El Salvador Perspectives

The arrest of a prominent anti-corruption lawyer in El Salvador is highlighting the increased willingness of Nayib Bukele's government to arrest and imprison critics of the regime’s practices. Late Sunday night authorities arrested Salvadoran lawyer Ruth López at her home.  She is the head of the Anti-corruption and Justice unit at Cristosal, the most prominent Salvadoran human rights organization.  Both López and Cristosal have been outspoken critics of the Bukele government for its human rights record and patterns of corruption. The seizure of López comes at a moment when the Bukele regime is taking increasingly hard-line measures against its critics. Other activists and human rights defenders have also been imprisoned this year when they have been defending populations impacted by Salvadoran government policies.  López's is the highest profile arrest yet.  It illustrates that Bukele now feels he can take such actions with impunity. The arrest occurred in ...

Today the world is paying attention to Nayib Bukele, the president-jailer who cut a deal with the US to imprison persons the US sought to deport.  Now the world may learn more of Bukele's back story since  the journalists at El Faro have released video interviews of two leaders of the 18 Revolucionarios gang, one of three gangs which long controlled neighborhoods throughout El Salvador.  They describe how Bukele's team has made deals with gang leaders throughout the Salvadoran president's political career, up to the rupture with the gangs marked by Bukele's imposition of the State of Exception in El Salvador. The interviews were conducted by Oscar and Carlos Martinez, journalist brothers who have been reporting on the gangs and their dealings with politicians and government officials for more than a decade.  They published the interviews in a series of long video segments here . One of the two gang members is Carlos Cartagena López, aka "Charli de IVU", a lead...