The Verdict is Out: CRIPDES Leaders Charged with Terrorism – July 7, 2007

The 14 detainees and CRIPDES leaders were tried today in a Special Tribunal for Acts of Terrorism.  Judge Ana Lucila Fuentes de Paz dismissed the charges for 1 detainee, and decreed “Preventative Detention” for 3 months for the other 13, maintaining the terrorism charges and allowing the prosecutors to collect more evidence.  Our action is required now, more than ever!  

 

All times are according to local El Salvador time (the same as mountain time) 

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6:00 am:  At the National Civilian Police (PNC) station in Monserrat, San Salvador.  The 14 detainees from the communities, including the CRIPDES leaders have been held here for the past 2 days. There has been a vigil of supporters from the organized communities outside the jail all night, and around midnight a few representatives were allowed in to visit.  More supporters arrived in busses from around the country.

 

6:30 am:  Reports are coming in from around the country of police roadblocks set up on all the principal highways leading into San Salvador.  Police are stopping all inter-departmental busses, and many urban routes and searching all of the passengers.  Busses from San Vicente, Usulutan, Chalatenango and Suchitoto were detained for longer.

 

7:00 am:  Busses from the communities are beginning to arrive at the Special Tribunal, located in the upscale Escalón neighbourhood in San Salvador.  Today the Public Appearance is scheduled for 10:00 am, for official presentation of charges and witnesses.  About 400 people so far are gathered there.

 

7:00 am:  Riot police have set up security barricades around the Tribunal.  Tiers of razor wire have been stacked in the road all around the block, and 30 Riot Police (UMO) officers have been stationed.

 

7:35 am:  The 14 detainees are loaded into a police vehicle in Monserrat, and taken to Escalón to the Tribunal.  Supporters load into busses and trucks and follow the detainees in a caravan with banners and signs.

 

7:45 am:  A bus with supporters coming from Berlin, Usulutan was stopped at a police roadblock and detained.  Police aggressively searched each passenger, telling them that if they went to the demonstration, “they would be sorry and they would be captured.”

 

 8:15 am:  The prisoners have arrived in the police vehicle to the Tribunal, along with the caravan of supporters.  When they arrived a second wave of Riot Police (UMO) arrived at the scene.  There are now more than 500 supporters representatives from all around the country, and approximately 100 riot police officers.  There have been no violent incidents reported.  Supporters are chanting and singing, with signs and banners.

 

10:07 am:  A lawyer for the defendants left the tribunal building to address the demonstration outside.  He reported that there are strong debates and pressure on the Judge to declare the tribunal “incompetent,” and refuse to try the case, based on the evidence presented, under the anti-terrorism law.  This would pass the case back to the Provincial court system in Suchitoto, and be no small victory for the defendants.

 

10:32 am:  The demonstration outside has formed a circle around the Tribunal building, holding hands and candles.  They are totally silent, and sending strength and energy to the defendants inside.

 

10:40 am:  Right now a separate march of supporters that began at the Salvador del Mundo monument in San Salvador has arrived at the Tribunal and joins the demonstration.  Speakers from the Citizens Alliance against Privatization of Water and Health and from CRIPDES, are expressing their solidarity with the detainees.  Otilio Serrano, the mayor of San Antonio Los Ranchos has declared the unanimous support and solidarity of all of the FMLN mayors in Chalatenango.

 
10.45 am:  Another group, led by Nidia Diaz, FMLN deputy to the Central American Parliament (PARLACEN) has arrived at the demonstration and joined the supporters.  There are now approximately 1000 people gathered outside the tribunal building.

 

11:12 am:  The conditions are heating up, literally.  The sun is beating down and everybody is feeling the effects.  Several demonstrators have fainted from the physical stress of 2 consecutive all-night vigils outside the jail and this mornings protest, and everybody has moved into the shade.  Even the riot police have left the barricades by themselves in the street and moved out of the sun.  The nearby school “Sagrado Corazón” has opened its doors to the demonstrators, giving them access to water and bathrooms.

 
11:24 am:  National Civilian Police officers have blocked off all the streets surrounding the protest and vigil to keep anyone else from joining the demonstrators.

 
11:41 am:  Supporters from San Salvador are slipping past the police one by one or in small groups, and the crowd is growing, waiting for the report from inside the tribunal.  Pressure is rising as the group is calling for the Judge’s declaration.

 
11:48 am:  The Judge has sent an official message to ask the demonstration to be quiet, threatening to suspend the hearing if the noise, chants, and speeches continue.

 
12:43 pm:  A representative has addressed the demonstration, to say that the morning was spent hearing the story of the events of July 2^nd.  The Judge has called a recess, and will continue after a 20 minute recess for the presentation of evidence and witnesses.

 
12:50 pm:  Julio Portillo, historic leader of the teacher’s union and Marta Lorena Araujo Martinez’s husband took the microphone and addressed the crowd, giving a very emotional plea to the Judge, asking her how she could possibly find his wife guilty of terrorism.  He also informed, to the cheers of the crowd, that he had filed an official denouncement and demand with the Organization of American States against President Elias Antonio Saca and the Director of the National Civilian Police (PNC,) Rodrigo Ávila, for the unjustified and violent arrests of Lorena and the other 13 arrested.

 
1:54 pm:  The hearing drags on, and the crowd is boisterous, tired, and anxious, expecting a verdict sometime this afternoon.

 
3:00 pm:  No word yet. 

 
3:41 pm:  The defence lawyer came out to address the crowd.  They have finished the arguments, witnesses and evidence.  The judge has called a 1 hour recess, after which we expect a verdict.

 
3:45 pm:  The crowd of now nearly 2,000 people applauded the defence lawyer when he came out.  He said that they have exhausted every technical resource possible, and it is now in the judge’s hands.  People have moved back into the street, against the barricades, and are chanting and singing loudly.

 
4:19 pm:  The defence lawyers spoke with CRIPDES and social movement leaders, and are hopeful for the strength of their case, but recognize that it is a political situation, and that nothing is certain.  People are gathered around the gates, carrying flowers, with their fists in the air shouting all together “Libertad!  Libertad!”  “Freedom!  Freedom!”

 
4:28 pm:  Lawyers report 3 possibilities for the verdict:  They can be declared innocent, the Judge can declare the special tribunal incompetent (i.e. its not terrorism) and send it back to the Provincial court in Suchitoto.  Or the detainees can be declared guilty, and receive steep sentences of jail time.  CRIPDES and social movement leaders briefly shared their contingency plans.  The case has been accepted by Amnesty International and the Inter-American Court for Human Rights for international appeals in case of a guilty verdict.  Lawyers are preparing arguments of unconstitutionality of the Anti-Terrorism law to present here in El Salvador.  In case of a not-guilty verdict the social movement has planned a caravan and press conference to the Salvador del Mundo monument to celebrate and denounce.  And no matter what, they say, they are not going to lose sight of the detainees.

 
4:45 pm:  Rumors are flying and people are starting to get antsy.  Sporadic shoving in the crowd, but it is hard to tell if instigators are from the social movement organizations or if they are outsiders who have slipped in.  Demonstrators are holding hands and forming human chains to keep the situation under control.

 
5:09 pm:  The situation is still tense.  People are trying hard to keep calm in the crowd.  Rain clouds are overhead, in a very literal sense 

 
5:49 pm:  The rain is starting to fall.  Organizers of the march identified a suspicious unmarked car with tinted windows, license plate P-172198.  The driver was observing and writing down all of the licence plate numbers of the cars that were there giving support to the demonstrators (food, water, etc.)  A group of 15 demonstrators approached the car, blatantly took pictures of the car, licence plate and driver.  It was effective and the car left the area.

 

 6:09 pm:  We have been informed that the Judge is preparing to give her declaration, inside the tribunal.  Radio Mayavision is inside, and hopefully they will transmit it live.

 
6:32 pm:  Nothing yet from the Judge.  The demonstrators report in:It’s raining and they are wet, but stay united, singing the Himno de la Unidad and holding hands, still waiting for the Judge to give her verdict.

 

6:46 pm:  The verdict is out.  The Judge has granted liberty to Facundo Dolores García, from the community of Santa Eduviges, in Suchitoto.  The Judge has not liberated the other 13 detainees, rather she decreed “Preventative Detention” for 3 months for them.  She has set a sentencing hearing for 3 months from now and allowed the prosecutors to continue putting their case together.

6:46 pm: The Judge made a fast escape.  They covered the license plates on her car and she sped off…

 
6:46 pm:  The Judge´s communications secretary José Luis Diaz read the verdict.  The guilty verdict appears to be provisional, granting another 3 months to collect more evidence to substantiate and give a definitive sentence under the Anti-Terrorism law, or present more arguments for the defence.

 
6:48 pm:  We are trying to gather more information on the legal situation and technical details, and will have them for the coming days.  But for the moment it appears that the Judge has refused to declare the special tribunal incompetent, and has maintained the charges of terrorism.  We understand that the defence is allowed to submit an appeal within 3 days, beginning on Monday.

 
6:50 pm:  The crowd is angry but peaceful, still outside the tribunal building.  The Riot Police is still there, but there has been no aggression.  Julio Portillo, (Marta Lorena Araujo Martinez’s husband) spoke to the crowd immediately following the verdict, saying that he was disappointed and outraged, and called upon all Salvadorans to work ceaselessly over the next 3 months to get the accused out of jail.  Now FMLN leaders are speaking, as well.

The crowd is waiting to see where the detainees will be taken, to go with them in caravan and hold vigil outside the jail, wherever it turns out to be.

 
7:38 pm:  There are reports of Riot Police repressing the demonstrators, and 2 women confirmed beaten by the police.  The radio is broadcasting shouts of “We are citizens!  We aren’t terrorists!”

  
7:50 pm: Marcos Galvez, a communications representative from CRIPDES declared that the verdict was not based on legal process, rather on political pressure put on the Judge from the government.  He has said that CRIPDES and the communities will “continue to show and exercise their total solidarity with the prisoners, to use all legal resources to rightfully liberate the 13 detainees, and intensify the campaign of international solidarity and political pressure.”

 
7:50 pm: (Editor’s Note)  I have amended the verdict above to reflect the most recent information.  (See 6:46 pm)  The verdict is “Preventative Detention” for 3 more months.

 
8:00 pm: Things are calming down outside the Tribunal building, as the social movement organizations are orienting their members and the community delegations to leave the area.  The riot police are still massively present, and organizers don’t want any more arrests for today.

 
8:10 pm: The prisoners were taken away to their respective prisons: the women have been sent to the Women’s Prison in Ilopango, and the men to Mariona Prison.  They prisoners were still strong, chanting along with the crowd “Saca, Fascist, you are the Terrorist!”   CRIPDES representatives are asking the Attorney General for Human Rights to accompany them to meet the prisoners upon their arrival to jail, to verify that they have not been physically mistreated.

 
8:20 pm:  That’s all we know for this evening.  We will have more information soon.  Please stay tuned to this website, and the U.S.-El Salvador Sister Cities email listserve for more information.  Our solidarity is needed now, more than ever!

 
We received a video from this morning of the unmarked truck that took the prisoners from the jail to the tribunal.  You can see it HERE.