San Salvador. On Wednesday evening, Manuel Gámez Morales, son of Vidalina Morales, head of the environmental organization Asociación para el Desarrollo Social económico de Santa Marta (Ades), was arrested under the pretext of a state of emergency. After national and international organizations protested against it, he was released the next day released.
The arrest is related to the activities of Ades and a opinion to see the United Nations on the situation of five community leaders detained since January 2023 (america21 reported).
The Salvadoran government responded on May 6th to a request from several United Nations (UN) special rapporteurs. In a May 16 tweet, Mary Lawlor, special rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, continued to speak out concerned about the situation of the five community representatives and demands their release.
On the same day, a police officer was killed while on patrol in Nueva Concepión, Chalatenango. In two tweets, President Bukele made a connection between the UN’s criticism and the police officer’s killing: “The remaining gang members in our country have just murdered one of our heroes. But the ‘human rights’ NGOs won’t say anything, they take care of only concerned with the rights of criminals”.
And: “Let all ‘human rights’ NGOs know that we will crush these damned killers and their collaborators, we will put them in jail and they will never get out. We don’t care about their pathetic reporting, their paid journalists, their puppet politicians or their famous ‘international community’ that never cared about our people We will heal our country and this plague completely remove. Take your failed recipes elsewhere”.
The town of Nueva Concepción, where the police officer was killed, has been surrounded by more than 5,000 soldiers and is now searching house by house for possible accomplices and gang members combed through. The state of emergency was also the 14th time extended.
In addition to her efforts to get the five parishioners released, Ades remains active in environmental conservation and against possible mining projects in Cabañas. In an interview with a radio station, Morales said the government intends to end the mining ban in El Salvador that has been in place since 2017 cancel. This is related to the arrest of the five Ades members. On the same day, the security forces arrested her son on the grounds of a state of emergency.
Vidalina Morales describes the background in an open letter to El Salvador’s Human Rights Commissioner, Raquel Caballero de Guevara. Numerous national and international organizations are protesting against the arrest. A day later he was released. Meanwhile requested the lawyer repeatedly granted a court visitation permit for one of the allegedly ill imprisoned members of the community.