On June 29, 2009, the body of Gustavo Marcelo Rivera, a Salvadoran community organizer and environmental activist, was found at the bottom of a well outside of San Isidro, Cabañas, El Salvador. Autopsy reports show that he was tortured and strangled to death before being thrown in the well. Despite local and international pressure, his case has still not been resolved. In the year since his murder, many other community leaders who participate in the anti-mining movement in El Salvador have also been threatened and two others were assassinated; their cases also remain in impunity.
One year after the discovery of Rivera's body, WOLA issued a letter to Mr. Romeo Barahona, Attorney General of El Salvador, urging him to conduct a thorough, transparent and impartial investigation into his death and the other attacks against community activists and local leaders in the Cabañas Department in order to prosecute the material and intellectual authors of the crimes. These steps are vital to ending impunity and restoring trust in the judicial system in El Salvador. The letter is available here. (available only in Spanish)
