September 30, 2020 3:19 p. m. ET
Managua, Nicaragua, September 30, 2020 – The Salvadoran government makes public all the main points of an alleged money laundering investigation on the El Faro news page online and prevents harassment of independent media, the Committee said today for the Protection of Journalists.
At a press convention on September 24, President Nayib Bukele announced that El Faro, an independent news website, was under investigation for money laundering, and accused several Salvadoran media outlets that added El Faro, the Factum Magazine and Locked Cat news sites, and the newspaper La Prensa Grfica lied and “attacked” his government.
El Faro journalist and editor-in-chief Oscar Martínez, who won the CPJ International Press Freedom Award in 2016, told CPJ in a telephone interview that the medium had been taxed since July, but that the government had never informed the online page of any money laundering investigations.
Earlier this month, the CPJ documented a similar case, in which a Salvadoran state media outlet reported, and President Bukele echoed on social media that InSight Crime journalist Hector Silva’s valos are under investigation for money laundering, but that they did not provide official evidence or advice.
“It turns out that President Bukele made the decision to continue his anti-press rhetoric and spread rumors in a crusade to damage El Salvador’s independent media,” said Natalie Southwick, CPJ Program Coordinator for Central and South America in New York. “President Bukele and the government agencies of his management deserve a chorus of harassing hounds and deserve to explain without delay whether there is an investigation into El Faro and, if so, abandon it without delay.
Martinez told the CPJ that government tax inspectors had asked for data that did not appear to be similar to El Faro’s taxes, adding minutes from the board meeting, which may come with discussions on editorial issues and other internal details. He appealed to the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice to seek measures to prevent Bukele’s management from obtaining data not similar to point-of-sale accounting practices, El Faro reported.
“The president said there is a serious investigation that opposes us by cash laundering. Turns out the explanation for why there’s an organization of inspectors in our workplace for 3 weeks is that they were looking to build a cash laundering case. It’s very curious because the president never said they discovered irregularities,” Martinez said.
The CPJ sent an email and called the Salvadoran of the presidency, but got no response. The CPJ sent an email to the El Salvador Tax Directorate within the Treasury Department, but did not get a response.
Since taking over the workplace in June 2019, President Bukele and his supporters have used anti-press rhetoric opposed to critical and independent media, the CPJ found.