Day Three: The Trial Begins

Last update: 8:00 pm

Main Points of the Day

• Despite there being no electricity in the court and the inability to publicly broadcast the trial, all parties decided to begin the trial. The prosecutors begin by formalizing the charges against the eight accused water defenders followed by the defense’s response to the official accusations.
• In their opening statement, the prosecutors explain the incident on September 7 and surprise the defense by adding an additional charge of aggravated damages allegedly suffered by Inversiones Los Pinares, in addition to three other accusations: aggravated arson against Santos Correa [Los Pinares security guard]; unjust detention of Santos Correa; and aggravated arson in damage to Inversiones Los Pinares.
• The team of defense attorneys highlight: that the prosecutors lack of evidence of the alleged facts, and in fact, are lying about what happened on September 7, 2018; that adding the additional charge of damages at this phase of the process is not procedurally permitted; failed to explain the individual participation of each accused in the September 7 incident which is required at this phase of the process; and lack objectivity.
• After lunch, the court ruled in favor of the prosecutors, allowing prosecutors to add a fourth accusation against the water defenders, sparking an entire afternoon of the defense attorneys explaining why the court’s decision is ”procedural fraud.” Defense attorneys asked the court to reconsider the decision. Trial was suspended for judge’s to deliberate and is convened for tomorrow at 9 am.

More Details

Today, there was not any electricity in the courthouse as well as the city of Tocoa. At approximately 9:45 am, the judges called all parties into the dark courtroom to decide whether to begin the trial. All parties were in agreement with the trial proceeding forward. It was not broadcasted as a result of the electricity problem so the defense asks that the proceedings be recorded.

Prosecutors Formalize the Charges Against the Eight Water Defenders in Opening Statement

• Prosecutors present their opening statement by explaining how the incidents occurred on September 7, 2018 and outline the charges against the eight men.
• On September 7, 2018 at 6:20 am, Santos Hernandez Correa, acting as the manager of the security company SEPSE (NOTE: Unclear if this is the correct name), went to company’s project site where various elements of security were working that day. At the project site, there were two large containers, one that was going to be used as sleeping quarters for the company’s workers, and another as an office.
• When Santos Hernandez Correa, together with the people accompanying him that day, went to the area in his red, Ford pick up truck, he was met by a group of people including Ever Cedillo, José Cedillo, José Márquez, Kelvin Romero, Porfirio Sorto, Orbin Hernández, Arnol Alemán and Jeremias Diaz and others. The group were shouting that they didn’t want mining in the area, threatening Correa and the people he was with, with rocks, sticks and machetes. Santos Correa attempted to dialogue with the accused to avoid confrontations, but instead, they started to bring more people to surround the security team. Correa tried again to dialogue with the accused but they continued to attack him. After various hours of failed attempts to dialogue, Correa ordered his employees to leave the area especially as the accused got more violent and more people showing up at the site.
• After his employees left, Correa stayed inside his vehicle at the side of the road leading to the project site. He head local residents begin to fire guns, which as a result of the shots, left one person among the residents, injured. Then the residents began to attack Correa’s vehicle. They started to remove various tools that he had in his vehicle while hitting it with sticks, metal rods, machetes, and rocks and anything else they could find around the site. This occurred for various minutes. The group didn’t care that Santos Correa was inside the vehicle. At one moment, Correa attempted to get out of the vehicle and tried to run away but was followed by the accused individuals, who detained him and begun to beat him up and take away his belongings.
• In the course of detaining Correa, they told him that they were going to cut his hands off while they had a machete against his throat. They threatened him and simultaneously, lit his vehicle on fire despite Correa warning that the type of gas in the car, could cause damage. They didn’t go into the project site but held him hostage for 2 to 5 hours. They constantly threatened him with their machetes and weapons, saying they were going to kill him and were threatening to force him to drink pee.
• Moments later, the accused individuals together with other people, lit the large blue container on fire. The container was going to be used as a sleeping space for workers. They also damaged the green container that was to be used as an office. Inversiones Los Pinares owned the containers.
• When the police arrived, they attempted to dialogue with and get close to various leaders including the accused individuals. They got in touch with the human rights office in Tocoa. The attempt to dialogue was not successful. Finally, a Preventive Police chief arrived to talk to the people and negotiated Correa’s freedom.
• Charges: The Public Prosecutor’s office charges the accused with unjust detention (Article 193 of the criminal code) which has a punishment of 3 to 6 years in prison; with aggravated arson in detriment to Santos Correa which has a punishment of 3 to 6 years (NOTE: this must be an error); and aggravated arson (Article 256, no. 2) in detriment to Inversiones Los Pinares with a punishment of 6 to 12 years in prison. Throughout the trial, the prosecutors will prove that the blue container, was lit on fire and that damages were caused to the green container. Because only damages occurred to the green container, the Public Prosecutor’s office will modify the third aggravated arson charge to aggravated damages.
• We consider the participation of the accused as being “direct authors” of the crime, as defined by Article 32 of the Criminal code and Decree 144-83.

Private Accusers Representing Mining Company Inversiones Los Pinares Give Opening Remarks

(Attorneys Luis Miguel Lara and Steve Fajardo represent Inversiones Los Pinares)

• We want to confirm the Public Prosecutor’s narration of the incident and facts. We also want to modify one of the accusations of aggravated arson to aggravated damages, which was suffered by the green container. It was not burnt but it was damaged.
• This leaves two charges that our client has been victim of: Aggravated arson and aggravated damages.

Defense Responses to Prosecutor’s Opening Remarks & New Charge

(There are seven defense attorneys: Edy Tabora, Efraín Ramírez, Carlo Jiménez, Mario Rojas, Omar Menjivar, Rodolfo Zamora, Kenia Oliva. For simplicity, the notes will include the arguments of all defense lawyers without specifying names)

• In order to narrate “facts” of a case, there are certain requirements that must be met. An incident must occur in a specific place and clear descriptions of the facts must be established. The prosecutors have not done this. They have not established the individual participation of each of the accused.
• For example, they argued that the accused threatened Santos Correa with weapons, sticks, rocks and machetes. There is simply no proof of this. The prosecutors said that shots were fired but the prosecutors said that the local residents fired the weapons and then someone was injured. But up until now, there is no proof or investigation about where from and who fired the shots.
• Prosecutors say that Santos Correa was physically threatened and beaten up. But since this legal case started, there is no documentation or evidence, such as a medical certificate from forensic medicine, to substantiate this claim. This is an example of how the prosecutors are making up these accusations without any proof. The prosecutors also said that Santos Correa was detained between 3 to 5 hours. But what was it? 3 hours? 5 hours? And what happened during this time?
• The prosecutors have omitted facts that are relevant to this case. On September 7, there was a protest against the imposition of a mining project that is based in corruption and violence caused by Inversiones Los Pinares, against the group of individuals from various communities that are defending their water supply. The prosecutors indicate that someone was injured during the incident but they have not investigated this assassination attempt provoked by the company’s security guards. The prosecutors conveniently omitted this information.
• In order to add an additional charge, the prosecutors have to describe the new facts that justify it. The prosecutions says they are modifying one of the three aggravated arson charges to aggravated damages, but in reality, they are adding an additional charge because none of the accused were ever charged with three counts of aggravated arson, only two. If they want to add an additional charge, they have to indict them again to include the new accusation. The eight men are accused, and this can be found in many legal documents from past hearings, of two charges of aggravated arson – one against Inversiones Los Pinares and the other, Santos Correa – and unjust detention of Santos Correa. Not three charges of aggravated arson – one of which the prosecutors are saying they will modify to damages. The prosecution is not being objective.

Judges’s Ruling About the Additional Charge of Damages Added by the Prosecution

• Court allows the prosecution’s request to add an additional charge (or a modification according to what the prosecutors are arguing) of aggravated damages.

Defense Asks Court to Reconsider

• The private accusers are saying that the modification of the charge arises out of the same incident and same facts that led to the original accusations. If the prosecutors want to argue that two containers were lit on fire that day, then they have always charged the accused with one count of aggravated arson. The way that the private accusers and the prosecutors are arguing this point, is pushing an idea that should be considered “procedural fraud.”
• [NOTE: The defense spent the entire afternoon explaining to the court that the prosecution never accused the water defenders of three counts of aggravated arson. The request to modify one of the alleged three charges of arson, is in fact adding an additional charge, which is not permitted by the procedural code. It became pretty clear that either the judges weren’t paying attention to the trial or they are clearly bias and conspiring with the prosecutors and private accusers that represent the mining company].

Court Adjourns for the Day Without Answering the Defense’s Request to Reconsider

• The judges adjourned the session for the day before deliberating about the defense’s request. Tomorrow, the three judges will have to give their decision about adding the additional charge. Before the session was adjourned, the defense requested the video evidence that will be presented by the prosecution and received a copy.
• The trial is convened for tomorrow at 9 am.