This law, if implemented in the region, could circumvent the ban on mining. During the fight to ban mining in the early 2000s, many scientific experts were brought in on behalf of the community to investigate what the harm would be, and it is well documented that mines completely destroy the livelihood of rural households. Multinational corporations are able to exploit the natural resources while receiving huge tax-breaks, and while they often offer cash payouts to mayors with the promises of jobs, schools, and hospitals, the long term destruction of the land can no way compare with the short lived promises of the mining companies.
There are key takeaways for all over the world from what is happening in Santa Marta. The first is that the struggle cannot be done alone. Honduras, Guatemala, Peru, Chile, the Congo, Nevada, US are all hot spots of mining. In Guapinol, Honduras, a place I know well, the community has been fighting for years against an open-pit iron-ore mine. It has cost them a great deal, including the murders of their family members and large-scale displacement. Studies there show that if the mine continues to operate at its potential, the risk of contamination could come all the way down to the Caribbean, including contaminating every single fresh water source in the Bajo Aguan. The same is true in El Salvador and Guatemala, where the impacts could be felt all the way down to the Pacific Ocean. The risks of mining, the polluting of the waters, the suctioning of waters from communities, removes their autonomy and possibility for a dignified life, and will continue to lead to migration.
As the communities of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras continue to support each other in their demands to end mining in the region, we in the Global North must do the same. From the Zero Blanca mine in Guatemala, to the Pinares/ Ecotek mine in Tocoa, to Mina Dorado in El Salvador, we must stand with our companeras to say “Fuera La Mineria”!
In 1987, when the community of Santa Marta began returning home, some asked why they were allowed to return. The soldiers told them, the world knows that Santa Marta exists. One community member shared that “it is hard for the government to continue to repress us when the world knows that we exist''. It is our call to be PRESENTE for Santa Marta and movements against mining in the region.
Written by Amy Argenal, SHARE collaborator and assistant teaching professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz. This project was supported in part by a grant from the Institute for Social Transformation at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
by Gail Presbey
| Today was the first full day of the SHARE Seeds of Hope delegation. We got to meet each other at breakfast and during the day. I enjoyed learning about the work of Centro Romero in North Chicago, and meeting their staff, six of whom are on our delegation, including their Executive Director, Daysi Funes. For the morning session we were joined by several local agriculturalists who are community activists. There was our main speaker, Ricardo Ramirez (a Honduran who has lived in El Salvador now for a long time), and James who works with an organization, Fruit tree Planting Foundation (FTPF) in addition to his work protecting the urban forest in New York City. Ricardo and James work together on projects. They are both going to set up our tree planting experience in San Miguel on Tuesday. I also felt a special connection to Ricardo, because he explained that he knew Padre “Guadalupe” Carney, the martyred Jesuit who was “disappeared” in Honduras in 1983. I am the Director of the Carney Latin American Solidarity Archive (CLASA) at University of Detroit Mercy. When Ricardo heard that my university housed the papers of Fr. Carney, he shared that when he was younger and traveling through Nicaragua and Honduras, Fr. Carney had given his group hospitality for the night. He admired Fr. Carney as an advocate for the campesinos and part of the cooperative farming movement. I was glad that Ricardo and I could explore this connection between us. Ricardo told us that there are farming cooperatives throughout El Salvador in most departments. There’s also an Association made up of only women, with about 500 members. The cooperative movement wants to defend the people’s land from being confiscated. After all, they fought for their land, sacrificing their lives. Now it is in danger because some rich landowners with political connections are trying to take away the land of some large cooperatives. Other cooperatives are threatened by development projects that hope to popularize El Salvador as the new “Cancun,” displacing farmers. When our group members asked, just exactly how do these powerful persons take the land? – Ricardo explained that they do it through influencing the notaries and people who work with civil registries of land. Those persons could side against farmers, even if they have papers showing they own the land. |  Gail Presbey with Ricardo Ramirez |
James from Fruit Tree Planting Foundation (FTPF) Ricardo said right now there are about 450,000 campesinos who grow the corn, beans, and other staples eaten by 6 million El Salvadorans. 37% of the El Salvador population lives in rural areas. About 200,000 families who live by agricultural work don’t have their own land, they must rent land or work for landowners as laborers. This problem of the landless is something that Ricardo is very concerned about. He wants to ensure everyone has land. He is also an advocate of food sovereignty. The campesinos used to use their own seeds. Up to 2019 there were no genetically modified seeds used, but now the government is promoting such seeds. El Salvador only produces 55 percent of their corn, and 15 percent of their rice. (However, they grow 85 percent of their beans, because they don’t like the imported beans!) Seventy percent of their vegetables come from Guatemala. He is concerned that this dependence on food imports leaves El Salvador vulnerable. There is more security when a country produces its own food.
He is currently an advocate of planting trees, and thinks that a wide variety of trees will go a long way in feeding El Salvadorans. As James also chimed in, growing trees is easier than annual crops like corn that must be replanted anew each year. Instead, trees just grow bigger and bigger. Also, planting trees brings people together in community, to take care of the trees. FTPF and their partners have planted 80,000 trees in the U.S., Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, the U.K. and Uganda. James has worked with SHARE for ten years now.
I asked, how can they ensure the trees are maintained, since they need effort for several years before bearing fruit? Ricardo explained that trees have something to offer the community. The community is involved in deciding which trees they want to plant and where they should be planted. James also noted that sometimes one needs to promote public policy that will protect trees, to ensure that “development” projects don’t destroy trees. He told us about an unfortunate case in Brazil where the government decided to build a bridge that destroyed community trees. When he mentioned that example, it reminded me of a presentation I saw recently about the Israeli government destroying olive trees in Palestine. The very old and established olive trees survived in the climate of Palestine, but government policies and actions led to the death and destruction of many of these life-giving trees. I even remember the Olive Tree Circus (that performed at my university over ten years ago) doing a skit that approached with humor a very serious topic – how the wall that Israel built has in some cases separated Palestinian families from their trees, making it hard or impossible to maintain them and care for them. We really do need to defend trees which in turn help humans. And, as James said, we have to pay attention to the cultural importance of certain trees to communities as well as the issues of climate and context appropriateness of certain species of trees.
Farming trees has deep symbolic meaning in addition to practical meaning. Ricardo even quoted Silvio Rodriguez, the Cuban songwriter, who encouraged his listeners to write a book, or have kids, or plant a tree! The implication is that all of those actions are very forward looking. By investing in the future in actions like that, we show we have faith in the future.
He is currently an advocate of planting trees, and thinks that a wide variety of trees will go a long way in feeding El Salvadorans. As James also chimed in, growing trees is easier than annual crops like corn that must be replanted anew each year. Instead, trees just grow bigger and bigger. Also, planting trees brings people together in community, to take care of the trees. FTPF and their partners have planted 80,000 trees in the U.S., Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, the U.K. and Uganda. James has worked with SHARE for ten years now.
I asked, how can they ensure the trees are maintained, since they need effort for several years before bearing fruit? Ricardo explained that trees have something to offer the community. The community is involved in deciding which trees they want to plant and where they should be planted. James also noted that sometimes one needs to promote public policy that will protect trees, to ensure that “development” projects don’t destroy trees. He told us about an unfortunate case in Brazil where the government decided to build a bridge that destroyed community trees. When he mentioned that example, it reminded me of a presentation I saw recently about the Israeli government destroying olive trees in Palestine. The very old and established olive trees survived in the climate of Palestine, but government policies and actions led to the death and destruction of many of these life-giving trees. I even remember the Olive Tree Circus (that performed at my university over ten years ago) doing a skit that approached with humor a very serious topic – how the wall that Israel built has in some cases separated Palestinian families from their trees, making it hard or impossible to maintain them and care for them. We really do need to defend trees which in turn help humans. And, as James said, we have to pay attention to the cultural importance of certain trees to communities as well as the issues of climate and context appropriateness of certain species of trees.
Farming trees has deep symbolic meaning in addition to practical meaning. Ricardo even quoted Silvio Rodriguez, the Cuban songwriter, who encouraged his listeners to write a book, or have kids, or plant a tree! The implication is that all of those actions are very forward looking. By investing in the future in actions like that, we show we have faith in the future.
Ingrid Escobar A second speaker we met and heard was Ingrid Escobar, who works with Socorro Judicio Humanitario, a group that defends the human rights of El Salvadorans, especially many innocent people who are being imprisoned currently during the “State of Exception.” The constitution says that such exceptions can only be up to 30 days’ duration, but now it has been going on for 27 months. During this time Bukele has said he arrested and detained 80,000 gang members. While he has detained that many people, Escobar says, many of them are not gang members at all. Not only are many of them innocent people, including young children of 10 and 11 years old, but also, many of them (at least 34) are actually human rights defenders. The government detains them and passed a law (called the 103 decree) that says they have up to four years to investigate their detainees. So they can be held without evidence for a long time. In the meantime, they are harmed in jail. They are underfed, and not provided medical care. Many are dying in prison without being charged. There were 300 deaths within seven months. The government also charged some people (including Veterans of the Armed Forces and ex-FMLN fighters) with being “terrorists.” These prisoners have been older than sixty years old, and some had medical conditions and are receiving no treatment.
Escobar’s organization has been doing good work to draw international attention to these problems. They testified about these problems to the Washington Office on Latin America, U.S. Representative Jim McGovern, the Latin American Working Group, and even to U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris. Escobar is convinced that the gang problem wasn’t really seriously resolved overnight. Rather, there were negotiations with gang leaders. There is evidence of such negotiations that has been provided to the U.S. government. Other countries should be cautious about their misplaced enthusiasm for repeating these anti-gang “methods” in their countries.
Escobar ended her talk by sharing very emotionally the perspective that not everyone feels safe in the “new” El Salvador. If you care about truth and human rights you could feel very vulnerable, because there is a concern that the current government could detain you for a long time, without evidence. Despite these concerns about her own safety and that of her co-workers, they are dedicated to pursuing these cases that will prove the innocence of many detainees. Their work has freed 52 people so far. They hope to free more people, and to bring attention to the unconstitutionality of many of the current practices, to bring an end to such practices.
Escobar’s organization has been doing good work to draw international attention to these problems. They testified about these problems to the Washington Office on Latin America, U.S. Representative Jim McGovern, the Latin American Working Group, and even to U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris. Escobar is convinced that the gang problem wasn’t really seriously resolved overnight. Rather, there were negotiations with gang leaders. There is evidence of such negotiations that has been provided to the U.S. government. Other countries should be cautious about their misplaced enthusiasm for repeating these anti-gang “methods” in their countries.
Escobar ended her talk by sharing very emotionally the perspective that not everyone feels safe in the “new” El Salvador. If you care about truth and human rights you could feel very vulnerable, because there is a concern that the current government could detain you for a long time, without evidence. Despite these concerns about her own safety and that of her co-workers, they are dedicated to pursuing these cases that will prove the innocence of many detainees. Their work has freed 52 people so far. They hope to free more people, and to bring attention to the unconstitutionality of many of the current practices, to bring an end to such practices.
| After these important talks that brought so many of us up to date on the current challenges of El Salvador, we took a walk in the afternoon to the Monument of Memory and Truth in the Cuscatlán Park. The large, long mural in the beautiful public park told the story of the history of El Salvador and followed up with the details of the 75,000 people killed or disappeared during the Civil War era (1980-1992). The mural begins with artistic references to the folklore of El Salvador’s indigenous people. Violence in the society could be found in 1932 and was heavy in 1980 with the killing of Archbishop (now Saint) Oscar Romero and many thousands of others. The mural was overseen by a committee including many human rights and humanitarian organizations in El Salvador (as well as the University of Central America or UCA), and supported by international organizations including Catholic Relief Services, Oxfam and Save the Children. Our group searched for (and found) the names of St. Oscar Romero, the four Maryknoll churchwomen, and the Jesuit martyrs of the UCA. There were several related sculptures nearby, showing in sculpture from the struggle to maintain hope when searching for the disappeared family members. One statue celebrates the courtroom success in 2014 that stated that the El Salvador government was responsible for the deaths of five children. While the court case was important due to its truthful outcome, the statue also shows the disaster of innocent children losing their lives. |  A detail of the Monument of Memory and Truth in the Cuscatlán Park, showing the missing portrait of St. Oscar Romero. |
We were so moved by visiting this memorial. It is so important to keep memory alive. The government has not spent money to restore some crumbling parts of the memorial. Not enough El Salvadorans are being taught about this part of their history. Shockingly, there was a place in the mural where there had been a portrait of Oscar Romero, but the mural was vandalized and his portrait was removed. I stared at the empty spot on the mural wall. Of course, we won’t let the memory of Romero be so easily erased. I, for one, was glad that our week traveling in solidarity with struggling El Salvadorans was framed historically by reviewing the struggles and sacrifices of so many others.
Day One Seed of Hope Delegation
June 30, 2024
by Gail Presbey
June 30, 2024
by Gail Presbey
“Whoever saves a single life is considered by scripture to have saved the world.”
Talmud (Sanhedrin 37a)
Talmud (Sanhedrin 37a)
Dear Sisters and Brothers –
I write with extraordinary news – an impossible victory made possible because of the love, dedication and hard work of a great team.
A few months ago, our friend and brother Reynaldo Dominguez - a water defender from Honduras – called with an urgent appeal.
His 27-year old nephew – Santos – had fled Honduras and was detained by immigration in Houston. Santos was in imminent danger of being deported to Honduras where he faced death threats and assassination. Two of his uncles -- Ali and Oqueli – had already been killed for defending the Guapinol and San Pedro rivers from mining contamination.
Reynaldo asked if SHARE could help. And we sprang into action.
Every immigration expert we consulted told us it was very unlikely we could avoid deportation let alone win Santos’s release and a pathway to political asylum, especially with the rising anti-immigrant sentiment in the country and especially in Texas.
But we pressed on.
We secured a pro-bono attorney, psychologists, expert witnesses, translators, local volunteers to visit Santos in prison, and congressional letters of support, including from Illinois Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky.
On June 12th the judge granted Santos’ freedom at the recommendation of all the attorneys. Today Friday June 14th Santos was released and he will be on his way to embrace his family in Atlanta.
Thanks to everyone who helped directly and indirectly in this case.
Candace McCoy, Santo’s pro bono attorney, invested countless hours preparing the case, holding on to the hope that we could prevail against all odds. Sister Sharon White, Amy Argenal, Scott Wright, Jean Stokan, Flora Amaro, John & Stacy Merkt, Eddie Tabora, Jackie McVicar, Eileen Purcell, the lawyers at ERIC and many others provided indispensable support.
Your support of the SHARE Foundation makes this work possible!
With profound gratitude and hope,
Jose Artiga, Executive Director
I write with extraordinary news – an impossible victory made possible because of the love, dedication and hard work of a great team.
A few months ago, our friend and brother Reynaldo Dominguez - a water defender from Honduras – called with an urgent appeal.
His 27-year old nephew – Santos – had fled Honduras and was detained by immigration in Houston. Santos was in imminent danger of being deported to Honduras where he faced death threats and assassination. Two of his uncles -- Ali and Oqueli – had already been killed for defending the Guapinol and San Pedro rivers from mining contamination.
Reynaldo asked if SHARE could help. And we sprang into action.
Every immigration expert we consulted told us it was very unlikely we could avoid deportation let alone win Santos’s release and a pathway to political asylum, especially with the rising anti-immigrant sentiment in the country and especially in Texas.
But we pressed on.
We secured a pro-bono attorney, psychologists, expert witnesses, translators, local volunteers to visit Santos in prison, and congressional letters of support, including from Illinois Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky.
On June 12th the judge granted Santos’ freedom at the recommendation of all the attorneys. Today Friday June 14th Santos was released and he will be on his way to embrace his family in Atlanta.
Thanks to everyone who helped directly and indirectly in this case.
Candace McCoy, Santo’s pro bono attorney, invested countless hours preparing the case, holding on to the hope that we could prevail against all odds. Sister Sharon White, Amy Argenal, Scott Wright, Jean Stokan, Flora Amaro, John & Stacy Merkt, Eddie Tabora, Jackie McVicar, Eileen Purcell, the lawyers at ERIC and many others provided indispensable support.
Your support of the SHARE Foundation makes this work possible!
With profound gratitude and hope,
Jose Artiga, Executive Director
Ps below is a thank you letter from Reynaldo:
On behalf of the Domínguez Ramos family, the Guapinol community and myself, thank you for the great work of each and every one of you in support of the case of my nephew, Santos Rodrigo Domínguez Urbina.
Thank you for working together as a team and obtaining this great victory. I must admit that the news caused tears of emotion. We feel that we are not alone, that there are different forces and that your spirit of love and solidarity sustains and accompanies us.
To each of you, we want you to know that all the effort was worth it.
To you, attorney Candace, thank you for representing this young man who had already been saved from death here in Honduras; we were so afraid that he would be deported and murdered.
A very strong hug with tears of joy from Catalina, grandmother/mother of Santos, to each one of you for being the community of solidarity that walks with the people of God.
We hope that at some point soon there will be the opportunity to meet and be able to embrace each other and thank you by looking into each other's eyes.
Fraternalmente con nuestro abrazo, aprecio y cariño, Gracias José y todas de la Fundación SHARE
Reynaldo, defensor del agua, el bosque y la vida.
Guapinol Honduras, June 12, 2024
On behalf of the Domínguez Ramos family, the Guapinol community and myself, thank you for the great work of each and every one of you in support of the case of my nephew, Santos Rodrigo Domínguez Urbina.
Thank you for working together as a team and obtaining this great victory. I must admit that the news caused tears of emotion. We feel that we are not alone, that there are different forces and that your spirit of love and solidarity sustains and accompanies us.
To each of you, we want you to know that all the effort was worth it.
To you, attorney Candace, thank you for representing this young man who had already been saved from death here in Honduras; we were so afraid that he would be deported and murdered.
A very strong hug with tears of joy from Catalina, grandmother/mother of Santos, to each one of you for being the community of solidarity that walks with the people of God.
We hope that at some point soon there will be the opportunity to meet and be able to embrace each other and thank you by looking into each other's eyes.
Fraternalmente con nuestro abrazo, aprecio y cariño, Gracias José y todas de la Fundación SHARE
Reynaldo, defensor del agua, el bosque y la vida.
Guapinol Honduras, June 12, 2024
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