By Peter Schurmann. Ethnic Media Services.
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The arrest of a well-known community activist in El Salvador highlights the growing risk of arbitrary detention in the Central American nation.
In January of this year, community activist José Santos Alfaro Ayala was arrested by Salvadoran authorities on charges of gang affiliation. Santos is co-founder and co-director of the Tamarindo Foundation, a nonprofit organization that works to address the issues driving forced migration out of the Central American nation by providing faith-based educational, economic, and leadership opportunities.
Santos' arrest is part of a broader crackdown justified under the "emergency” passed by President Nayib Bukele in 2022, initially intended as a tool to combat gang violence. Human rights activists say it is now being used against civic leaders like Santos. More than 2 percent of El Salvador’s adult population is now behind bars because of the law.
Journalist and photographer Manuel Ortiz, in collaboration with the human rights organization Global Exchange, traveled to the town of Guarjila, in the rural north of the country, to learn more about the Santos case. What he found was a region “paralyzed by fear.”
(This interview has been edited for length and clarity.)
Who is Jose Santos Alfaro Ayala?
José Santos is a community leader who works for the Tamarindo Foundation, which began in 1992 in Guarjila, a community of just over two thousand people in the Department of Chalatenango. He is an athlete and serves as the organization’s recreation director, training young people in sports. He is passionate about sports and until recently worked for the local government as director of the National Sports Institute in Chalatenango. When I first arrived in Guarjila, I went around asking people about José Santos. I was immediately impressed because everyone seemed to know him or know of him. Many described him as strict but caring. He is an important leader in the community and a role model for young people in a place where that is very important. This is a poor, rural region with few opportunities.
Santos was arrested on January 12. What were the charges?
The Salvadoran government accused him of being linked to the Hollywood Clique of MS13, a group that no one in the area had ever heard of. They offered no evidence, none. Soldiers came, handed a piece of paper to his lawyers, and that was it. He remained in almost total isolation, unable to speak to his lawyers, his wife, or his children. No one knew where he was or if he was still alive. It is important to note that while Santos worked in local government, he was not involved in politics, but the region he comes from did not vote for Bukele and everyone knows that. Many there believe that Bukele has deployed the military to the region as a message and a warning.
Can you say more about the military presence there?
There was a murder shortly before I arrived. Two young men were involved in a shootout that killed one person and injured another. In response, the Bukele government deployed five thousand soldiers and one thousand additional police officers to the region. Residents insist that the shooting was not gang-related and that the young men involved were known thieves, nothing more. They also say that the MS13 has never had much of a presence in the region.
Now, with so many armed soldiers present, the fear is palpable. I attended a community meeting in Tamarindo where people spoke of the terror of arbitrary detentions. Under the current state of emergency, now in its second year, the military can arrest anyone without cause and there are no legal remedies available to secure their release. This is fueling a new wave of youth migration out of the country. Many are asking if they can do it to Santos, whose name literally means “saint,” what might happen to them?
You recently described the region as a “lawless land.” What do you mean by that?
Under El Salvador’s constitution, the government can invoke a “state of exception,” temporarily suspending basic rights such as freedom of expression and assembly. That’s exactly what it did on March 27, 2022, after a series of brutal gang-related murders. The law was supposed to be temporary, lasting only a month. However, it has been renewed 24 times since it was first passed. The state, and by extension the military and police, can now do whatever they want. Freedom of association, the right to a defense attorney and a speedy trial, and even freedom of communication have all been restricted. They can arrest anyone. People spoke of relatives being attacked, children or nephews of well-known activists. That’s why people are afraid.
Were you able to confirm this?
Yes, numerous human rights groups confirmed what I had heard, including the nonprofit Cristosal, which just published its second annual report about human rights violations under the state of exception in El Salvador. One of its main conclusions is that the state of exception is now being used as a tool to repress civic groups, in part by targeting family members. I asked about this during the Tamarindo town hall, and several mothers who are active in the community immediately approached me with stories about their own children’s arrests. They all held up papers, the same one handed to Santos’ lawyers.
In one of your photos we see an older woman in front of an altar. Who is she?
This is Santos’ mother, Maria Carmen Ayala. I visited her and we had a brief conversation. She can barely walk. She said she prays every day. I asked her to show me her altar. She started praying, lit a candle. It was very sad. She started crying. In addition to her work in the community, Santos is also the family’s main breadwinner. So, her arrest meant they were not only heartbroken but also financially devastated.
Bukele remains very popular, both in El Salvador and throughout Latin America. What do you say to people who support him?
Well, they have their reasons. First, because of the failure of previous governments, whether right-wing or left-wing. And yes, El Salvador was dangerous. I had a good friend who was killed by gangs there. So I understand the support for Bukele. El Salvador has been waiting for a change for a long time, and what Bukele did was take what had been among the most violent countries on the planet and turn it into one of the safest in the region.
But Bukele is a marketing expert. He's selling the idea that El Salvador is becoming more modern, but that's only true for a small portion of the country. There's a neighborhood in the capital, San Salvador, where he's installed a series of neon-lit banners, like Times Square. People see this as proof of what he's accomplishing. But it's a show. People don't understand that while he's doing this, he's defunding public clinics, public schools, and other vital institutions in rural areas across the country. Meanwhile, the economy is struggling, foreign investment is lagging, and More people are falling into poverty.
In your last days there you delivered a letter to the attorney general. What did the letter say?
I needed to get a response from the authorities for the report I was doing, so on the advice of some lawyers I decided to approach the Attorney General, Rodolfo Antonio Delgado Montes. And what I realized was that, despite all the testimonies, despite all the stories and reports issued, nothing was moving. So I wrote a letter detailing Santos' case. I included in the letter the organizations and media outlets I was representing in El Salvador and I personally delivered it to the Attorney General's Office. That was on April 5. On April 7, Santos' lawyers received a letter informing them that he was going to be released. On April 10, he was released from prison.
Peter Schurmann is an editor and reporter at Ethnic Media Services in San Francisco. Manuel Ortiz is founder and publisher of Peninsula 360 Press in Redwood City.
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