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El Salvador’s president believes he’s at war

Bukele increases attacks on independent media and civil society

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Prominent human rights defenders and journalists are being targeted, while individuals and organizations in receipt of foreign funding are being required to register and pay a 30 per cent tax on all funds received from abroad. Fear and self-censorship are on the increase.

On 18 May 2025 Ruth López was arrested at home by Nayib Bukele’s police force. Ruth López headed the anti-corruption unit at Cristosal, a human rights NGO which has been a vocal critic of abuses against citizens occurring under the state of exception. ‘The only reason for my arrest,’ she said, ‘is that I’m a human rights defender and I work for an NGO that is inconvenient for the government; that’s the only problem.’

Cristosal states that Ruth López was detained because she makes Bukele uncomfortable. Video: CNN May 2025
BBCs’ list of 100 most influential women

Speaking with López’s colleagues at Cristosal a week after the arrest, they made it clear that this represents a broader ‘strategy to instil fear in the human rights sector… Someone once said that being a human rights defender inherently carries a risk. Yes, we were aware of that risk, but we didn’t expect it to escalate to this level …. Our colleague was one of the most outspoken critics of this government, having filed and led over 50 corruption cases, which she brought before the appropriate authorities. So clearly, she was a prominent voice. And if she – someone so widely recognized, even named by the BBC as one of the 100 most influential women of 2024 – is arbitrarily detained, then any Salvadoran might think they could be next.’

Cristosal has received a wave of international support in solidarity with the organization and its condemnation of Ruth’s arrest. However, they told me that digital attacks against their organization – a routine practice of the Bukele administration – were on the increase again.

The assault on independent voices continues

El Salvador is witnessing deterioration and closure of its civic space in the wake of an escalation in government attacks on human rights defenders and independent media in the country. LAB reported in April 2025 on increased attacks against human rights defenders, including the arrest of Fidel Zavala, a member of the human rights group UNIDEHC. Events in May mark a further escalation in both institutional and legal actions which have been taken to curtail civic space and limit the freedoms of those working in the interest of human rights.

The night before Ruth López’s arrest, two members of the El Bosque community, community leader and Elim pastor Angel Pérez and Human Rights defender and lawyer Alejandro Henriquez, were arrested. The El Bosque community had gone to the president’s home to protest an eviction order ordered by the government.

Salvadorean police in action at El Bosque. Photo: Bálsamo Radio/TV

The Cristosal team, who condemned the arrests, told me: ‘These people weren’t being violent – they were just inconvenient, and they were simply asking the president for help, not even criticizing him.’ Bukele called in the Special Security Brigade of the Military Police to suppress the demonstrations – the first time this has occurred in over three decades. The police intervention and arrests of the two activists were livestreamed and posted online by Bálsamo RTV – an independent media outlet devoted to transformative social communications and news – and shared by other outlets. Discussing Balsamo’s role in broadcasting the event, a reporter commented: ‘If we hadn’t been there, things would have been much worse. There would have been more arrests, more violence.

You are ‘foreign agents’

Besides criminalizing human rights activists, the Bukele administration has taken broader political steps to asphyxiate civil society. On May 20, 2025, the Legislative Assembly, controlled by Bukele’s party Nuevas Ideas, passed a law  requiring both individuals and organizations receiving foreign funding to register as ‘foreign agents’ with the Ministry of the Interior.

Registered organizations will have to pay a 30 per cent tax on all money received from abroad. Bukele brought a similar law forward in 2019, which was blocked before it could reach the plenary vote. The law allows the government to decide which NGOs will have to register on the list.  Diego Hernandez, a member of Fundación Comunicandonos, observed that the discretionary nature of the law will enable the government to clamp down selectively on particular organizations: ‘So which NGOs are considered “bad”? Those that deal with human rights […] All NGOs that are uncomfortable or critical of the government will be forced to register as foreign agents. The Cristosal team observed that: ‘the impact [of the law] may be arbitrary, political, and unregulated, which puts any organization at risk, regardless of its work or track record.’

‘The real issue isn’t how this impacts us,’ Cristosal told me. ‘It’s how this further violates the rights of people who are already in a vulnerable position… Organizations like ours are filling the gap left by the government’s inaction. And by creating a law like this, the state is only deepening the harm against vulnerable groups who are already unprotected due to failures of the state.’

Diego Hernandez observed that ‘even those told they don’t have to register will be extremely cautious about criticizing the government. Because they’ll think: “If I start criticizing the government or speaking about human rights, they might decide I have to register.” And once that happens, the government will charge a 30 per cent tax on all international funding they receive’.

International authoritarianism

The increased crackdown on civil society in El Salvador is influenced by the broader international climate. According to Hernandez, El Salvador is ‘now part of… an international context of more authoritarian-leaning governments. Think Trump in the US, Javier Milei in Argentina. So, they know that up to a certain point, this is viewed as acceptable or even welcomed’.

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Noah Bullock, the director of Cristosal, also pointed out in a recent article that Bukele’s negotiations with President Trump, including the agreement to deport Venezuelan migrants to the country, have emboldened him to act with impunity against those working to defend the nation’s civic space.  Hernandez observed that the previous attempt to push through the foreign agent’s law was in part prevented by international opposition from Germany and other EU countries: ‘What’s happening now in 2025? Trump is in office. USAID no longer exists. I don’t know who’s currently handling Germany’s cooperation, but they haven’t made any statements’.

A representative of El Faro informed me that they remain one of the only independent media outlets with a broad reach in the nation: The others, due to the withdrawal of USAID …, have had to either drastically reduce their staff or shut down entirely…There’s a serious media crisis in El Salvador, and I would even say throughout the entire Latin American region. And all of this has been worsened by Trump’s policy decisions.’

Factum, one of El Salvador’s leading independent media outlets, has ceased nearly all of their work due to loss of funds. A member of Factum informed me that the cuts led to close to 300 journalists in the country losing their jobs overnight.

Fear and self-censorship

The increasing climate of fear is also affecting  the wider public. According to Cristosal, when they contact families about a relative who has died in state custody, many are unwilling to make any public statement or even try to find out more about the circumstances of the death: ‘There is a government-inspired stigmatization, a negative connotation associated with the idea of Human Rights. Other people speak with us under conditions of confidentiality and freedom of expression. Their fear increases in this context. I clearly remember the testimony of one person who said, “I don’t want them to show up because I’m afraid. I have already lost family members; I can’t lose more. I am scared.”’

A representative of Balsamo RTV agreed: ‘The political situation in the country has created an atmosphere of fear, of self-censorship – meaning, “I won’t express my opinion because something could happen to me if I speak out against the government. They might detain me under the state of exception.” Those are the exact words people use. So nowadays, people no longer call in to us on air.’

Journalists working to expose state abuses under the state of emergency have also faced increased attacks, resulting in many increasing security measures and forcing some to leave the country. Following the publication of a three-part video with two ex-gang members, El Faro, a Central American digital media outlet, discovered that the government was preparing warrants for the arrest of the journalists involved.

Last week, several El Faro staff who had already left the country had to cancel their return flights after being warned that the government were preparing to arrest them on arrival. One El Faro journalist who was not involved in the video but works in multimedia told me why she had left the country : ‘Ruth López being in prison sends a very clear message to us: if we don’t stay silent, that’s our future too – prison’. Their work will now be much more difficult: ‘We are forced to stay outside the country. That creates major obstacles for journalism – and for the public’s access to truthful information.’

Other independent media outlets are adopting self-censorship to avoid coming into the government’s firing line. One member of Balsamo told me: ‘There are moments when I feel fear. I’m much more careful now with my speech. Sometimes I forget and say too much on the air… but, I don’t think we’re being as closely monitored by the state as some of the larger outlets. But there may be moments when we too are watched – especially if a story or photo goes viral and annoys someone. Like what happened in El Bosque.’

State of exception

I spoke with two different independent media outlets who told me of the increased security measures they have put in place to ensure their own safety – even before the events in May took place – including some journalists no longer entering the country, cameras installed in journalists’ homes and offices, and registers to record unusual incidents of threats or surveillance by the state.

Video: Cristosal, 2024

While the state of emergency has led to a drop in homicides in El Salvador, many pointed out to me that the regime has become as much a tool for wielding authoritarian power as for protecting its citizens. A member of Socorro Juridico Humanitario, a human rights organisation set up to provide support for victims of the state of emergency, stated ‘The state of exception has become a tool for social control: If you want to evict a community  –  state of exception; if you want to remove informal street vendors  –  state of exception; if you want to suppress a peaceful protest  –  state of exception. So now, the state of exception is used for everything; it’s applied to everything that happens in our country.’

While many members of the Salvadorean population still support the president, those who are critical of the government’s security policies will be obliged to remain silent or face consequences from the state.

Since I spoke with Cristosal and other civil society groups and journalists, another prominent human rights defender, Enrique Anaya, has been arrested at his home in Santa Tecla on 7 June. Anaya was a human rights lawyer who following  Ruth López’ arrest described Bukele’s government as a ‘dictatorship’.

To sign the petition calling for Ruth López’s release, follow this link

Edited and Published by: Mike Gatehouse

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