On May 20, 114 organizations from 21 countries released an open letter to El Salvador’s Attorney General, denouncing the arrests of Alejandro Henríquez and pastor José Ángel Pérez.
Henríquez is lawyer and environmentalist and Pérez is president of the El Bosque Cooperative, a group of almost 300 families that has been fighting to maintain ownership of land that has belonged to the cooperative since the 1980s.
The two were arrested in relation to a peaceful May 13 protest by the cooperative and supporters as they called on President Nayib Bukele to mediate on their behalf as a May 22 eviction order approached.
The organizations called for the immediate release of Hénriquez and Pérez and denounced the repressive state response to the protest. They also called for an end to the State of Exception, which has suspended civil rights since March 2022, and an end to the wave of land expropriation that also resulted in the eviction of the La Floresta community in February.
Read the full letter in English and Spanish below:
cartainternacional_elbosque_English
cartainternacional_elbosque_Espanol
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