In El Salvador, a court has acquitted and freed a group of environmental activists known as the Santa Marta 5. The five activists were instrumental in pressuring El Salvador to issue the world’s first-ever ban on metal mining in 2017. They were arrested in January of last year and accused of murder in what was widely denounced as political persecution. This is one of the Santa Marta 5, Saúl Rivas, speaking after the ruling Friday.

Saúl Rivas: “We cannot be criminalizing and detaining people for something that happened in the past, when there was an investigation by the Truth Commission after the peace accords and the facts that could be considered as against humanity were cleared.”