Hostile Attacks, Surveillance a Threat to El Salvador's Media

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele cares little for journalists or the free press, critics say. He rarely gives briefings and prefers to communicate via Twitter.

But while he does not care to be questioned too closely on his policies, analysts note that Bukele does call out media that report critically on him and his government.

Respected news websites such as El Faro and Revista Factum, which specialize in reporting on corruption, are among those targeted with accusations ranging from money laundering to false reporting.

During his time in office, Bukele’s administration is alleged to have set up what an investigative article by the Reuters news agency described as a communications “juggernaut” staffed by “paid internet trolls” who target media and opposition voices.

And 35 Salvadoran reporters and civil rights activists have been targeted by Pegasus software, according to the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab, which investigates digital surveillance of civil society.

Made by the Israeli company NSO, the Pegasus software is marketed to government agencies and can be used to extract cellphone data or activate cameras and microphones.

The Salvadoran Embassy in Madrid did not respond to a VOA email requesting comment.

Salvadoran authorities previously have denied using Pegasus to hack telephones. Officials, however, did not respond to Reuters’ requests for comment about its November 2022 investigation into the government’s troll factories

Analysts have warned that the hostile relationship between press and president could pose a threat to independent media, especially during elections.

Bukele — who was elected as president in 2019 — last year announced plans to run for re-election in 2024.

The announcement came after the country’s top court overturned a ban on leaders seeking two consecutive terms.

Alongside the surveillance and verbal assaults for critical coverage, threats of death or sexual violence are an all-too-common hazard for independent journalists in El Salvador.

Reporters in this tiny Central American nation say the state adds to this atmosphere of menace instead of offering some protection.

“These threats coincide with the narrative of the government. Instead of protecting you, the government encourages these threats,” says José Luis Sanz, the Washington correspondent for El Faro.

Sanz told VOA he believes state departments, including the tax office, were used to make false claims of money laundering and to intimidate advertisers of El Faro. In 2020, Bukele alleged in a news conference that El Faro was linked to money laundering, which Sanz said was false.

“The freedom of press exists but it is under threat. We have received threats from different governments over the years,” he said. But “the level of stigmatization, criminalization and attacks toward independent journalists by the current government — and the investment put in the harassment and espionage toward journalists — has gone much further.”

Sanz was among around 20 journalists at El Faro whose mobile phone messages were intercepted using Pegasus software.

During the period of hacking, El Faro was working on stories about Bukele’s alleged deal-making with gangs to cut the homicide rate and support the president.

Sanz concedes there was no proof the government was behind the surveillance but notes that the Pegasus software is sold only to governments.

Attack mode

For some journalists, the harassment and threats force them to leave.

Among them is Hector Silva Avalos, who left El Salvador 18 months ago and has since claimed asylum in the U.S. with his wife and three children.

He now works for the news websites Infobae from Argentina and Prensa Comunitaria of Guatemala.

“Bukele’s popularity is based on the narrative which does not admit any criticism. That is why he attacks the independent press,” Ávalos told VOA. “I suffered a campaign of harassment toward me and my family. Tax office or the police would come to my house or my relatives. They would ask about what type of vehicles we had and make other threats.”

Bukele may not be popular with journalists but he is with most of the 6.5 million Salvadoran population, according to a CID Gallup poll in September. The survey found 85% supported the president while 15% disapproved.

The president’s handling of the pandemic and his decision to jail about 50,000 members of a criminal gang dramatically cut the murder rate in El Salvador to one of the lowest in the Americas.

In 2022, the homicide rate was eight for every 100,000 inhabitants compared to 105 in 2015, according to government figures.

But journalists who try to dig deeper into government policy or decisions say they face backlash.

In December 2022, Bukele took aim at opposition newspaper La Prensa Grafica when it questioned the legality of him seeking re-election.

Bitcoin is another hot topic. In 2021, El Salvador became the first country to adopt bitcoin as legal tender.

Analysts cited in media have said the president’s bullying of the media has prevented proper scrutiny of his use of the country’s money to speculate on cryptocurrencies.

Financial outlets reported last year that the credit rating agency Moody’s had estimated Bukele’s bitcoin plan resulted in $57 million in losses.

When The New York Times reported on El Salvador’s bitcoin experiment and predicted the country would default on a loan, Bukele went on the offensive.

“Full page spreads on the @nytimes and all, creating the narrative that El Salvador was broke and going to default. I called them out at the time but of course who was going to believe us and not every international news outlet and their ‘economic geniuses’?” he tweeted in January.

Michael Shifter, adjunct professor of Latin American studies at Washington’s Georgetown University, said Bukele’s campaign against the media had damaged a core pillar of democracy: the free press.

“The unrelenting criticisms of the media have instilled a climate of fear, leading to self-censorship and reporting limited and anodyne subjects,” he told VOA. “Bukele’s war against the independent press may play well politically, but it is damaging a system which is based on checks and balances.”

In Latin America, the Salvadoran president is far from alone in terms of hostility toward the press.

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei have met with criticism for their approach to media.

Last week, Ortega expelled 222 imprisoned civil rights activists, political leaders, priests, and journalists and stripped them of their citizenship.

Source: VOA