El Salvador: Activist at risk of torture

Fidel Zavala was recently transferred, on 2 April 2025, to Mariona prison, a prison notorious for its torture practices in the 1980s, practices which are being revived in recent years under the State of Emergency. Fidel Zavala has publicly and formally denounced guards at that same prison for torturing and ill-treating inmates. Him being moved to that same prison, puts his life and personal integrity at immediate risk. 

Fidel Zavala, spokesperson for the Unidad de Defensa de Derechos Humanos y Comunitarios (UNIDEHC), has played a crucial role in exposing human rights violations within Salvadoran penitentiary centers. In 2024, he filed a formal complaint against prison authorities, including Osiris Luna, the Director General of Prisons, for torture and other abuses committed under the state of emergency.

The community of "La Floresta," located in San Juan Opico, La Libertad, has been facing eviction threats that could displace over a hundred families, many of whom have lived in the area for more than a decade. UNIDEHC has provided legal support to the community in its struggle for land and territorial rights. Currently, the detained community leaders are being prosecuted on charges such as "illicit associations" and other offenses related to their community work. The defense argues that these accusations are unfounded and that the leaders' activities were aimed at legalizing land tenure through established legal processes. On March 14, 2025, the Fifth Court against Organized Crime of San Salvador ordered formal proceedings with six months of provisional detention for Fidel Zavala and all 23 La Floresta’s detainees.

The detention of Fidel Zavala and more than 20 community leaders from "La Floresta" is part of a broader context of escalating state repression against human rights defenders and activists in El Salvador. Since the implementation of the state of emergency in March 2022, authorities have adopted measures that reflect a widespread pattern of state abuse, including thousands of arbitrary detentions, the systematic use of torture and other ill-treatment in detention centers, and hundreds of deaths in state custody.

Since his arrest for alleged “membership of an illicit group”, two more charges have been brought against him, both for alleged fraud. One of the recent charges dates back to a case brought against him in 2023 for which he served one year in prison before being acquitted, but which the public prosecutor seeks to be reponed. Amnesty International has not been able to assess the new charges brought against him. 

Amnesty International has documented an increase in state actions that undermine freedom of expression and association, alongside restrictions on the right to peaceful assembly, public participation, and access to public information. The current situation in El Salvador reflects a disturbing trend toward the repression of critical voices and the erosion of civic space, placing at risk the essential work of human rights defenders and their efforts to build a more just and inclusive society.