El Faro’s assets frozen in what the news outlet calls political persecution in Bukele’s El Salvador

Salvadoran Investigative Media Outlet Faces Asset Freeze Amid Growing Tensions with Bukele Administration

El Faro, a prominent Salvadoran investigative media outlet, announced Thursday that authorities have frozen two of its members’ assets, including a bank account and property. The organization has characterized this action as an escalation in what they describe as a systematic campaign of political persecution aimed at silencing their reporting on corruption within President Nayib Bukele’s government.

“It’s another level of attack against us with a clear purpose,” El Faro Director Carlos Dada stated during a news conference. “These are not fiscal measures. They are political measures trying to silence us.”

The asset freeze follows years of increasingly hostile relations between the media outlet and Bukele’s administration. El Faro has published several high-profile investigations into alleged corruption, including revelations that the government secretly negotiated with gangs despite publicly taking a hard stance against them. The timing of this latest action is notable, coming shortly after El Faro released a documentary with PBS Frontline focusing on these gang negotiations.

The news organization learned about the asset freezes indirectly through notifications from their bank and the property registry rather than through formal government channels, according to Dada.

Bukele, who came to power in 2019 as Central America’s youngest president on an anti-corruption platform, has consistently dismissed El Faro’s reporting as “fake news.” His office did not immediately respond to requests for comment regarding the asset freeze.

Since 2020, El Faro has been subjected to ongoing tax audits by Salvadoran authorities, with the government alleging tax evasion of approximately $200,000, an accusation Dada firmly denies. This pattern of regulatory pressure has become increasingly common across Latin America as a method to target critical media.

The deteriorating press freedom situation in El Salvador forced El Faro to relocate its headquarters to neighboring Costa Rica in 2023. All of the outlet’s staff members currently live in exile outside of El Salvador due to what they describe as the country’s increasingly repressive climate for independent journalism.

The media organization has also faced sophisticated digital threats. In 2022, the notorious Pegasus spyware was detected on more than 20 El Faro journalists’ iPhones, prompting them to file a lawsuit against NSO Group, the Israeli company behind the surveillance technology, in a United States federal court.

Claudia Paz y Paz, director of the Center for Justice and International Law, which represents El Faro before the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights, condemned the asset freeze during Thursday’s news conference, calling it “retaliation” designed to “silence the voices of journalists.”

The escalating pressure on El Faro comes amid broader concerns about democratic backsliding in El Salvador under Bukele’s administration. The president has overseen a controversial crackdown on gangs through a state of emergency that has been in place for four years, resulting in the imprisonment of more than 91,000 people. While the policy has reduced violent crime rates dramatically, human rights organizations have documented widespread due process violations and arbitrary detentions.

The government’s targeting of critics extended beyond media in 2025, with the arrest of prominent human rights activist Ruth López, who remains imprisoned a year later without trial and with limited access to legal counsel. Shortly after her detention, Cristosal, the country’s leading human rights organization where López worked, announced it was leaving El Salvador due to mounting harassment and legal threats.

Observers note that the practice of weaponizing financial audits and asset seizures against government critics has been employed in other parts of Central America, particularly in Nicaragua under President Daniel Ortega’s increasingly authoritarian rule.

As press freedom continues to deteriorate across the region, El Faro’s situation has become emblematic of the growing challenges faced by independent media outlets attempting to hold powerful governments accountable in Central America.