Friday, 20 June 2025
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** The world’s “coolest dictator” is ruthlessly opposed to free speech
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“They won't silence me. I want a public trial!” shouted ([link removed]) prominent human rights lawyer Ruth Eleonora López, a Bible clutched in her hands, as she stood outside a courtroom earlier this month in San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador. López is accused of illegal enrichment, a charge she and her lawyers flatly deny. Her arrest is more likely down to her role uncovering alleged government corruption and human rights violations.

López’s case is just the tip of the iceberg. Dissent is being crushed under President Nayib Bukele. In the past two months alone, a second lawyer ([link removed]) critical of Bukele has been arrested, as have a pastor and a lawyer ([link removed]) who were peacefully protesting outside the Los Sueños residential area, where Bukele lives; several journalists from leading investigative news outlet El Faro – who spoke to us ([link removed]) in 2020– have fled ([link removed]) the country fearing their own arrest, days after a story was published claiming links between the government and a gang; the head of a bus company who resisted offering transport for free reportedly died
in custody ([link removed]) ; and a “foreign agents” ([link removed]) law was passed, which will introduce a 30% tax on all overseas donations received by Salvadoran independent media outlets and human rights groups.

Bukele was first elected in 2019. Since then he has overridden the constitution so that the presidency can go beyond a single term. He has done away with routine checks and balances ([link removed]) and now controls all three branches of government. In 2022 he declared a state of emergency (extended 35 times ([link removed]) ), which has seen human rights traded for so-called national security. Around 110,000 ([link removed].) people (1.7% of El Salvador’s population) are currently imprisoned – the highest incarceration rate
([link removed].) in the world – locked up to apparently tackle gang violence. Except many inmates have not been convicted of any crime at all, fuelling suspicions that imprisonment is being used to crush dissent ([link removed]) . In 2023, former national security advisor Alejandro Muyshondt publicly accused Bukele of corruption. He was taken into custody, where he later died at age 46 ([link removed]) .

Unsurprisingly dozens of lawyers, academics and human rights defenders have joined journalists in fleeing the country.

Bukele boasts about being the world’s “coolest dictator” ([link removed]) and has a fan in the figure of Donald Trump (the new Salvadoran mega-prison ([link removed]) houses migrants from the USA). His social media accounts – followed by millions – contain a mix of policy announcements, one-upmanship and threats. On his X profile this week, he reposted ([link removed]) a global leader approval ranking that placed him at the top. Is he that popular? It’s hard to know. Crime is down under him, but whether that’s actually because of him is contested. Clearly though El Salvador is only safe for those who bite their tongue, which means it isn’t safe at all.

Jemimah Steinfeld

CEO, Index on Censorship


** More from Index
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From Iran to the UK: The week in free expression ([link removed])

A round-up of the key stories covering censorship and free expression from the past seven days ([link removed])

Escaping Afghanistan was painful but staying meant silence – or worse ([link removed])

Zahra Joya urges the UK government to provide protection for those forced to flee ([link removed])

I was once a journalist in Gaza – now I’m a refugee in Egypt ([link removed])

Youmna El Sayed has gone from reporting on the frontline to fighting for her survival in exile ([link removed])

Who’s the Boss? Trump and Springsteen’s war of words ([link removed])

It is ironic that the US president has threatened Bruce Springsteen for expressing his thoughts ([link removed])

Georgia: Independent media face increasing repression ([link removed])

New laws empower authorities to censor, prosecute and close media ([link removed])

Protest is becoming perilous in the USA ([link removed])

The freedom to demonstrate is being dismantled ([link removed])

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** Introducing our Am I facing a SLAPP? tool
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Strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs) are a form of judicial harassment aimed at intimidating and ultimately silencing anyone who speaks out on issues of political or societal importance.

Our new questionnaire is a useful tool to identify potential SLAPP tactics.

MORE INFORMATION ([link removed])


** From the Iran to the UK: The week in free expression ([link removed])
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** >> IRAN: ([link removed]) Israel strikes Iranian state media ([link removed])
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** >> SAUDI ARABIA: ([link removed]) Journalist executed for "high treason" ([link removed])
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** >> UK: ([link removed]) Office for Students releases new free speech guidelines for universities ([link removed])
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** >> CAMBODIA: ([link removed]) Authorities ban Thai TV in border dispute ([link removed])
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** >> JAMMU AND KASHMIR: ([link removed]) Government targets citizen journalists ([link removed])
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** >> CENSORSHIP: ([link removed]) What makes some people self-censor while others speak out? ([link removed])
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** >> IRAN: ([link removed]) Repression intensifies under pretext of war ([link removed])
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** >> HONG KONG: ([link removed]) British parliament debates Jimmy Lai’s detention ([link removed])
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** Flashback
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World Refugee Day:The emotional baggage of being a refugee ([link removed])

by Slavenka Drakulić ([link removed])

Index on Censorship, volume 51, issue 2 ([link removed])

“You are leaving tomorrow; the time of deliberation has passed. Yesterday in the early morning hours, a house in the neighbourhood was bombed, and the smoke is still rising. An unknown, disturbing stench overwhelms you as soon as you open a window.”

On World Refugee Day, we revisit an essay by Czech journalist and writer Slavenka Drakulić on what a refugee should pack in their suitcase and how they must prepare to learn a whole new language. Read the story here. ([link removed])


** Support our work
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The world is becoming more authoritarian and our work calling out human rights abuses and promoting freedom of expression in countries such as El Salvador, the USA, and Afghanistan has never been more important.

By supporting Index on Censorship today, you can help us in our work with censored artists, jailed musicians, journalists under threat and dissidents facing torture or worse.

Please donate today ([link removed])

Photos by: (Izalco prison, El Salvador) Abaca Press / Alamy Stock Photo; (Suitcase) Marija Zaric

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