For seven long months, they were silenced. Alejandro Henríquez, a dedicated environmental lawyer, and Pastor José Ángel Pérez, a pillar of his rural community, languished in a Salvadoran prison. Their crime? Daring to peacefully protest the impending eviction of over 300 families from the El Bosque agricultural cooperative.
The protest, a desperate plea for help, targeted President Nayib Bukele directly. Families, facing displacement, staged a sit-in near the president’s residence, hoping to capture his attention and secure a lifeline. Instead, they met with force – military police dispersing the demonstration with pepper spray, targeting even women and children.
Pastor Pérez was the first to be arrested, seized during the chaotic dispersal on May 12th. The following day, Henríquez, providing legal counsel to the cooperative, was also detained. The message was chillingly clear: dissent would not be tolerated.
Their release, finally secured through an “abbreviated criminal procedure,” felt less like justice and more like a strategic retreat. Facing a system seemingly determined to silence them, they accepted a plea deal – three years of probation, including a travel ban and restrictions on future protests – to regain their freedom. It was a bitter compromise, a concession made in the absence of any genuine investigation.
Defense attorney Oswaldo Feusier revealed the stark reality: exculpatory evidence was ignored, witnesses were never interviewed. The prosecution, he explained, simply wanted a conviction, and this procedure allowed them to achieve it. Neither man admitted guilt, and the charges themselves, Feusier argued, did not constitute a crime.
Emerging from the Integrated Judicial Center, Pastor Pérez expressed profound gratitude. “It is the greatest blessing,” he said, acknowledging the support that sustained him through the ordeal. His relief was palpable, a testament to the power of collective hope.
Henríquez, though free, remains restricted. Barred from participating in public demonstrations for three years, he vowed to continue his fight. “I will undoubtedly continue defending human rights and supporting communities that suffer land and water dispossession,” he declared, his resolve unbroken.
The international community has condemned the arrests as a blatant attack on freedom of expression. Amnesty International labeled Henríquez and Pérez “prisoners of conscience,” highlighting their imprisonment as a direct consequence of exercising their fundamental right to peaceful protest.
However, their release is only a partial victory. Amnesty International points to others – Ruth López, Fidel Zavala, and Enrique Anaya – still facing criminalization for speaking out against the government. The crackdown on dissent continues.
The roots of the conflict run deep, tracing back to El Salvador’s agrarian reform in the 1980s. The El Bosque cooperative was born from a promise of land redistribution, a chance for farming families to build a better future. But decades later, allegations of fraud and land grabbing by a company called Proyectos e Inversiones (PROYIN S.A. de C.V.) threaten to undo that progress.
Adding to the pressure, President Bukele has targeted civil society organizations, blaming them for the El Bosque protest and pushing through a controversial “Foreign Agents Law.” This legislation, imposing hefty taxes and restrictions on funding, aims to silence critical voices and force organizations into closure.
The case of Alejandro Henríquez and Pastor José Ángel Pérez is a stark warning. It reveals a disturbing trend of repression, a chilling attempt to stifle dissent and control the narrative in El Salvador. Their freedom is a victory, but the fight for justice, for the right to peaceful protest, is far from over.
