LETTER FROM MEXICO
“We hope that the world will not turn its eyes away from Central America, because the future looks even darker for the press »warns, with a closed face, Oscar Martinez, Salvadoran digital media journalist El Faro, by evoking the very probable re-election in February 2024 of President Nayib Bukele. The writing ofEl Farowhose administrative offices are now located in neighboring Costa Rica, fears that this second term will be the occasion for an even fiercer repression against their investigations.
The Latin American Conference of Investigative Journalism (Colpin), which was held from December 6 to 9 in Mexico, is one of the rare meetings where the Central American press can meet to organize the response to the continuous attacks of authoritarian regimes in the region, whether left or right. The panorama presented during the round table “Central American journalism in danger” is indeed sinister: investigative journalists have often had to choose exile to avoid prison in recent years.
In El Salvador, 17 journalists have left their country since Nayib Bukele came to power in 2019; a number quite close to that of Guatemala, with 20 journalists currently residing between Mexico and Costa Rica. But it is Nicaragua which is breaking all records: 20 journalists convicted of “treason to the homeland” and stripped of their nationality, 150 exiled, mainly to Costa Rica, the United States and Spain following the violent demonstrations in 2018, which left nearly 300 dead. The Colpin is an opportunity to draw attention to these tragedies but also to discuss the best investigative techniques to thwart censorship and continue to investigate.
“An unprecedented repression”
“ The most difficult thing is to inform while protecting as much as possible our journalists who are still in Nicaragua and the few sources within the state apparatus who still agree to speak to us », Estimates Nicaraguan journalist Martha Irene Sanchez, founder and director of the online media Republic 18, and who resides in Costa Rica.
Same difficulties for Oscar Martinez, who now pays dearly for any information. “Before, we just had coffee to meet a source and we spent $2. Now we have to rent an Airbnb or even take a plane to meet this same person without putting them in danger”, underlines Salvadoran journalism. The media Vox populi of Guatemala, also based in Costa Rica, faces campaigns on social networks orchestrated from the presidential palace to discredit each of his revelations. “The paradox is to note unprecedented repression at the same time as extraordinary quality and creativity of independent media. There has never been so much serious journalism in the region”considers Marvin del Cid, one of the two founders of Vox populi.
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