“We are throwing out nets to capture gang members and then we will release the innocent people caught in the nets”

 

The story of Néstor Edgardo Hernández Guzmán and the Arrest of The Boatmen from El Espiritu Santo Island on May 13, 2022, under the suspension of constitutional and human rights in El Salvador decreed since March 27,2022

 

“We are throwing out nets to capture gang members and then we will release the innocent people caught in the nets.” This is what a highly trusted official in a key position of the Presidency of El Salvador told me in explaining the government's strategy. The same contact confessed to me that the government officials know that at least 20% of those arrested have no ties to any of the gangs. The problem is that these nets are only thrown to capture people in humble and poor communities, even in places where there are no gangs. The second problem is that most of the innocent are not being released; even though the government has finally recognized that it has arrested innocent people and they are releasing them little by little.[1] 

This story is not a biblical tale, although the Island is called “Holy Spirit Island” with arrests of artisanal fishermen with names like Jesus, Joseph, Josué, Isaac, Cristian, and Salvador, among other biblical names. Nestor, however, is a wise king in Greek mythology who returns home after a voyage to the sea and winning the Trojan War for the Greeks thanks to his intelligence.

On September 23, 2020, Holy Spirit Island Néstor’s boat sank when he responded to a request for help and rescue from the crew of the fishing vessel Don Nachito, in a dangerous situation at the mouth of Puerto El Triunfo. Nestor was injured in that accident and continues to suffer because of a wound on one of his legs. The accident is well documented, and Néstor won economic compensation from the owner of the ship, and with that money, together with a donation from his father and a loan from his sister who lives in the United States, he was able to buy a new boat and engine in April 2021. The compensation and the purchase are all legally documented.

On May 13, 2022, Nestor was captured by another wave.  This time it was the wave of the emergency regime, with bigger sharks and waves without mercy for the innocent.  On that day he was with his mother, his brother, his life partner, his son, and his stepson shopping for construction materials in Usulután. When they returned to the Malecón (the pier) in Puerto El Triunfo, a soldier approached and whispered in his ear, asked his name and told him to get away from his family and go to the group of people for whom they were checking documents. When the relatives asked a soldier what was happening, he told them that they were taking Nestor away for an investigation for fifteen days and that after this he would return home. He was the third boatman from the Island to be arrested that day at 4:30 p.m. on the Malecon. First, they arrested Salvador Antonio Herrera at the gas station when he was buying fuel for his boat. Second, they arrested José Samuel Pérez Perdomo who that day made a trip to deliver coconuts to a client and later, at the end of a trip with tourists, he was arrested. Later that same day, the soldiers of the Armed Forces and Civilian National Police Agents arrested two more boat taxi men on the island (not in the port): They first asked Carlos Alberto Herrera Gutierrez for a ride to the mainland.  Carlos Alberto Herrera Gutiérrez explained to the soldiers that he could not make a trip to the port for lack of fuel in his boat, and then they asked Manuel de Jesús Gutiérrez Palacios to provide transportation, lying that it was just to give them a ride.  Each was taken individually from their homes without resistance.  When they arrived at the Puerto el Triunfo pier, the police handcuffed both of them; It was stated in the police version that the two were arrested conspiring in criminal acts on the pier.

Who is Nestor Edgardo Hernandez Guzman?

Néstor was born on Isla El Espiritu Santo on November 15, 1978, the product of a relationship that lasted six years between his father, José Ignacio Guzmán Hernández, a mechanic by profession, and his mother Consuelo del Carmen Hernández de González. The two continue to live on the island. Nestor has a brother on the Isla El Espiritu Santo and two sisters who emigrated and raised their families in the United States.

Nestor fathered two daughters in his first marriage, a 14-year-old who immigrated with her mother to live in the United States in 2013, and a 10-year-old daughter who lives on the Island with her maternal grandmother. Nestor always spends time with his daughter, who lives on the island and she is financially dependent on him. Before starting his own family, Nestor was like a father to his niece Lesli Odalis. He always shared time with her and was always watching out for her safety when she studied in high school due to the presence of gangs in Puerto El Triunfo.  (There has never been a presence of gangs on the Island).  

Nestor has been in a relationship with his current life partner since 2018, and they have a son who has turned one year old while Nestor has been in custody.   Nestor assumed responsibility for his 10-year-old stepson.  Nestor’s common law wife, his son, and stepson, depend on him financially as well as his daughter who lives on the Island with her maternal grandmother.

Néstor is part of the first group of six young people from the Island who graduated from high school in 2001, when a company awarded scholarships in exchange for the recipients providing the labor to build a beach soccer field on the Island. Before this, it was impossible for a young person from the Island to study high school because of the cost of boat transportation to the National Institute of Puerto El Triunfo and other related expenses. Later, in 2011, the Center for Exchange and Solidarity (CIS) established a more permanent scholarship program so that others on the Island could study in high school and also have access to a university education when they graduate.   However, many of the young people gave up their scholarships due to a constant threat from gangs on the mainland; even some of those young people who are now accused of being gang members stopped going to school because of threats from the gang members on the mainland.

Nestor is well-known on the Island and is also highly respected. He has always been a leader, responsible, enterprising, and successful boatman with his business of providing transportation for the people of the Island, transporting cargo, making tourist trips, and responding to various emergencies. He has been recognized for participating in a New Masculinities Diploma, an INSAFORP masonry course, and earning a high school diploma.  In addition he has ten affidavits in his favor, licenses and permits to drive a boat, financial receipts, PNC solvency, a clear criminal record, and has been cleared by the Justice of the Peace of Puerto El Triunfo. I mention all this because in a special hearing for the first five boatmen arrested, granted on October 10, 2022  in San Miguel, the proof of his innocence were not taken into account and no proof of criminality was presented.     He was not granted substitute measure outside of prison, where he has remained now for over 10 months.  

Lies and Contradictions surrounding the arrests.

It is important to note the multiple contradictions, lies, and accusations against Néstor and the other four boatmen from the island: José Samuel Pérez Perdomo, Manuel de Jesús Gutiérrez Palacios, Salvador Antonio Herrera, and Carlos Alberto Herrera Gutiérrez:

The publication on Twitter of the Armed Forces of May 13, 2022, says "The Armed Forces captured in Puerto El Triunfo, Usuluán, together with the PNC, four collaborators of the MS-13, from whom they seized three motor boats, used to transport drugs, arms, and supplies to islands in the Bay of Jiquilisco.”

·         It is public knowledge that the Puerto El Triunfo pier is controlled by the 18 southern gang.

·         They did not arrest any of these men carrying out illegal acts, even though the Port has a Naval Post that controls all the traffic of boats that enter and leave the port 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Meanwhile, the Civilian National Police charged them with being members of the opposing gang – the Southern 18^th Street Gang, arms trafficking, drug trafficking, collecting extorsion, feeding gangs in the mangroves, and conspiring to commit illegal acts on the port.  Police also stated in interviews someone on the island had turned them in, what they refer to as “vox populi” (not evidence)

·         All five men were arrested individually: one buying gasoline, another returning from buying construction materials, and the third returning from a delivery of coconuts and a trip with tourists, and the last two in their homes on the island – in other words, individually and not “gathered together planning criminal acts” on the pier.  

·         Why didn't they arrest any of the five boatmen carrying food, extortion money, weapons, and drugs - all the crimes that they are accused of?  There is a post of the Naval Force and the Civilian National Police in the Port that has control and the capacity to monitor activity 24 /7. Why did they not arrest any of them in the criminal acts if what they are accused of  were true?

·         Do they make arrests and charges based on “vox populi” or evidence?

An investigation by the Elfaro Newspaper on August 9, 2022, cites a police source: “It is the same community that says so. It is the same community that has denounced them. People were watching them. The undisclosed source informs us, and we have to act.” In short, he explains that they have been singled out as gang collaborators. In particular, he says that his sources have seen them taking food to gang members' hideouts in the middle of the mangroves, although he qualifies: “We can't list them as active gang members, because if we do, they will never get out of prison.   Our idea is for them to get out of prison, because they are victims.”

·         Who was preparing these alleged meals for gangs in the mangroves?

·         Why haven't they arrested anyone in the mangroves around the Island?

·         If the same police say they are victims, why are they still deprived of freedom? Why have the 22 been accused of belonging to illegal groups?

·         After the CIS had asked several times why there are no arrests in the mangroves if there is a gang camp there? The government made a propaganda video of a military operation looking for gang members in the water on December 13, 2022, as if the gang members were amphibians and they were going to find them in the water. However, there are no reports of arrests in the mangroves that day.

·         In an operation by the Armed Forces in Puerto El Triunfo on January 9, 2023, the military entered the mangroves again and arrested the shell fishermen, but later released them because it was confirmed that they were shell fisherman and not gang members.

In an investigative publication by Prensa Grafica on August 15, 2022, a police officer from Puerto El Triunfo consulted by LA PRENSA GRÁFICA assured that the majority of those captured are active gang members of the MS 18 and that only two were captured for being collaborators.

·         There have never been gangs or gang members on the island.

·         The community and some of the men now imprisoned requested to have a police station on the Island 16 years ago to prevent the entry of gangs (Now the station has been taken over by the Armed Forces).

·         The El Jobal Cooperative has their own private security post that has registered all visitors entering and leaving the Island for more than two decades for the same reason - guaranteeing security.

·         None of the arrested men have a criminal record.

Finally, it is important to mention that the Special Investigating Court in San Miguel granted a special hearing for the five boatmen on October 10, 2022. However, they did not release any of them with precautionary measures. The judge did not have any proof of criminal activity, and did not take into account their family ties, work history or 40 year or life-long residence on the island that the government is requesting to prove innocence. The hearing reiterated the false accusation of providing food in the mangroves.

Conclusion and million-dollar questions:

·         If in 10 months the government has not presented any evidence of criminal act; If the reports from the same PNC and the Armed Forces contradict each other and are full of lies and only based on the “public voice”, why are the 5 boatmen and a total of 22 artisanal fishermen on the island still under arrest?

·         Is the alleged “public voice” people who want to control tourist trips, tourism on the Island, and/or drug trafficking?

·         Are the agents in the area afraid of the gangs or do they have ties to the gangs that have continued to operate in the area of Puerto el Triunfo months after the arrest of the men of Isla El Espiritu Santo (where there are no gangs)?

·         Do the arrests simply correspond to pressure on the police or soldiers to have high arrest numbers or so that they can obtain financial bonuses or additional days off of work? (Many police report getting bonuses or a day off for each arrest they make in addition to getting orders from superiors to arrest people they know or believe are innocent).  

·         Or if there is evidence of active criminality of one of the 22 captured men, why have the authorities not presented it?

We hope that Nestor, the wise King in Greek mythology, who returned home safely after the turbulent sea voyage in the Trojan War, can guide the 22 boatmen and artisanal fishermen to survive the strong wave of the emergency regime and bring them back to their place on the Isla El Espiritu Santo. And if anyone doubts the roots, leadership, responsibility, intelligence, entrepreneurship, and humanity of Néstor Hernández, they can ask anyone on the Island.

                      

Centro de Intercambio y Solidaridad (CIS), March 13, 2023

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