Journalists and human rights defenders persecuted in Bukele’s El Salvador We speak to journalists and defenders of human and environmental rights about how their lives have come under threat

The state of siege for journalists and human rights defenders in El Salvador www.opendemocracy.net/en/el-salvad...

Correction -- the labels indicate other prisons as well.

On Monday, a mass trial of more than 492 alleged members of MS-13 began in El Salvador. The images are from video rooms in two prisons, CECOT and Zacatecoluca, from which defendants will watch the trial.

El Salvador's Ongoing State of Exception Reviewed Before US Congress.
A hearing of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission describes human rights violations and lack of due process.
timmuth.substack.com/p/el-salvado...

Order Without Law A Research Consortium on the Illicit Network Undermining Democracy Across the World

Another view of the rise of " the World's Coolest Dictator" reactionary.international/cases/order-...

El Salvador's Bukele signs reforms allowing life prison sentences for people as young as 12 Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele has signed into law constitutional reforms to permit life prison sentences for people as young as 12.

Bukele makes harsh laws harsher in El Salvador. His populist agenda has always rested on showing his willingness to be cruel to those in the country's prisons.

apnews.com/article/el-s...

DoctorSV El Salvador and Google are delivering medical consults online

Doctors and nurses are being fired from public hospitals in El Salvador and there are shortages of supplies and medications. Will "DoctorSV", the online telemedicine app from Google and Bukele, help solve the problem?

open.substack.com/pub/timmuth/...

Anatomía de un cerco: irse para sobrevivir, quedarse para resistir en El Salvador de Bukele El cierre del espacio cívico en El Salvador no ocurrió de un día para otro. Se ha construido, paso a paso, como un cerco que combina poder concentrado, leyes a la medida y el uso del aparato estatal p...

Anatomy of a siege: leaving to survive, staying to resist in Bukele's El Salvador
gatoencerrado.news/2026/04/15/a...

When El Salvador’s Prisoners Go Free, She’s There to Pick Them Up

This story from @anniecorreal and @_fredramos is one everyone should read. Sugey deserves our attention, admiration, and good wishes of hope www.nytimes.com/2026/04/15/w...

Update -- Bukele's big projects Airport in the east under construction, but no sign of a train line

Every few years we have to check in on the projects which Bukele touts around El Salvador. China has donated several of them like the $100 million stadium under construction.
open.substack.com/pub/timmuth/...

US seeks to deport Kilmar Ábrego García to Liberia despite new Costa Rica deal Man born in El Salvador has been fighting removal to series of ‘third’ countries after mistaken deportation last year

The vindictive persecution of this man continues.

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

The Deal: Trump, Bukele & the Gangs of El Salvador | KPBS An examination of Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele’s deal with President Trump to imprison U.S. deportees, and what each leader stood to gain. FRONTLINE and the Salvadoran news outlet El Faro, now op...

Definitely recommend this production of Frontline and El Faro for anyone wanting the story of Bukele's dealing first with the criminal gangs and then with the criminals in Washington.

plus.kpbs.org/show/frontli...

Economic statistics are not as exciting as Bukele's spin machine.

open.substack.com/pub/timmuth/...

The opposition in El Salvador Tiny and powerless

El Salvador will have national elections in 11 months. I don't predict we will see any opposition emerging with power to challenge Bukele or his Nuevas ideas party.

open.substack.com/pub/timmuth/...

Bukele’s Wrath • EQUATOR How the Salvadoran president sent his childhood friend to die in prison

Don't piss off Bukele.

www.equator.org/articles/buk...

Over 33,000 people arrested in Bukele’s crackdown were not listed as gang members Internal intelligence documents reveal that 36% of those captured during the state of emergency were not profiled as criminals before the measure was implemented

english.elpais.com/internationa...

A tweeted photo and the questions it raises Do you focus on the building or the people?

The Historic Center of San Salvador has been cleared to make way for tourists. But what of its previous occupants?
open.substack.com/pub/timmuth/...

Meet the children left without parents under El Salvador’s emergency decree As El Salvador's state of emergency turns four years old, families warn of the toll of the mass arrests on children.

As El Salvador locks away 90,000 persons in hellish prisons, including tens of thousands believed to be innocent, as many as 100,000 children have been left parentless.
www.aljazeera.com/news/longfor...

Programan inicio de vista pública por Caso Jesuitas - La Prensa Gráfica El Tribunal Cuarto de Sentencia de San Salvador agendó para el próximo 20 de julio el inicio de la vista pública por el caso de los mártires de la UCA, en el que se encuentra acusado el expresidente A...

El Salvador announces July trial of ex-military command and ex-president for the 1989 murders of 6 Jesuit priests and a female co-worker and her daughter. www.laprensagrafica.com/elsalvador/p...

Compendium of Human Rights Reports on the State of Exception in El Salvador 27 reports from expert organizations document human rights abuses during the four years of the State of Exception

If you are researching human rights in Bukele's El Salvador, you will want to bookmark this post. open.substack.com/pub/timmuth/...

Venezuelans deported by US detail fresh claims of torture and abuse at El Salvador mega-prison Petition seeks accountability from Salvadorian authorities over human rights violations at notorious Cecot facility

What happened to Venezuelans sent to CECOT is important, but world needs to understand that CECOT is Bukele's showcase prison for influencers and like-minded politicians. There is a much larger system of old prisons where hundreds have died and abuses are worse.

www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

Compendium of Human Rights Reports on the State of Exception in El Salvador 27 reports from expert organizations document human rights abuses during the four years of the State of Exception

The State of “Exception” in El Salvador is 4 years old today. I’ve compiled a list of 27 reports which document human rights violations during that period.

open.substack.com/pub/timmuth/...

Oscar Romero on Prisons and Prisoners 46 years after his assassination, Romero's words still resonate.

At a time of political prisoners and torture in El Salvador's prisons, Romero's voice needs to be heard.

open.substack.com/pub/timmuth/...

You know about the 238 Venezuelans and Kilmar Abrego Garcia, but there are other Salvadorans from the flights a year ago, with no criminal record in US or in El Salvador, languishing, without contact to the outside world, in CECOT and other prisons in El Salvador.
open.substack.com/pub/timmuth/...

El Salvador's Bukele pushes through life sentences in nation that has imprisoned 1% of population President Nayib Bukel's reforms have been sharply criticized for undermining the country’s delicate democracy.

Already with highest incarceration rate in world, El Salvador now will hand out life sentences.

www.nbcnews.com/world/el-sal...

The past archives of 22 years of writing about El Salvador continue to be archived at ElSalvadorPerspectives.com. Review by date, topic, or use the search bar.

MetroCable -- urban cable cars coming to San Salvador Is an aerial tramway a solution to San Salvador's traffic woes?

The first line of urban cable cars is under construction in San Salvador.

open.substack.com/pub/timmuth/...

US/El Salvador: Deportees Forcibly Disappeared El Salvador is forcibly disappearing and arbitrarily detaining Salvadorans deported from the United States.

The dark side of the alliance between Trump and Bukele.
www.hrw.org/news/2026/03...

OCCRP Honors Ruth López with Hero Against Crime and Corruption Award First time the award is presented; marks her fifth career recognition and fourth at the international level.

Ruth has been imprisoned by the Bukele regime for 300 days and counting open.substack.com/pub/cristosa...

Gay asylum seeker files claim for damages over Trump deportations to CECOT torture prison Andry Hernández Romero and five other Venezuelan men accuse the Department of Homeland Secuirity of unlawfully deporting them to El Salvador’s CECOT prison.

NEWS!: A year ago this month, the Trump administration sent a gay makeup artist to a torture prison in El Salvador.

Today, Andry Hernandez Romero and five other Venezuelans sent to CECOT are seeking damages.

www.advocate.com/news/venezue...