International organisations are calling on the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to take precautionary measures to protect Fidel Zavala. This article is based on the urgent action campaigns of Amnesty International and the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES), and a report by El Faro journalist Carlos Martínez.
‘What are the two things they can do with me right now? Literally, there are only two. Either they fabricate another case, they put me in prison, and anything can happen to me inside. Or I come out of all of this a free man.’ – Fidel Zavala, speaking to El Faro.
On 25 February 2025, Fidel Zavala, spokesperson for the Unidad de Defensa de los Derechos Humanos y de la Comunidad (UNIDEHC), was arrested along with more than 20 leaders from the community of La Floresta, San Juan Opico, which had been fighting the eviction of some 250 families from the land where they have lived for over a decade. Security forces also raided UNIDEHC’s headquarters and the home of its director, lawyer Ivania Cruz.
These actions are the latest in a series of attempts by the Bukele administration to criminalize human rights defenders under the state of exception, which is now in its fourth consecutive year.
Forced evictions
Twelve years ago a settlement was established on Hacienda La Floresta which, according to one community member, had been abandoned for approximately 30 years: ‘We were people who didn’t have anywhere to live, some of us rented shacks, others lived cramped together with other families.’
In May 2024 people arrived claiming to be the owners and attempted to forcibly evict the 250 families who were living there, destroying some of their homes with diggers. The community organized and, with the accompaniment of Zavala and UNIDEHC, pursued legal avenues to remain on the land.
On 9 February 2025, police officers apprehended two elected leaders of the community, Medardo Martínez and his partner Alejandra Jeannette Cañas, under the false pretence of a meeting with the public prosecutor. The couple were accused of ‘illegal land trafficking’. On the day of his arrest, Zavala had visited the ombudsman with two other community leaders to denounce the arbitrary detention of their leaders. The three of them were arrested in the afternoon and the police raided Zavala’s home, UNIDEHC’s offices and the home of the organization’s director Ivania Cruz before detaining at least 20 members of the community in an operation that went on until 2am.
UNIDEHC say that in the days that followed, dozens of families in the community left their homes, some of them after living there for over 15 years, as security forces threatened them with arrest and demolitions.
‘We’re panicking that they’ll come and pull us out of here in the night. They’re getting what they wanted. For people to be afraid to talk’ one La Floresta resident told El Faro.
State of exception
Zavala and members of the community face charges of belonging to an ‘illicit group’, an accusation used to arrest over 86,000 people without warrants for alleged ties to gangs under the state of exception. Among other abuses, human rights organizations have documented the deaths of over 380 people in custody since the latter was implemented on 27 March 2022.
Zavala’s arrest is all the more significant given that his eyewitness account of torture and abuses in prisons formed the basis of a legal complaint against the Director-General of the Bureau of Prisons, Osiris Luna, and the directors of Mariona and Santa Ana prisons, presented to the Attorney General on 17 July 2024.
Zavala spent 13 months in pretrial detention before being found innocent on 17 March 2023. During this time, he claims to have witnessed beatings that resulted in inmates being returned to their cells in wheelchairs or unconscious, often not showing up to roll call the following day.
Zavala is the first ex-prisoner to file a formal legal complaint against Salvadoran prison directors and has become a leading voice among those exposing the abuses of the Bukele regime. As a result, he has been the target of a government smear campaign, with the Attorney General threatening to reopen his case in 2024 and official social media channels publishing claims about alleged crimes of which he has already been acquitted.
Emergency appeal
Over 170 human rights, faith, labour and solidarity organisations from 23 countries have called on the IACHR to pay urgent attention to the habeas corpus measures requested for Zavala, saying that, taken together, the authorities’ actions ‘represent an escalation of persecution against human rights defenders and are a threat to communities and groups who exercise their right to organize and to freedom of association in El Salvador’.
Vicki Gass, Executive Director of the Latin America Working Group, said ‘Fidel is a prominent human rights defender who has been persecuted and unjustly jailed. He denounced abuses in the prisons that make clear that El Salvador is not a model, and that no country should consider sending people there in light of Fidel’s denunciations and the widespread documentation of arbitrary detentions, violations of due process, torture and the death of over 370 people in the prisons during the state of emergency. The Salvadoran people deserve a government that respects international human rights standards and Salvadoran authorities should grant protective measures given the risk that Zavala could face for the denunciations he has made if he is transferred to prison.’
Amnesty International and Salvadoran legal observer Cristosal have also called on the authorities to guarantee the personal integrity of Zavala and La Floresta community members, noting that Zavala in particular should not be put under the custody of the same officials whose abuses he has previously denounced.
Main image: Poster depicting Zavala with the slogan ‘Organising is not a crime: Freedom for Fidel Zavala.’ Image courtesy of CISPES
El Faro has also published a podcast about this case:
