Those responsible for the death of young environmental activist Jairo Mora Sandoval, killed in 2013, have received sentences ranging from 74 to 90 years.
What makes environmentally motivated crimes doubly terrible is the impunity that so often accompanies them. "Environmental defenders are being killed in broad daylight, kidnapped, threatened or put on trial as terrorists in the name of so-called 'development'," said Billy Kyte, activist at Global Witness, the British human rights NGO. "The real perpetrators of these crimes, in which governments and large corporations have a strong interest, go unpunished." But not this time: the killers of Jairo Mora Sandoval have been convicted.
Sandoval was a Costa Rican environmental activist who, working with the association Widecast, had dedicated his life to the conservation of sea turtles in his country. He was killed at just twenty-six years old on 30 May 2013, near Limón, Costa Rica, on the very stretch of beach he patrolled to protect turtle nests from poachers. Sandoval was kidnapped along with four women who were working with him as volunteers (who managed to escape and go to the police), and was found the following day lifeless, naked, handcuffed, bearing evident signs of violence and with traces of sand in his lungs.
The young Costa Rican had decided to protect the sea turtles that nest on Costa Rica's beaches — animals under increasing threat — coming into conflict with poachers. Among the main threats is the illegal trade in eggs, which has led to the growing plundering of nests. According to local environmentalists, this illegal trade is linked to drug trafficking. Jairo had publicly denounced the "mafia that steals eggs from turtle nests".
Sandoval's murder had initially been classified as a robbery gone wrong. In the trial held in January 2015, the defendants — Héctor Cash, Ernesto Centeno, José Bryan Quesada and Donald Salmón — were acquitted (judge Yolanda Alvarado had complained of poor handling of evidence by investigators, prosecutors and the preliminary courts). The court of appeal, however, reversed the verdict, and the four poachers involved in the man's murder and the kidnapping of the three volunteers received sentences ranging from 74 to 90 years. The defence had sought to exonerate the defendants by describing the killing as the work of unidentified drug traffickers, while during the reading of the sentence — which lasted more than two hours — the judges highlighted Jairo Mora Sandoval's work with sea turtles as the primary motivation for his murder.
"The killing of Jairo Mora Sandoval was the straw that broke the camel's back in the ongoing war between poachers and environmentalists on Costa Rica's beaches," said Carlos Alvarez, the presiding judge of the court of appeal, thereby setting in motion new efforts in the fight against wildlife crime.
In March 2014, Sea Shepherd renamed one of its fleet's patrol vessels Jairo Mora Sandoval. Previously, the organisation that fights to protect marine wildlife had offered a reward of 30,000 dollars to anyone who provided useful information leading to the arrest of Sandoval's killers. "The news of Jairo Mora Sandoval's murder saddened me beyond measure," said Paul Watson, founder of Sea Shepherd. "And then I became angry. Angry because it happened even though Jairo had been expressing concern for his safety to the police and the government. Angry because the government did not respond, angry because we had to put pressure on the government to act, and angry because poachers continue to desecrate and plunder turtle nests. I also swore that the name of Jairo Mora Sandoval would not be forgotten, which is why we named a vessel after him — one that will be involved in anti-poaching operations off the coast of West Africa."