José Antonio Arreola and José Luis Jiménez are Purépecha indigenous rights defenders and members of the Consejo Ciudadano Indígena de Nahuatzen (Indigenous Citizens’ Council of Nahuatzen). The Indigenous Citizens’ Council is a direct democracy-style community government in the state of Michoacán, which began a process of gaining autonomous status for the indigenous community in 2015, and has worked to defend the rights of the indigenous people of Nahuatzen.

Fredy Garcia Ramirez, who at the time served as spokesman for the Committee for the Defense of Indigenous Rights (CODEDI), was arbitrarily arrested on November 6th, 2019. CODEDI is an organization that has a long-term commitment to the promotion of the rights of indigenous communities to land, autonomy and self-determination. It focuses on the defense of human rights violations produced by hydroelectric and mining projects in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico.

Steve Martinez is confined in Burleigh County Detention Center after refusing, on principle, to give testimony before a federal grand jury. This Grand Jury, like the one at which Martinez refused to testify three years ago, ostensibly involves a criminal investigation into events leading to the grievous injury of Water Protector Sophia Wilansky. It has been the position of Morton County, ND that Ms. Wilansky was not injured as a result of excessive force by law enforcement, but by the actions of Water Protectors.

Juan Tapia is an ex-Lautarista or former member of the Lautaro Popular and Rebel Forces (named after a young Mapuche leader of indigenous resistance). In March 1993, he was wounded in an ambush by the Carabineros Police Intelligence Directorate, while meeting with other comrades to plan a robbery. In the same action, Norma Vergara Cáceres was killed by agents of DIPOLCAR. In 1997, he managed to get out on bail in order to resume his life. 

Rattler has accepted a non-cooperating plea agreement on February 13, 2018 for charges of Civil Disorder and Use of Fire to Commit a Federal Felony Offense for his righteous involvement as a water protector at Standing Rock.

Under the agreement, the Use of Fire to Commit a Federal Felony Offense charge will be dismissed and prosecutors and defense will jointly recommend a sentence of three years in prison for the Civil Disorder charge, although the judge does have the authority to go as high as 5 years.