Dissident Spotlight: Bryan Avelar
Bryan Avelar is an example of how a tough-on-crime approach can mask the oppression of dissidents.
President Bukele is the dictator of El Salvador, but what sets him apart is the ease with which he navigates social media. He has been called the “world’s coolest dictator” due to his comfort with internet culture and ability to deliver authoritarian clawbacks to online critics.
Even admitting that he is a dictator fails to convey how repressive and dangerous he is. While he recently said that “the West can no longer lecture other countries about human rights,” Bukele is dangerous enough that prominent dissidents fly in and out of the country with the ebb and flow of published investigations into his regime.
Bryan Avelar is a reporter who covered El Salvador’s war against the country’s gangs and the gang control present throughout Central America. In 2022, three years into Bukele’s “presidential” term, Avelar fled El Salvador. Avelar was falsely accused of being connected to El Salvador’s gangs, being told he had a brother in prison for gang activity. Avelar was endangered under Bukele’s “state of exception.”
H2:Due Process Protects Innocents in Multiple Ways
Shortly into his first term, Bukele enacted the “state of exception” which suspended due process and certain judicial rights for people suspected of gang activity.
The crackdown on El Salvador’s gangs wasn’t limited to gang members. It became a tool for silencing critics and imprisoning dissidents. Avelar told LatAm Journalism Review:
“I don’t even have brothers. That was precisely at the beginning of the state of exception; They were capturing a lot of people, and that caused me to leave for Mexico as a preventive measure.”
Many authoritarian leaders hide behind a tough-on-crime persona to violate civil rights for everyone. Even if due process isn’t popular for obviously guilty people, ensuring they get the protections of a fair judicial system protects everyone else who can’t be tried based on false information.
Despite the threats, Avelar continues his reporting, even if it’s from abroad, to bring Bukele’s abuses to light. It’s not a happy ending, but a continuation of important work.