President Nayib Bukele is being handed over to major corporations and companies El Salvador, according to reports from organizations working in the defence of human rights and land. Moreover, under the excuse of the so-called “war against criminal gangs”, they authorize a permanent violation of human rights, persecuting and arresting activists. In the midst of this chaos is Vidalina Morales, president of the Association for Economic and Social Development.

When and in what context did you create ADES? What is the purpose of the partnership?

It was created 31 years ago by the community of Santa Marta, in 1993. In the 1980s, when the armed conflict in El Salvador was in full effervescence [the conflict lasted between 1980 and 1992] it suffered attacks, took refuge in Honduras and was founded by a community that returned to Santa Marta in 1987.

We support, among others, ADESCOS or Community Development Associations, as well as women’s organisations. We also work with groups of sexual diversity, we have been part of a process of the educational community of Santa Marta, we have worked in the management of infrastructures...

As an organization born in 1993 to manage the purchase of land for the community and to help our young people in the educational process, we understand ourselves as a community that has started out of nowhere. Today we are working together with the Water Boards, local entities working in the field of water and associations around agroecology. In recent times we have worked hard on the subject of agroecology. We consider it to be an appropriate alternative to historically imposed traditional agriculture.

You say that you had to flee from Santa Marta. It was one of the areas most affected by the armed conflict in El Salvador. How has this influenced how you build your community?

It was an armed conflict that lasted twelve years in El Salvador, and ended in 1992 with the signing of the Peace Accords. The army persecuted and killed members of the communities that were then organized, such as in Santa Marta. Because of the military persecution, we had to flee to Honduras, where six years later, in 1987, we returned to Santa Marta. We are a historic community and we have managed, to put it some way, to move a little away from the usual ways of life of the places around us. For example, we have acquired basic services such as electricity, we have communal lands, water and housing projects, a comprehensive education system (preschool to high school), etc. With the help of the ADES organization and association we have met the needs of the community.

In 2017 they succeeded in passing the law that banned the metal mining industry. What was the process like?

ADES was born to help the community of Santa Marta, but in the 2000s we started working with other communities in the department of Cabañas and joined in the fight against metal mining. From 2004 to 2017, we fought for a law prohibiting the mining industry, until the congress unanimously passed a law prohibiting that industry. All Members, i.e. 69, voted in favour of the law.

As we fought for a ban on metal mining, we faced a lawsuit brought by a Canadian transnational to El Salvador, before the International Tribunal for the Resolution of Investment Disagreements (ICSID) in Washington. We spent six years mobilizing and inevitably learning what the ICSID was; the institution of the World Bank is, in short, one of the courts that companies create to defend their interests.

Well, in 2016, this court issued a ruling in favour of the Salvadoran State. The Canadian company claimed about EUR 250 million from El Salvador, as the communities renounced their mining project in Cabañas. It was a triumph, but it brought threats, criminalization and murder, including that of a woman who was in the eighth month of pregnancy. But let's say the fight had some success, right? Because the State did not give the company the money it asked for. It was an organized struggle for communities. The team of lawyers that put El Salvador was very responsible.

As he explained in his speech in Bilbao, the Bukele Government is committed to restoring the mining industry, isn't it?

Starting in 2021, the Government of Bukele joined the Intergovernmental Forum on Mining, Minerals, Metal and Sustainable Development, which brings together 77 countries with the aim of promoting metal mining worldwide. In 2022, it created a new law parallel to the Metal Mining Ban Act: Law establishing the Directorate General for Hydrocarbons and Mines. This law raised our suspicions and we began to report the case publicly. That same year, the government spent 45 million dollars reviewing and updating the metal mining ban law, and we started to mobilize. Soon after and in this sense, members of the community of Santa Marta and our organization were arrested.

Do you mean the case of “The Five of Santa Marta”?

Yes. We strive incessantly to liberate our peers. In the end it was worth it, because they were released under Bukele’s “Emergency Regime”, very complicated. Since March 2022, we have been living in a fundamental human rights violation regime approved by the Legislative Assembly.

They were arrested directly on 11 January 2023, without any judicial proceedings, and in September 2024 they were arrested at home. They were released at the last trial.

In this regard, it should be noted that in El Salvador there has been a great strengthening of land, water and life movements. Many communities, organizations and associations come together and we get the freedom of our peers.

What would you say about the Bukele regime?

Militarization has skyrocketed in this regime. The Government has committed itself to strengthening security and has invested a lot of money in it. Much of this money is borne by the National Civil Police, which was established within the framework of the 1992 Peace Accords and the Army also receives a significant amount. We've normalized the presence of war tanks in the streets without being at war.

Those of us who work in defence of human rights suffer the persecution of the regime, they criminalise us. There are many innocent people in jail. They have not had the necessary judicial process, they have denied us that right. We have faced that with the peers of the case “Los Cinco de Santa Marta”, but the same has not happened with everyone.

Of the 72,000 people who were arrested in the "war on criminal gangs" of the emergency regime, 7,000 have recently been released because they are innocent, but I am sure there are more innocent people. The Humanitarian Legal Aid Organization of El Salvador estimates that some 300 people have already died in Bukele prisons.

What place do human rights have under exemption?

The rights are permanently violated, as has been said, a person is arrested, received no trial or anything and is imprisoned. In jail conditions are terrible; there are agglomerations, diseases, lack of hygiene...
When they released our peers, they came out very sick, weightless, malnourished, and they didn't take medication to treat diseases like diabetes or asthma. It is the reality of everything between the fences.

El Salvador is the first country in the world to accept bitcoine as a State currency, by decision of the Government of Bukele. He and the US dollar are the official currencies...

The government’s project to turn Bitcoina into a national currency has failed. The law says you can use that currency in El Salvador, it's in circulation, but it doesn't work well, because it's never been used. It's like a virtual thing, and that's where the public treasury's fortune has been spent.

Since the environmental movement, we have relinquished this failed project. In fact, we know that in order to sustain such a project, it is necessary to have the highest technology, and El Salvador does not have that possibility. In addition, we Salvadorans have not asked for any such project, we have never done so.

Do you think bitcoin monetization can promote mega-projects?

We believed that the mining industry was going to be invested in strengthening the Bitcoin project, because in the adoption of the Hydrocarbons Act to which I referred earlier, vitcoine was monetized. It was very clear to the Government that, in order to strengthen the virtual currency project that so well sold internationally, it would have to strengthen mining operations in order to create geothermal and/or thermoelectric later. Although it has not been so far, the Government has recovered some mega-project by pulling it out.

We have governments that have a great will to develop mega-projects, they are leaving our country in the hands of big corporations and companies. The construction of ports, airports and the like is a constant. Other tourism infrastructures are also being built and the crowds have been evicted to carry out the projects. Megacarcel was also practiced with many people who were evicted from their homes.

Even though we are a “poor” country, we are very rich in natural resources and now the government is offering our land to transnational corporations so that they can exploit uranium. Rumours suggest that there is crude oil on the Salvadoran coast, but it has not yet been confirmed. At the moment, the Government is designing projects to exploit oil.

And not only that, but it's also negotiating with an American company the exploitation of a mineral, called thorium, that they've just discovered, and it's possible that a nuclear power plant may be installed later on. This Government is implementing major projects to the detriment of the population and our environment.

What do you know about this thorium project?

It's pretty new, and there's not a lot of information. However, several environmental networks have made it known that the Government has already started to do business with the U.S. company Thorum.

We have also learned that in the area of Cabañas, in my home department, a company wants to carry out a mining operation. The Government is interested in selling and extracting our mineral resources, a petty interest, and we are also denouncing this today. They want to restore the mining industry at all costs, even though there is a law banning it.

Looking to the future, what are the challenges facing the community that is committed to sustainable and social development?

We are very clear that we do not want a mining industry in El Salvador. We will always be committed to processes such as agroecology and food sovereignty, since our country has been invaded by transnational corporations such as Monsanto. That has damaged the essence of cultivating our lands, it has also polluted the lands and rivers of here.

We want to live differently, and that's our challenge. We have also strengthened our capacities and relationships with other communities, defended our lands against the interests of transnational corporations, our “poor” countries. We live here and want to continue living here, betting on agroecology and food sovereignty, as we have been doing so far.