1) Tell Congress: Speak up for Jailed Environmental Defenders in El Salvador!

On January 11, 2023, 5 environmental defenders and community leaders from Santa Marta were arrested on spurious charges in a clear case of political persecution. Among those arrested are prominent leaders of the grassroots movement that won the world's first ban on metallic mining in 2017, which local organizations warn President Bukele seeks to overturn.

The Santa Marta 5 are in dangerous conditions in El Salvador's prisons, as are tens of thousands of others. 

Thus far, the U.S. has been silent on this case and on countless other human rights abuses that Salvadoran state forces have committed since the government suspended constitutional rights in March 2022. 

Send an email to your rep and senators calling on them to speak out against the unjust detention of the Santa Marta 5!

2) Tell Congress: U.S. military and police out of Central America!

Beyond the current State of Exception, which has suspended constitutional rights since March 22 and resulted in the mass arrests of 70,000 people without warrants, the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, relies on the police and military to override democratic legislative decisions and to intimidate political opponents all in the name of consolidating his own power.

The United States has a long history of complicity in systematic human rights abuses carried out by Salvadoran military and police forces, often in order to uphold economic models that privilege corporate interests and exploit workers and natural resources. The same is true in Honduras and Guatemala.

The U.S. Congress should immediately cease military and police funding lest the U.S. continue to be complicit in continued human rights abuses. 

Send a message to your representative in Congress and ask them to take action to withhold military and police training and assistance to El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras in next year's budget!