CIVICUS discusses the challenges facing El Salvador’s media under the government of populist authoritarian President Nayib Bukele with Laura Aguirre, co-founder and strategic director of the Salvadoran feminist digital media outlet Alharaca and development director of the SembraMedia media directory.

When it was founded in 2018, Alharaca was the country’s first digital media body with a gender-inclusive perspective, where women could express themselves freely. It prioritises collective work in collaboration with other media outlets and civil society organisations, developing innovative narrative projects that use illustration, comics and graphic design to engage a younger audience. Now it’s under pressure from Bukele, who claims to be the only authentic voice of the people, and who characterises independent journalists and media as mercenaries spreading ‘fake news’.

What’s the current political situation in El Salvador?

Bukele has been president of El Salvador since 2019, and despite the constitutional ban on re-election, secured a second term in 2024. This was possible because his control over the judiciary and Congress allowed him to reinterpret the law in his favour. He became known for introducing bitcoin as a legal currency and for his tough security measures to combat gang violence.

While these actions made him very popular, with 80 per cent of the population supporting him, his leadership has several of the traits of autocrats and dictators. He has concentrated power, silenced opposition voices, used political repression as a tool for social peace and held opaque elections.

Since 2022, El Salvador has been living in a state of exception. Our fundamental rights are being restricted by a president who has the power to do whatever he wants. As a result of his campaign against gang violence, by 2023 one per cent of the population was behind bars. This may have brought a sense of relief to many people who no longer live in fear, but it hasn’t addressed the root causes of violence. By imprisoning and repressing people, Bukele may be creating even bigger problems. And what we’re seeing now is a shift from gang violence to state violence.

But the current political situation is not just Bukele’s doing. His rise to power is part of a longer process of democratic decline. The groundwork was laid by previous administrations that made the changes that gave Bukele the tools to further undermine our democratic institutions.

How have these restrictions affected your work?

Bukele’s popularity means he doesn’t need to resort to direct repression of journalists. Instead, he uses what I call a low-intensity tactic, restricting freedom of expression and press freedom through legal and financial mechanisms. One notable example is El Faro, a digital news outlet known for exposing corruption and reporting on human rights violations and the lack of transparency in elections. The government didn’t shut it down outright, but accused it of money laundering and tax evasion, forcing it to relocate to Costa Rica.

Bukele’s government has also passed laws to silence us or anyone who publishes anything seen as positive about the gangs. The law is so broad that it could be used to send anyone to prison. In 2022, Congress approved a law that allows the Prosecutor’s Office to intercept phone calls to investigate crimes such as homicides or kidnappings, with a judge’s authorisation. This opened the door for the state to intervene in anyone’s phone calls. In 2021, Bukele tried to pass a foreign agents law, targeting any organisation that receives foreign funding for enabling ‘foreign interference’.

All this has changed the way we work. We have been warned of what could happen to us if we target high-profile people. We have been forced to question how much we’re willing to risk to do our jobs. We’ve had to rethink our strategies, take legal advice, devise new ways to protect ourselves and introduce mental health support for our team to help them cope with stress.

What have you learned from colleagues in more restrictive contexts?

Other countries in Central America are facing serious political crises. In Guatemala, grassroots activists and journalists face even greater risks. Nicaragua has fallen much deeper into authoritarianism. We’ve seen too many Central American journalists forced into exile and media outlets closed or struggling to survive.

We constantly consult with other feminist media organisations and consider what steps to take, focusing on what we can control rather than what we can’t. A Nicaraguan colleague warned us that the situation in El Salvador is very similar to what they went through years ago, when they were going down the authoritarian route. This prompted us to think ahead and take action. We didn’t want to wait until it was too late. But we’ve noticed not many media outlets are doing this kind of defensive planning.

We developed a contingency plan: we reviewed our budget, spoke to our donors and made plans in case any team member has to leave the country. This hasn’t been an easy journey for us. It took money, time and emotional strength. But we understood it was necessary to ensure the safety of our staff and the sustainability of our project.

But we also need international support. The international community should stop praising Bukele for ‘ending’ social violence in El Salvador. This is a simplistic and false narrative. Instead, it should recognise that true peace cannot exist in a country where human rights are systematically violated. This shift in perspective would be much more helpful in holding Bukele’s government accountable for its actions.

Laura spoke at this year’s Trust Conference, the Thomson Reuters Foundation’s annual flagship forum, on threats to media freedom in Latin America and supporting journalist in exile. Subscribe to the Trust Conference YouTube channel here and watch the conversation in full.