Update: Suspects Arrested for Assassinations, Coalition Reasserts Mining Motive http://www.cispes.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=730&Itemid=1

In a July 13statement after the arrest of 8 suspects in connection to the murders of anti-mining activists from the rural department of Cabañas, El Salvador, the National Roundtable Against Metallic Mining (the Mesa) criticized the investigation for ignoring glaring ties to gold mining interests in the region. On July 1, the National Civil Police (PNC) and the Attorney General's Special Organized Crime Unit (DECO) announced the arrests of 8 individuals for the murders of Dora Alicia Sorto Recinos and her unborn child, Ramiro Rivera and Felicita Echeverría in December of last year.

Rodolfo Delgado, the director of the DECO, announced that the murders were due to a family feud and that two families had contracted gang members to kill members of the rival families. He went on to say that the mining conflict was not the principal motive for the murders and that the Attorney General was satisfied that all the material authors and the two intellectual authors of the crime were in custody.