We, the undersigned organizations, express our deep concern over the increasing use of criminal law without due process guarantees, the harassment, the stigmatization, and the persecution by Salvadoran authorities against human rights defenders, community leaders, environmental activists, university professors, lawyers, journalists, and other voices critical of the government.

Prominent journalists, activists, and lawyers, such as former prosecutor and defender Ruth López and professor and constitutional lawyer Enrique Anaya, have been arbitrarily detained in retaliation for their work documenting and denouncing corruption, human rights violations, and attacks on the rule of law in El Salvador. Both are in prolonged pretrial detention and face spurious and unfounded charges of embezzlement and money laundering, respectively. These detentions send an intimidating message to the rest of civil society and further erode public confidence in the impartiality and independence of the Salvadoran judicial system.

The Salvadoran state has intensified its attacks on civil society and the independent press through coordinated strategies in the legal, institutional, and media spheres to silence their work. It is extremely alarming that they are being persecuted under a prolonged state of exception that suspends fundamental rights and freedoms, a measure whose objective is to control organized crime gangs.

In a context of high concentration of power, the Foreign Agents Law was enacted, imposing severe restrictions on non-governmental organizations, including onerous registration requirements, a 30 percent tax on foreign funding, and broad powers to suspend their activities based on vague allegations of political activity. Together with the hostile rhetoric from senior officials led by President Bukele, these measures aim to delegitimize independent voices and restrict the legitimate activities of civil society organizations.

The persecution of defenders such as Ruth López and Enrique Anaya reflects a broader strategy to dismantle civic oversight and the rule of law, and to criminalize criticism and the defense of human rights. Other examples of criminalization include community leaders from La Floresta and the El Bosque cooperative, among them Fidel Zavala, Alejandro Henríquez, and Ángel Pérez, who have been detained during peaceful protests over land and evictions. 

It is important to note that, throughout Nayib Bukele’s administration, dozens of human rights defenders, journalists, lawyers, former public officials, members of the political opposition, and businesspeople have been forced into exile outside the country. This trend, which is worrying in itself, has significantly increased in the last month, reflecting a growing climate of repression and persecution that severely restricts civic and democratic space in El Salvador.

The repression of civic space in El Salvador is taking place within a broader context of erosion of democratic institutions and the rule of law. As a result of the state of exception, more than 85,000 people have been detained without respect for basic due process guarantees, including the presumption of innocence and access to a fair and impartial trial, and in inhumane conditions of deprivation of liberty. Local organizations have documented at least 400 deaths of people in custody since the beginning of the exception regime.

We therefore call on the Salvadoran State to:

• ​​Immediately release lawyers Ruth López and Enrique Anaya, as well as all human rights defenders and community leaders who have been arbitrarily detained for political reasons; and respect due process guarantees, including the right to a public trial, in any proceedings against them.
• Refrain from using pretrial detention as a form of advance punishment against human rights defenders and others detained for political reasons, in clear violation of due process guarantees and international human rights standards.
• Protect human rights defenders from reprisals, harassment, torture, and threats, and ensure accountability for abuses committed.
• Restore conditions that allow freedom of expression, association, and assembly, and harmonize national laws with El Salvador’s international obligations, including by repealing the Foreign Agents Law.
• End the misuse and abuse of emergency measures and, in all cases, guarantee the right to a fair trial.

We also call on the international community, including the Organization of American States and the United Nations, to:

• Urge the government of El Salvador to immediately cease the instrumentalization of the criminal justice system against human rights defenders or those who express criticism of the government.
• Take urgent action, through diplomatic channels, assistance, and conditional cooperation, among other means, to protect civic space, the rule of law, democracy, and human rights in El Salvador.

• Abogadas y Abogados para la Justicia y los Derechos Humanos (México)
• Alianza Regional por la Libre Expresión e Información
• Asociación Pro Derechos Humanos -APRODEH, Perú
• Center for Gender & Refugee Studies (CGRS)
• Centro de Documentación en Derechos Humanos “Segundo Montes Mozo SJ” (CSMM) / Ecuador
• Centro por la Justicia y el Derecho Internacional (CEJIL)
• Consultora Solidaria (Mexico)
• Consultoría para los Derechos Humanos y el Desplazamiento – CODHES (Colombia).
• Convergencia por los Derechos Humanos (CDH), Guatemala
• Comité de Familiares de Víctimas de los Sucesos de Febrero y Marzo de 1989 (COFAVIC), Venezuela.
• Due Process of Law Foundation (DPLF)
• Equipo de Reflexión, Investigación y Comunicación (ERIC-SJ). Honduras
• Global Strategic Litigation Council for Refugee Rights
• Instituto de Defensa Legal (IDL), Peru
• Latin America Working Group (LAWG)
• Movimiento Autónomo de Mujeres
• Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights 
• Synergía, iniciativas para los derechos humanos
• Tejiendo Redes Infancia en América Latina y el Caribe
• The International Commission of Jurists
• Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA)