Front Line Defenders expresses concern regarding the attack against Father Santos Neftalí Ruíz Martínez on 20 January 2012. Father Neftalí is the Secretary of the Board of the Comité Ambiental de Cabañas – CAC.

CAC is the (Environmental Committee of Cabañas), an organisation which works to educate the community about the health and environmental risks of cyanide contamination as a result of gold mining operations.

On 20 January 2012, at approximately 12:00 pm, two youths arrived to the home of Father Santos Neftalí Ruíz Martínez and introduced themselves as students of the National University who were interested in asking questions about the type of work he is involved in with CAC. After speaking to the individuals for approximately 20 minutes on the environmental work of the organisation, the priest was then attacked by the youths who had produced a firearm and a knife. They tied him to his bed, where he was left for three hours with his feet and hands tied, and stole his laptop computer, a desktop computer, a hard disk with all the information relating to his activities with CAC, USB memory keys, compact disks, mobile telephones and identity documents.

On 13 June 2011 the body of anti-mining activist and human rights defender Mr Juan Francisco Duran Ayala was found following his disappearance on 3 June. He was a volunteer with CAC, and had last been seen on 3 June, the day after he had been out putting up flyers and banners in the city of Ilobasco, Cabañas, against mining and the Canadian mining company Pacific Rim as part of a CAC campaign. In December 2009 anti-mining activists Mr Ramiro Rivera and Ms Alicia Recinos Sorto, respectively Chairman and member of CAC, and active opponents of the El Dorado mining operation in Cabañas, were shot dead in separate attacks. Following these killings staff members at local radio station Radio Victoria received further death threats in which the authors claimed responsibility for the killings of Ramiro Rivera and Alicia Recinos Sorto and warned that members of Radio Victoria would be next. At the time of her shooting Alicia Recinos Sorto was eight months pregnant and was carrying her two-year old child in her arms.

The El Dorado mine which the activists oppose is currently non-operational due to a suspension of activities resulting from an ongoing legal case. Pacific Rim, a Canadian mining company, is currently seeking to have it re-opened despite widespread opposition locally. The operation initially closed after local protests, and the outgoing Salvadoran government negated Pacific Rim's mining permits in late 2008; President Funes

furthermore stated his opposition to the project during his 2009 presidential campaign. In response, Pacific Rim have opened an arbitration case against the Salvadoran government seeking millions of dollars in compensation.

Front Line Defenders believes that the attack against Father Santos Neftalí Ruíz Martínez is a direct result of his work in the defence of human rights, particularly environmental rights. Front Line Defenders views this as forming part of a pattern of ongoing harsh intimidation of anti-mining activists in El Salvador, and is seriously concerned for the security and physical and psychological integrity of human rights defenders in the Cabañas region and their families.

'''Father Santos Neftalí Ruíz Martínez was a participant at the Front Line Defenders Sixth Dublin Platform in September 2011.'''