Decry risk of possible conviction in a mass trial despite court orders mandating his release

The organizations denounced his arbitrary detention, forced disappearance and the state’s failure to comply with judicial orders mandating his release from detention, and his inclusion in a mass trial that violates due process rights.

A group of 80 religious and faith-based organizations, human rights and immigrant rights groups, unions and Salvadoran diaspora groups in the U.S. and from various European and Latin American countries are calling urgently on the Government of El Salvador to immediately free jailed unionist Geovanni Antonio Aguirre López. According to alerts from local human rights defenders, Aguirre has been included in an upcoming mass trial, despite previous court orders mandating his release from prison. 

In a public letter directed to the Fourth Court Against Organized Crime and sent also to the Attorney General of the Republic, Rodolfo Antonio Delgado Montes and Human Rights Ombudsperson, Raquel Caballero de Guevara, the organizations expressed their “deep concern over the continued arbitrary detention and periods of forced disappearance of the unionist Geovanni Antonio Aguirre López" and urged his "immediate release, as well as full compliance with court orders that have already determined that he should not remain in detention.”

The groups also sounded the alarm over the inclusion of Aguirre López in one of the mass trials that the government of El Salvador has implemented during the State of Exception, which “undermine the right to individualized judicial review, weaken due process guarantees, and threaten to prolong Geovanni’s arbitrary detention indefinitely despite existing court orders mandating his release.”

Police detained Geovanni Aguirre, an employee of the San Salvador municipal office and a union leader, on May 8, 2022, several days after he participated in a peaceful march on International Workers Day. Since then, he has been imprisoned under the State of Exception in violation of his due process rights.

The organizations emphasized that even though judicial authorities have, on two separate occasions, ordered his release, he remains in prison, cut off from any contact with his family or public defenders for more than four years. Though he was briefly released on June 1, 2023, he was detained again immediately. Since then, neither his family nor his legal representatives have received any official information about where he is being held or the status of his health.

In September 2024, his legal representatives formally denounced his case as a forced disappearance due to the authorities’ repeated refusal to inform the family of his whereabouts or well-being. As the organizations stated in the letter, “maintaining a person incommunicado following a release order not only violates due process but also constitutes a serious violation of the constitution and of international treaties to which El Salvador is a signatory.”

Several of the organizations who signed the open letter have members and leaders who worked alongside Aguirre over the course of many years and can testify to his innocence, as well as to his commitment to working with youth and community development. Furthermore, they say, the accusations against him don’t line up with the person they know him to be and denounced his case as a demonstration of the growing criminalization of union organizing in the country.

As the letter states, labor unions and community organizations in El Salvador have brought a case to the International Labor Organization (ILO) urging the release of Aguirre and other unionists who have been jailed in retaliation for their union activity, as well as for the end of the state of exception being used as a mechanism for anti-union persecution.  Furthermore, they note, the Commission of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations has urged the government of El Salvador to adopt measures to free jailed unionists and provide information about the individual cases that have been presented to the ILO.

The organizations agreed that “trade union activity and the peaceful exercise of the rights to freedom of association and expression must never be treated as criminal conduct” and urged the Salvadoran government to uphold its national and international human rights obligations.

The groups made the following demands, among others:

• Immediately enforce the judicial orders granting Geovanni Antonio Aguirre López his liberty and secure his immediate release
• Immediately disclose his whereabouts, provide his legal defense and family with proof of life, and guarantee his physical and psychological integrity while he remains under state custody.
• Guarantee an individualized judicial review that fully respects due process and international human rights standards.
• Investigate the circumstances surrounding his rearrest, his subsequent disappearance, and the failure to comply with judicial release orders, ensuring accountability for those responsible.
• Respect the rights to freedom of association, peaceful assembly, and trade union activity, and end the criminalization of labor leaders and other human rights defenders.
• End the use of the State of Exception as an instrument of persecution and criminalization of labor union activity.

The organizations reiterated their concern for the deterioration of fundamental constitutional rights in El Salvador and committed to continuing to shine an international spotlight on the case.

Bethany Renata Loberg, member of the Salem Mennonite Church, Salem, Oregon
“In 2017, in my role as youth ministry coordinator at Salem Mennonite Church in Salem, Oregon, I had the opportunity to meet Geovanni Antonio Aguirre López through an exchange with the youth committee in the community of El Progreso, which Geovanni was coordinating at the time. His commitment to contributing to the well-being of his community made a deep impression on me and our group. Geovanni and the youth committee were actively involved in developing a dignified housing project for the community, in a youth drumming group, in community cleanup campaigns, and in planting and caring for trees. Since then, I have stayed in touch with Geovanni, and I can attest that, far from being a criminal, he is a person dedicated to his education, his work, and his community. Up until the date of his arbitrary arrest, he remained committed to these community projects—building homes, fostering leadership, and educating other young people, encouraging them to pursue college educations—projects that contribute to building peace in the community and a prosperous future for its youth. We, the members of Salem Mennonite Church, keep Geovanni in our prayers, asking for his well-being and his prompt release.”

Rev. Dr. Christopher Ney and Dr. Linda Alvarado Fellowship of Reconciliation-USA, Co-Directors
“Several members and leaders of FOR-USA—the oldest interfaith organization for peace and justice in the United States—have maintained ties with El Salvador for decades. Among them are longtime members who can attest to Govanni Aguirre’s work and integrity.  Throughout the years we have known him, Geovanni has devoted himself with dedication and care to the families and youth of his community. He is an inspiration to our community and an example of how to work toward building peace in communities affected by poverty and violence. We are deeply saddened and concerned by the news that, after four years of unjust imprisonment—and despite multiple court orders mandating his release—Geovanni is now being subjected to a mass trial. Geovanni’s case is emblematic and highlights the injustices committed in El Salvador: after being deprived of due process while in pretrial detention for more than four years, this young man now faces the risk of being unjustly convicted, without access to a fair trial.”

Jhonathan F. Gómez, Chicago Religious Leadership Network (CRLN), Co-Director
“We must demand the immediate release of Geovanni Antonio Aguirre López. We must stand against the criminalization of those who defend workers' rights and human rights in El Salvador. Geovanni’s arbitrary detention, despite court orders for his release, is not an isolated incident. This is a pattern of repression under the Nayib Bukele government. Trade unionists, community leaders, and human rights defenders are being treated as criminals for organizing and exercising their rights. Geovanni's case exposes how the continuous State of Exception is being used as a tool to silence dissent, undermine the rule of law, and consolidate authoritarian power. Demanding his immediate release is to demand justice and accountability.”

Sister Anita Cleary, Dominican Sisters of Springfield, IL
“On a recent visit to El Salvador, I met many families who have a loved one who has been wrongfully jailed. We bore witness to the pain of their reality: a family member disappeared into the prisons, their relentless search for them. We hold Geovanni Aguirre and his family in our prayers, knowing the anguish they must feel at not having been able to see him or speak to him for the past four years, and now the fear they must feel that he could be sentenced for a crime he didn’t commit. Together with religious sisters from congregations across the United States, we will continue to pray for his freedom and to ‘lift our voices in a shared affirmation of truth, justice, and hope’ as the Creed and Covenant for the Common Good implores us.

C Stonebraker-Martinez, InterReligious Task Force on Central America and Colombia in Cleveland, Ohio, EEUU
“Geovanni Antonio Aguirre Lopez has been a union leader and a community defender who, despite existing court orders for his release, remains arbitrarily detained. We call for his immediate release and respect for due process. This case shows the criminalization of union work and the risk of convictions in collective trials, which is a tactic we’ve seen used against migrants in immigration proceedings in the United States. People of faith and conscience, who love and support their communities whether in their home countries or in diaspora should not be criminalized unjustly.”

Reverend Emilie Teresa Smith, co-president del Servicio internacional cristiano de solidaridad, con los pueblos de América Latina — Oscar Arnulfo Romero SICSAL-OAR.
“Our global network, which, for more than 45 years, has proudly carried the name of San Romero de las Américas, expresses our grave concern regarding the serious violation of basic human rights in El Salvador. We are particularly concerned with the arbitrary detention of Geovanni Antonio Aguirre. A youth who has served his community and his country with faithfulness and loyalty. Our network, which includes members from more than 25 countries, is observing this case with particular concern. We will continue to pray for Geovanni, and for his family, and for those in leadership in El Salvador, that they may be converted to a love for justice and compassion, the same expressed by our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ. We pray for the intervention of Sun Romero, we pray for El Salvador, we pray for our troubled world, in Jesus’s most holy name.”

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Read an English translation of the letter here