Last update: 9:20 pm, January 24, 2022
Main Points of the Day
- The trial started with a serious concern raised by the defense. The attorneys representing the water defenders asked the prosecution to clarify why armed men in civilian clothes were standing outside the court room. They expressed fear and denounced that the armed men were intimidating them, the water defenders and the family members gathered outside the courthouse. The defense threatened to leave the courthouse if the judges did not take control of the situation emphasizing the role that private security and retired military and police have played in the trial and the conflict on behalf of Inversiones Los Pinares. The prosecution told the court that the men were police and then said they are private security. After the defense insisting several times, the judges finally ordered the men to leave the courthouse and the defense notified the national protection mechanism that they felt intimidated by the attitude and actions of the armed men, the prosecutors and the lawyers representing Inversiones Los Pinares.
- When the trial finally got started, Selvin Eduardo Silva, an investigative (DPI) police agent ratified a document testifying that he received a USB memory containing videos of the incident on September 7, 2018. These will be viewed later in the trial.
- Another DPI agent, Lester Yalil Martinez, took the stand to ratify a diagram that he had drawn of the area near the mining company’s plant that describes the location of the car and the containers that were burned on September 7, 2018. The defense argued that the prosecution was presenting a document that reconstructed the events of the crime scene, which is its elaboration, by law, require the presence of the defense. The document was also different from what the prosecution had originally told the court it was and there was no judicial control to ensure its authenticity. Despite several arguments to not admit the expert testimony, the judges decided to allow it.
- Later, a protected witness took the stand testifying that he had been present the day of the incidents. His testimony contradicted previous witnesses including details about alleged threats against and injuries suffered by Santos Hernandez and descriptive information about the person that was shot that day. The witness repeated the same defamatory message used by many linked to Inversiones Los Pinares, that the water defenders are accusing the company of shooting someone that day in order to receive money from human rights organizations.
- The trial is convened tomorrow at 9:00 am.
