El Salvador: News & Updates

The National Civil Police (PNC) and members of the Armed Forces are harassing and scaring those who publicly call for the release of jailed environmental defenders José Ángel Pérez and Alejandro Henríquez, who were arrested in May after participating in a vigil protesting the eviction of 300 families from the El Bosque agricultural cooperative.  Security forces visit people’s homes, follow them in vehicles, take photographs, and interrogate people. One of the questions they ask is whether these spokespersons for these organizations motivate them to protest against the government. "What's being set up is a witch hunt," said Carlos Flores, spokesperson for the Water Forum, as he denounced the government-led effort to dismantle civil society organizations and criminalize peaceful protest.

In July, Amnesty International declared some of these falsely criminalized environmental and human rights defenders as prisoners of conscience, including José Ángel Pérez, Alejandro Henríquez, and prominent human rights and anti-corruption attorney for the human rights organization Cristosal, Ruth López.

We call on the government of El Salvador to end the systematic persecution and incarceration of advocates for the environment, civil and human rights.

At the public hearing held during the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights’ (IACHR) 193rd Period of Sessions (July 14-25, 2025), “civil society organizations stated that the Salvadoran criminal justice system is being misused, compounding concerns around the erosion of independence of the judiciary and the prosecution service and the adoption of regressive legal reforms since 2021. They also warned that the criminalization of human rights defenders and journalists—alongside increased harassment, intimidation, and violence against them, and the adoption of the Foreign Agents Law—has had a chilling effect on their work, restricted civic space, and forced dozens of people into exile while triggering the closure of several civil society organizations.”’

In this RRN letter to authorities in El Salvador, we denounced the criminalization of human rights lawyers Rudy Joya and Ivania Cruz; both are spokespersons for UNIDEHC (Human and Community Rights Defense Unit). They have suffered retaliation for filing multiple legal actions against members of the Bukele Administration for human rights abuses and corruption. Under the Organized Crime Court, which is typically reserved for violent gang members, the human rights lawyers were falsely charged with “illicit groupings.”  Arrest warrants were issued for them after their preliminary hearing.

On August 15, the IACHR repeated its recommendation to end the State of Emergency. We echo the recommendation of the international body to instead develop a “comprehensive, multi-sectoral public security policy that addresses the causes and consequences of crime, based on evidence and with a human rights perspective.” We also urge the immediate removal of the fraudulent charges against Rudy Joya and Ivania Cruz.

The Bukele Administration continues to use the penal system to persecute those who peacefully exercise their right to free expression and protest.

The 300 families of El Bosque Cooperative (Santa Tecla, La Libertad Department) understandably organized to protest an eviction order that would force them off land that is rich with fertility and water resources, which they have lived on for years. The families rely on these resources for agriculture and have cultivated a strong community with a school to raise their children.

When they organized a protest in May in the neighbourhood of President Bukele, the government pushed back. Alejandro Henríquez (a lawyer and environmental defender) and José Ángel Pérez (an evangelical pastor, day laborer, and president of the El Bosque Cooperative) were charged with public disorder and resistance. A judge ordered them to six months pre-trial detention. They sit in overcrowded prisons, at risk of mistreatment and illness.

We are urging that authorities in El Salvador: (1) release from pretrial detention Alejandro Henríquez and José Ángel Pérez; (2) drop all false criminal charges against Alejandro Henríquez and José Ángel Pérez; (3) if the charges stand, hold transparent and fair trials for the five community leaders arrested from El Bosque Cooperative; and (4) stop misusing the penal system to persecute those peacefully exercising their rights.