Skip to content

5 min read

Campaign for the liberation of the "Suchitoto 13" prisoners in El Salvador,

Summary

From July 2, 2007 to February 19, 2008, a domestic-international coalition forced the Salvadoran government to release and drop all charges against thirteen protesters arrested while blocking President Antonio Saca’s water-privatization announcement in Suchitoto. [source: nv-database] The campaign scored 6 of 6 on the source’s rubric — full marks on demand achievement. The thirteen were released on July 27, 2007 and all charges were dropped on February 19, 2008. [source: nv-database]

Tactics used

Tactics used

Background

In 1998, the Inter-American Development Bank approved a loan for water-sector reform in El Salvador, with $36 million earmarked for promoting private-sector participation. [source: nv-database] In 2005, President Saca cut the budget of the national water agency (ANDA) by an additional 15%. In a country where 40% of residents lacked access to potable water, community and activist groups had grown increasingly critical of the privatization process [source: nv-database]. On July 2, 2007, President Saca planned to formally announce the decentralization policy at an event in Suchitoto [source: nv-database]. The morning of the announcement, protesters filled the city and created blockades in the streets leading to the venue. Riot police and the National Civil Police (PNC) attempted to disperse the crowds with tear gas, pepper spray, and rubber bullets at close range. Saca was forced to take a helicopter back to San Salvador. Police injured 75 people and arrested 14. [source: nv-database] Two of the fourteen arrested were Marta Lorena Araujo and Rosa María Centeno, the president and vice president of the Association of Rural Communities for the Development of El Salvador (CRIPDES). Thirteen of the fourteen were charged with “acts of terrorism” under the Special Law Against Acts of Terrorism (modelled after the US Patriot Act), carrying a potential sixty-year sentence [source: nv-database]. Judge Ana Lucila Fuentes de Paz threw out the “public disorder” and “illicit association” charges for lack of evidence but denied bail. [source: nv-database]

What happened

On July 3, representatives of human rights and community organizations met with the government’s human-rights officer Beatrice de Carrillo to demand release without charges and a denouncement of the broader repression. CRIPDES and other groups presented a resolution to the legislative assembly demanding that political parties repudiate the repression of the anti-privatization campaign. [source: nv-database]

On July 4, sixty Salvadoran social organizations signed a public statement demanding the prisoners’ immediate release without charges and, barring that, respect for their physical safety. Protesters began to refer to the detained as the “Suchitoto 13” — the first political prisoners since the 1992 peace accords. [source: nv-database]

Amnesty International issued a public statement calling the prosecution retaliation for legitimate protest. Human Rights Watch, the Center for Justice and International Law, and Reporters Without Borders added statements. [source: nv-database]

On July 11, the US-based El Salvador Sister Cities Organization met with US Ambassador Charles Glazer and demanded an official US position on the July 2 protest and the prisoners. CISPES drafted a letter bearing the signatures of forty members of the US Congress, addressed to President Saca, questioning the use of the anti-terrorism law against peaceful protesters. [source: nv-database]

On July 27, the thirteen were conditionally released after twenty-six days in jail; they were required to remain in the country and report to the judge every fifteen days. [source: nv-database]

The case continued in court through early 2008. On February 8, 2008, Judge Fuentes de Paz dropped the “acts of terrorism” charges and substituted “public disorder” and “aggravated damages.” Three days later, CRIPDES, CORDES, and MPR-12 organized a three-day march from Suchitoto to San Salvador; nearly 700 people set out on day one, and on the third day they were joined by 3,500 more for a mass mobilization that surrounded the Special Tribunal Building. The judge dropped the remaining charges on February 19, 2008. [source: nv-database]

Key people & organizations

  • President Antonio Saca — whose privatization announcement was blocked
  • Marta Lorena Araujo and Rosa María Centeno — the CRIPDES leaders among the arrested
  • CRIPDES — Association of Rural Communities for the Development of El Salvador
  • CORDES — Foundation for Cooperation and Community Development of El Salvador
  • MPR-12 — Popular Resistance Movement of October 12
  • Judge Ana Lucila Fuentes de Paz — the judge who ultimately dropped all charges
  • Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, CEJIL, Reporters Without Borders — international human-rights supporters
  • CISPES — Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador
  • Beatrice de Carrillo — the government’s human-rights officer who received the delegations

Outcome

Verdict: won.

The thirteen were conditionally released on July 27, 2007; on February 19, 2008 all charges were dropped for failure by the Attorney General’s office to present sufficient evidence. [source: nv-database] The source scores the campaign 6 of 6 on demand achievement, with infrastructure described as having remained strong throughout.

Lessons

  • Naming the prisoners — “the Suchitoto 13” — and tying them to a previous watershed (the 1992 peace accords) reframed a criminal case as a political one.
  • An anti-terrorism prosecution is more, not less, vulnerable to international pressure: the label itself carries the legitimacy costs the government hoped to avoid.
  • A terminal march that ends surrounding the venue where the decision is being made is the practical equivalent of a mass lobby.

Sources

Disclaimer: Included as a teaching example of campaign craft, not as endorsement.

Sources & verification

  • nv-database — grounding: primary — license: link-only / all-rights-reserved (ND-style; content paraphrased, not quoted)
  • Verified: 2026-07-04 by human

Last verified: 2026-07-09