Salvadoran Journalists Exposed Pres. Bukele's Ties to Gangs. Then They Had to Flee to Avoid Arrest
May 14, 2025
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Topics
El Salvador
Guests
Nelson Rauda Zablah
digital content editor for El Faro.
We speak with a Salvadoran journalist who fled El Salvador along with others from the acclaimed news outlet El Faro after Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele threatened to arrest them for exposing how Bukele had made secret deals with Salvadoran gangs. Bukele has run the country under a so-called state of exception since 2022, detaining nearly 80,000 people accused of being in gangs, largely without access to due process. “We don’t know when we will be able to come back,” says Nelson Rauda Zablah, digital editor for El Faro, who notes it is now routine for Bukele’s critics to flee for fear of retaliation. He discusses El Faro's reporting, and we feature excerpts from their interview series with two former leaders of the 18th Street Revolucionarios on Bukele's yearslong relationship to gangs. All of this comes as Bukele is working closely with the Trump administration to jail immigrants sent from the United States at CECOT, El Salvador’s notorious Terrorism Confinement Center.
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.
We turn now to a journalist from El Salvador who’s left the country along with others from the digital news outlet El Faro, after the Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele threatened to arrest them all. The outlet reported, quote, “A reliable source in El Salvador told El Faro that the Bukele-controlled Attorney General’s Office is preparing at least seven arrest warrants for members of El Faro … following the publication of an interview with two former leaders of the 18th Street Revolucionarios on Bukele’s years-long relationship to gangs.”
Bukele has run the country under a so-called state of exception since 2022, supposedly in order to weaken these same gangs. And Salvadoran authorities have detained nearly 80,000 people accused of being in gangs, largely without access to due process. Human rights groups report at least 250 people have died in El Salvador prisons since Bukele’s so-called war on gangs began. This comes as Bukele is working closely with the Trump administration to jail immigrants sent from the United States at CECOT, El Salvador’s notorious so-called Terrorism Confinement Center, the mega-prison.
In a moment, we’ll be joined by El Faro’s digital editor, in exile. But first, this is a clip from one of El Faro interviews with a gang member. In it, we hear how just one month into the state of exception in El Salvador back in 2022, despite having an arrest warrant and being recognized as a clear leader of the 18th Street Revolucionarios, “Charli” Cartagena was detained and then released after a mysterious phone call. This is Cartagena.
More:
https://www.democracynow.org/2025/5/14/nayib_bukele_journalism_crackdown_el_faro