Santiago Martín Barajas, one of the founders of Ecologistas en Acción and its first general coordinator, practiced sexual harassment and workplace harassment for years within the organization. This is concluded by the preliminary report prepared by a commission of nine people – seven from Ecologists and two independent experts – to which elDiario.es has had access and which was launched after this newspaper revealed that a court is investigating a complaint of sexual assault. against Barajas. The investigation has also brought to light the context of these behaviors, “a climate of power relations that evidence patriarchal forms and structural patterns of action, which, although they were identified and pointed out by people with responsibilities in the organization, were not censored or stopped.” ”.
Although the criminal complaint for sexual assault was filed by a woman with no employment relationship with Ecologistas en Acción, but linked to environmentalism, her accusation included the testimonies of two other women: one of them was an employee of the organization and reported episodes of harassment and abuse. of varying intensity over the years. It will be when the criminal process ends – of which the worker can become a part – when, regardless of its outcome, this report will be completed and the final document will be closed. The existence of the judicial procedure, which is settled in court, the report explains, does not prevent the organization from investigating and taking appropriate measures.
The internal investigation has compiled testimonies and documents that “point to the prolonged existence over two decades of behaviors that could be considered sexual harassment at work and workplace harassment by the person indicated,” that is, Martín Barajas. The Commission has identified, they emphasize, “serious situations” that combine behaviors typical of workplace sexual harassment and workplace harassment “against a victim.” The conclusions are based not only on the testimony of the victim, but also on “direct witnesses” and “other evidence” that give strength to the story.
Specifically, the text speaks of a dynamic of “habitual and repeated” workplace sexual harassment for years through “sexual blackmail, non-consensual physical sexual contacts, constant calls from the alleged aggressor, leading to two situations of sexual assault (in 2002 and 2003). The investigation recalls that norms, jurisprudence and international investigations consider sexual violence to include non-consensual kisses, non-consensual touching with sexual content, pressure to have sexual relations or the threat of workplace reprisals if one does not give in, sexual blackmail, or repeated online or telephone harassment. The Commission has verified that there are indications that confirm that in this case there was mild, serious and very serious sexual harassment at work.
The investigation states that non-consensual touching and control calls continued until approximately 2020. That year, the victim moved and, at the same time, several members of the organization presented themselves with an alternative list to the Confederal Secretary of Ecologists in Action. “It is from this fact that the accused person stopped sexually harassing [… ] but he began to exercise other behaviors against her that could be considered workplace harassment through other actions of defamation and professional discredit,” they say. These actions consisted, for example, of spreading falsehoods about the woman’s professional performance or making calls to other members of the organization “to speak ill of the people on the alternative list.”
Contacted by elDiario.es, Santiago Martín Barajas insists that it is a montage and that the leak of this document confirms it. Martín Barajas assures that he is studying taking legal action against people “who give false testimonies and who are identified there” and “against the leak of the report.” However, the report does not identify anyone with names and surnames, but rather with numbers to precisely protect their anonymity. The activist assures that he has already responded to the report with an extensive writing.
Sources from Ecologistas en Acción regret the leak of the report. “This is a preliminary report (therefore, not definitive) that has been prepared under strict terms of confidentiality, under the principles of presumption of innocence, guarantee of labor rights, social protection of victims and the right to privacy and dignity of the people involved,” they highlight. This report, they continue, aims to “provide the framework, prior to the judicial clarification of the ongoing process, to address measures that are considered necessary for prevention and reparation to the victims, within a process that needs time, that needs to be informed and agreed upon, more so in a horizontal organization like ours.”
slap on the organization’s wrist
The document from the Anti-Harassment Commission gives Ecologists in Action a slap on the wrist. The lack of “effective instruments for the prevention, identification and action against workplace sexual harassment in the organization” has led to “a pattern of naturalization of workplace sexual harassment and workplace bullying.” “Based on the testimonies and evidence in the Commission’s possession, a tendency towards normalization and lack of attention or possible underestimation of what happened has been observed,” the investigation highlights. For example, the victim related what she had suffered to two people “who did not know how to act” while she asked others not to comment on what happened for fear of what could happen, “which reflects the difficulties in the organization in addressing harassment.” “work sexual relations”.
“In this sense, it draws the attention of this Commission that these behaviors were silenced by some direct witnesses of what happened,” they continue. One of those witnesses – to whom the worker turned for help so that Santiago Martín Barajas would stop his behavior – denied before the Commission that he was aware of any harassment situation of any kind within the organization. However, the victim and two other witnesses confirm that he was aware of what was happening with Barajas.
The testimonies of up to four people collected in the investigation reveal that they were aware of the behavior of the historical environmentalist towards the victim, but that “they did not know how to act with the diligence that a case of these characteristics implies, generating an unintentional minimization of the impact that the harassment sexual labor was having on the victim, on other women in the organization and on the organization itself.” One of those people recognized behaviors “that in the past were not identified as sexual harassment,” while another admits “that as an organization we have not been able to hear and see what was happening.”
One of the people interviewed did bring it to the attention of a body in 2022, but the organization did not take any action in this regard. “This inaction not only continued to perpetuate the impunity of the alleged aggressor, but also exposed [a esa persona] publicly.” Among some of the consequences of “institutional or organizational inaction,” the report points out, are the “emotions of helplessness and hopelessness” of the direct and indirect victims but also of members of the organization, which lead to “a silencing on the part of Those affected themselves, who perceive that the search for solutions and justice are ignored, which can lead to anxiety, depression and other mental health problems” described by several of them.
The investigation
The investigation concludes with a section of proposals to prevent sexual harassment, as well as precautionary and reparation measures. Among the latter, that the Madrid Group of Ecologists in Action, to which Santiago Martín Barajas belongs, continues with its suspension. “The Commission has verified that the prolonged situation of abuse of power and sexual harassment that has indirectly surfaced in this process has shown damage to the main victim that the organization must recognize and support,” they say. For this reason, they recommend offering comprehensive support to the victim and preparing a proposal for social reparation and forgiveness for the damage caused, which will be presented along with the final report.
In its list of prevention measures, the Commission requests to review the anti-harassment protocol in force in the organization, as well as other complementary documents, implement awareness-raising and training measures for all people involved at work or through activism, and adopt a declaration of principles.
Ecologistas en Acción launched its anti-harassment committee after learning of a woman’s sexual assault complaint against Santiago Martín Barajas, one of its founders and a prominent figure in the organization, published by elDiario.es, which compiled the testimony of three women — including the complainant, who was not part of Ecologistas—and accessed relevant documentation, including the formal complaint, a medical report and summonses that the court had already sent to several people as part of the investigation.
The anti-harassment committee formed the Investigation Commission, which has met ten times in recent weeks and has been in charge of reviewing documentation and internal rules, and interviewing at least 13 people. They have also held informal conversations with people with whom they had chance encounters or who came into contact with them and from whom they extracted information that they have included in their report “when it has been considered relevant and has been verified.” Among the interviews is that of Santiago Martín Barajas. The report highlights that the detailed analysis of the testimonies – “coherent, consistent and credible” – presents “a uniform and non-contradictory story” that is also supported by other observations.
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