On Friday, March 13, Fidel Zavala, spokesperson for the Community and Human Rights Defense Unit (UNIDEHC) and 24 residents of the La Floresta community who were unjustly arrested in February were sentenced to 6 months of pre-trial imprisonment by an organized crime court. The decision sidelined international alarm about the case and the possible threats to Zavala’s life given his public denouncements and lawsuits filed against prison authorities for abuses he witnessed during 13 months of a previous unjust detention.

The Attorney General’s Office (FGR) is accusing them of committing fraud in relation to the community’s organizing to pursue legal pathways remain in their homes and of belonging to an “illicit group,” the same accusation that has been used to arrest tens of thousands without warrants for alleged ties to gangs under the State of Exception, characterizing UNIDEHC, which been accompanying the La Floresta community (and many others) in their fight against eviction, of being an “illicit group.”

UNIDEHC is grassroots human rights defense group made up of community leaders and independent attorneys that has led the charge in documenting the widespread abuses happening in El Salvador’s prisons under the so-called war on gangs and has accompanied victims and their families in filing legal complaints against various government agencies that have been complicit.

During Friday’s hearing, it was revealed that human rights attorneys Ivania Cruz and Rudy Joya, also spokespeople for UNIDEHC, are also included in the case and will also face charges in an organized crime court (initially set for Tuesday, March 18. Cruz and Joya represent several high-profile opposition leaders who have been jailed, as well as many victims of arbitrary arrest, and have filed legal actions against various public officials in the Bukele administration for human rights violations, including in El Salvador’s prisons, corruption and misuse of state resources.

Accusing human rights activists, attorneys and community leaders of illicit associations and trying them in organized crime tribunals instead of a common court imposes secrecy on case information and further restricts due process. It is also a deliberate attempt to criminalize land and human rights defenders and a blatant attack on the right to organize!

The need for international solidarity is URGENT to denounce these attacks. Join us in calling for Freedom for Fidel and the La Floresta leaders and for hands off UNIDEHC and human rights attorneys:

1. Raise your voice! Speak out on social media by sharing one of these graphics and tag El Salvador’s Attorney General (@FGR_SV) and @UNIDEHC with the hashtags #LibertadAFidelZavala, #OrganizarNoEsDelito, #HandsOffUNIDEHC with this sample message

   • #HandsOffUNIDEHC | Defending human rights is NOT a crime. Stop the political persecution of @UNIDEHC and all Salvadoran human rights defenders. @FGR_SV

   • #LibertadAFidelZavala Using organized crime courts against #LaFloresta land defenders is an attack on the right to organize! I/We call for the immediate release of #ElSalvador human rights defender Fidel Zavala (@unidehc) and #LaFloresta leaders @FGR_SV

   • Defending human rights is NOT a crime. #LibertadAFidelZavala. I/We call for the immediate release of #ElSalvador human rights defender Fidel Zavala, #LaFloresta community leaders, and an end to political persecution of @UNIDEHC and all Salvadoran human rights defenders. @FGR_SV

2. Contact Salvadoran authorities by taking the Amnesty International Urgent Action. 

​