On January 15, 2023, two major social movement coalitions in El Salvador - the Popular Resistance and Rebellion Bloc (BRP) and the National Alliance for a Peaceful El Salvador - together with many other convening groups and organizations, marched to commemorate the 31st anniversary of the signing of the country’s 1992 Peace Accords, a historic event that marked the end of the armed conflict that had resulted in the forced disappearance, death and mass exodus of hundreds of thousands of Salvadorans.

Starting on December 11 and for several weeks after, residents in the city of Soyapango, one the most densely populated municipalities just outside of El Salvador’s capital, awoke to military and police patrolling the entrances into and exits out of  Soyapango and all neighborhoods throughout. Military and police subjected residents to random searches of their personal belongings on the street, including cell phones, as well as home raids, profiling, and in some cases arbitrary arrests that have led to indefinite detention.

251 organizations from 29 countries question motivation for arrests of community leaders, mining opponents

The Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES) and U.S.- El Salvador Sister Cities - international solidarity organizations that have accompanied the Salvadoran popular social movements and their struggles - strongly denounce the early morning arrests on Wednesday, January 11th of Miguel Ángel Gámez, Alejandro Laínez García, Pedro Antonio Rivas Laínez, Saúl Agustín Rivas Ortega and Teodoro Antonio Pacheco, known as "Chico Montes", five members of the community of Santa Marta, Cabañas and leaders of the Association for Social Eco

On January 11, Salvadoran police arrested five leaders of the rural community of Santa Marta, including the director of the Development Association of El Salvador (ADES), Antonio Pacheco (known to many as Chico Montes). 

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