Salvadoran journalist arrested in Spain: press group

A Salvadoran photo journalist was arrested Friday (January 2, 2025) in Spain under an international warrant while requesting asylum, a press association said.

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Over the past six months, at least 50 journalists have fled El Salvador out of fear of being arrested for criticising President Nayib Bukele, who calls himself “the world’s coolest dictator,” the Salvadoran Press Association said.

The photographer, identified as 25-year-old Diego Andres Rosa Rosales, was filing papers for asylum at a police station in Seville when he was arrested under an Interpol warrant initiated by Bukele’s government, the association said in a post on social media platform X.

In El Salvador, Mr. Rosa has been subject to police harassment, threats and baseless charges of criminal association, the association said.

The latter charge is what Mr. Bukele applies to alleged members of street gangs, using it to jail thousands of people without trials in a notoriously harsh prison.

On Saturday (January 3), Mr. Rosa will go before a judge to decide if Spain will go ahead with extradition proceedings.

Mr. Rosa has worked for prominent Salvadoran news organisations and foreign outlets like The Guardian and Spain’s El Pais newspaper, the press association said.

Mr. Bukele is wildly popular at home for his crackdown on gangs that used to terrorise the country, acting under emergency laws that allow people to be arrested without a warrant.

Human rights activists say the government is also applying this policy to critics of the president.