On Thursday, July 17, El Salvador’s top human rights organization, Cristosal, announced that it was leaving the country. Since 2000, Cristosal has served in Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. The organization shared that it works to defend human rights, promotes democratic rule of law, and strives for a peaceful future in northern Central America. Cristosal achieves this by documenting human rights violations and strengthening public support for victims, thereby helping them achieve justice. In El Salvador, Cristosal was founded after the country’s civil war, and has now dedicated itself to documenting the abuse of detainees, investigating government corruption, and representing Salvadorans who have been accused under new laws targeting dissent and free speech.
To do so, the organization heavily relies on U.S. funding. At one point, Cristosal received nearly $4 million from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the U.S. Department of State, which accounts for over half of its budget. However, earlier this year, foreign aid towards Cristosal was frozen by U.S. President Trump. Cristosal Executive Director Noah Bullock theorized that the decision was made to support El Salvadorian President Nayib Bukele, who has agreed to hold 300 migrants deported from the United States at a prison outside San Salvador. Bullock stated, “The U.S. support was just not letters on paper. Withdrawing both their financial and political support for human rights and anti-corruption work, they became partner to the autocratic aggressor that’s now persecuting us.” After the freeze in foreign aid, Bullock shared that Cristosal was forced to either scale back or cut transparency, anti-corruption, and justice efforts. All this was happening when President Bukele was making efforts to increase his authority and silence groups that criticized him.
Bukele’s efforts first became noticeable in May, when Cristosal lawyer Ruth López was arrested. In the past, López had helped uncover alleged government corruption. However, on June 4, a judge ordered López to be jailed for at least six months pretrial, on charges of illegal enrichment. López’s lawyers claim that these accusations are baseless. As police officers grabbed López by her arms, she screamed out, “You won’t silence me! What I want is a public trial! The people deserve to know!” Following her arrest, a second lawyer who criticized Bukele was detained and accused of money laundering days later. In later weeks, dozens of academics, lawyers, researchers, human rights defenders, and journalists fled El Salvador.
Cristosal’s leaders did not see López’s arrest as an isolated event and feared for the safety of other employees, sharing that government harassment had increased since the escalation. Bullock explained, “We were forced to choose between exile or prison.” Before publicizing the announcement, the organization relocated staff and their families. Reassuring that they would continue their work in Guatemala and Honduras while monitoring El Salvador from outside, Bulluck shared his beliefs that Cristosal would be more effective outside the country. He emphasized, “With the threats we have received, with Ruth’s criminalization and with the limited possibilities of security guarantees, we are more useful by being outside but free, than by risking imprisonment in El Salvador.”
After learning about Critosal’s departure from El Salvador, Juanita Goebertus, American director, expressed that this was a “huge loss for transparency, accountability, and the rule of law and democracy. The departure proves an increase in government power in El Salvador, which has spiked since Bukele’s presidency. Due to his iron fist on the country’s Legislative Assembly and courts, gang presence and violence have greatly decreased in El Salvador. However, this came at the cost of human rights, since more than 85,000 Salvadorians were detained without due process, access to a lawyer, or a proper trial. Within each week of his presidency, journalists from El Salvador’s premier investigative news sources have fled the country, only to learn that police officers were waiting for them at the airport. As a result, Bukele has garnered both praise and criticism for his actions. While his long-standing human rights violations have increased from recent government action, the President shared that he is unbothered. He told Salvadoran lawmakers, “I don’t care if they call me a dictator. I’d rather be called a dictator than see Salvadorans killed in the streets.”
Written by Claire Liu
