Known for its quality investigations, El Faro, born 25 years ago, is forced to move its headquarters to Costa Rica. In question the harassment of the President of El Salvador Nayib Bukele.
” The conditions to operate from El Salvador are no longer met “, explains El Faro (“the lighthouse” in French) in an editorial dated April 13 entitled ” El Faro is moving “. The media thus justifies moving its headquarters to Costa Rica, a country where ” separation of powers and respect for the rule of law “.
” The dismantling of our democracy, the lack of control of the exercise of power by a small group, the attacks on freedom of the press and the disappearance of all mechanisms of transparency and accountability in El Salvador seriously threaten the right of citizens to be informed, beyond the considerable public resources that are now used to spread propaganda and fake news “, denounces the news media.
#efEditorial | El Salvador no longer enjoys the right to legitimate defense and public officials’ will is placed above the law. That is why we now announce that El Faro has just moved its administrative operations out of the country. 🧵https://t.co/VXeRfvdgNw
— El Faro English (@elfaroenglish) April 13, 2023
Investigation of power links with the maras
According to Oscar Martinez, editorial director of the El Faro website, the young and very popular president, who put more than 65,000 suspected gang members in prison, would not have liked the newspaper’s revelations about an alleged corruption affair but also on secret negotiations that allegedly took place between the government and the gangs.
“ President Nayib Bukele, without any evidence, accused us in a televised address of laundering money, he reports, joined by Justine Fontaine of the RFI International service. This is where the systematic harassment began from the Ministry of Finance, which conducted a series of audits of the newspaper. They were trying to destroy our media, take over our accounts and everything we needed to keep working. For 17 months, we were also spied on with the Pegasus software. And I have no doubt: our investigations are the reason why El Faro is harassed. Not only our revelations about the government’s pact with the gangs, but also the entire investigation that the prosecutor’s office was previously conducting against this government in a case that involved dozens of irregular public contracts. So we took this step to protect the structure that allows us to do journalism. But for the moment the editorial staff remains present in El Salvador, we continue to cover the news of this country. »
As early as February 2021, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights had decided to grant precautionary measures to 34 members of El Faro.
The editorial also denounces the criminalization of journalism in Central America increasingly used to silence dissenting voices: Autocrats do not tolerate other narratives “, he underlines.