Latest news with #crackdown
Telegraph
a day ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
Turkey's Islamist-leaning government risks putting off Western tourists
A recent crackdown on booze-fuelled nightlife in the popular Turkish resort of Marmaris, and sensationalist reports that it has subsequently turned into a 'ghost town', have led to speculation that the country's conservative, Islamist-leaning government is reducing Turkey's appeal to Western tourists. This is a worry not only for the tourists concerned, many of whom return to this beautiful country time and again (not least Britons, 4.43 million of whom came in 2024), but for everyone in Turkey employed by tourism. Any significant drop in visitor numbers would be a major headache for the government too, with the industry accounting for 12 per cent of the country's GDP. But before looking at the likelihood of Turkey turning into another Dubai, where drinking is strictly regulated for visitors and forbidden for Muslims, it's worth looking at what happened in Marmaris at the beginning of the summer. Far from a curfew or slew of new, stricter rules on the closing times of bars and clubs, the local authorities simply started enforcing regulations which had been in existence over a decade. This means most bars must close at midnight, with a half-hour grace period. And the many premises on one 'zoned' street, Barlar Sokak (Street of the Bars), are permitted to stay open until 4am. A primary motivation for the local municipality, led by mayor Acar Unlü, to clamp down on bars in the town is that many were flouting existing regulations. At least 28 establishments were temporarily closed for breaking the rules, though one premise that persisted in staying open beyond the statuary time has been permanently shut. To find a raft of bars closed, and an increased police presence, when you're looking for a late-night beer in Marmaris, must have been annoying. But it's hardly evidence of a government plot to introduce ever-stricter rules around alcohol. Especially when you consider that both the municipality and the province of which it is a part are both strongholds of the staunchly secularist opposition CHP (Republican People's Party). Another much-touted reason for the clampdown is public ire about the number of bars where shirtless male waiters danced on the tables. Turkey may be a polarised country, with a sometimes-unbridgeable chasm between the ruling AKP (Justice and Development Party) and the CHP, but Turks of nearly every stripe are united in their relative conservatism. Fire-safety concerns also played their part in the 'crackdown', as part of the tabletop revelry often included sparklers and other fireworks as part of the impromptu 'show'. Both activities are now banned. I talked to long-term residents involved in the tourism trade in the pretty resort of Kaş, Turkey's outdoor adventure capital, and the resort city of Antalya, both in Antalya province. They told me that, as in Marmaris, bars in Kaş close at midnight, clubs at 1am. In Antalya, many bars remain open until 2am, though live music is required to cease at 1am. There have been no recent clampdowns or curfews in either of these major tourist centres. So what happened in Marmaris appears to have been an isolated event caused by specific circumstances. But there is little doubt that the current government, in power since 2002, have made Turkey harder for drinkers. Laws introduced in 2013 forbade alcohol to be sold within 100 metres of a mosque or school, and off licences and markets could only sell alcohol between 6am and 10pm. Alcohol advertising on TV became unlawful in the same year, with authorities even enforcing the blurring of alcoholic beverages on TV and cinema screens. Massive increases in the price of alcoholic beverages have crept in during the current government's reign too – up to 70 per cent of the retail price of many alcoholic drinks is now tax. Once considerably cheaper than the UK, a pint of beer in a cheap bar in Marmaris, Kaş or Antalya will now cost you around £4, but it's way more in more upmarket establishments. Hotel prices can be extremely high: £10 for a 33cl beer and £12 for a glass of wine are now common. The number of Turkish tourists holidaying in long-time rival Greece rather than their own country made the news in 2024. This trend shows no sign of abating – Aegean Airlines opened a new, twice-weekly route between Istanbul and Santorini at the end of May. One motivating factor for this exodus to Turkey's Aegean neighbour is that Greece is cheaper than Turkey for many things – including alcoholic drinks. A glass of wine in a modest Greek taverna is around £2.60; it's hard to find one for less than £5.50 in Turkey. But despite government-led moves to restrict opening hours, 'zone' drinking establishments and increase the price of alcoholic drinks well beyond the rate of inflation, Turkey is highly unlikely to become another Dubai. Although the number of Turks who admit to drinking is only 17 per cent, the true figures are probably much higher, and the government cannot afford to completely alienate too many of its own citizens. And tourism is far too valuable to the economy to risk putting off foreign visitors by introducing Dubai-style rules. Yet it remains impossible to gauge how much tourism in Turkey will be affected long-term by the spiralling costs of alcoholic drinks, or concerns that Turkey is becoming a less liberal destination. A friend who runs a travel agency in Antalya told me that, after a decent spring, numbers had dropped in June, and that Antalya's walled old quarter of Kaleiçi was quiet. She attributed the fall to the unrest in the wider Middle East, however. Official figures also show signs of falling demand – in late June, Hürriyet Daily News published figures from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism showing a 1.8 per cent year-on-year drop in foreign visitors for May 2025 over the preceding year, and a more modest 1 per cent overall drop in the first five months of 2025. Yet in the same five-month period, the number of Britons coming to Turkey actually rose by 1.3 per cent. In recent decades, Turkey has weathered coups and wars, terrorist atrocities, hyper-inflation and many other setbacks. Yet tourism has grown exponentially. In 2003, 16.5 million tourists came to Turkey, by 2011 that had risen to 30 million, and 57 million tourists visited in 2024, making Turkey the fourth most visited country globally. The Turks are far too resilient and resourceful to let slip the appeal of the country of which they are so proud to foreign visitors, especially when it is so vital to the economy.
The Guardian
a day ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Italy's detention of rescue vessels in Mediterranean will lead to more deaths, say campaigners
Italian officials have detained NGO rescue vessels five times in the past six weeks, as campaigners criticise an escalating crackdown they fear will lead to more fatalities on one of the world's deadliest migration routes. On Tuesday the Berlin-based NGO Sea-Watch received confirmation that its vessel, the Aurora, had been detained in Lampedusa for 20 days. It was detained after the vessel had helped to rescue about 70 people in international waters, many of whom had been suffering from fuel burns, seasickness and dehydration. 'This decision is politically motivated; those who rescue are punished,' said Karla Primc, the head of operations on the Aurora. 'That is the reality in 2025.' A smaller vessel that was also involved in the rescue operation, the Dakini, was also detained. Sea-Watch linked the detentions to the decision to bring the 70 rescued people to the port of Lampedusa, rather than the much farther port of Pozzallo, where the Italian authorities had directed them. 'Due to the difficult weather conditions, the Aurora developed a significant list and the rescued persons and crew were exposed to a high risk of hypothermia and going overboard,' it said. 'Keeping the Italian authorities constantly informed, the ship's crew headed for the closer port of Lampedusa. After about 10 hours, the Aurora entered Lampedusa with explicit consent of Italy and brought all rescued persons safely ashore.' Rights groups began sounding the alarm over an increase in vessel detentions in early June when the authorities detained the Nadir, a ship operated by the German association ResQship, for 20 days. It was the first time a sailing vessel had been detained since the Italian government imposed hardline rules on civilian sea rescue activities in 2023. Days later, a vessel operated by the Germany-based search and rescue organisation Sea-Eye was also detained. The ships faced varying accusations of not complying with the authorities' instructions around rescues at sea, which have included requirements preventing ships from responding to multiple distress calls and making them travel long distances to ports in central and northern Italy. 'It's clear now that the Italian state is really trying to use all its means to keep us away,' said Jelka Kretzschmar, a crew member of the Nadir. 'The effects of this will obviously be that people disappear at sea, they drown, they suffer with no one watching and the scandal of how this is being systematically curated by Europe will not be exposed. Instead people will be more extensively pushed back by European authorities and pulled back by Tunisian and Libyan authorities and put back in torture camps or abducted and dropped in the desert.' The Italian government did not respond to a request for comment. Since the hardline rules on civilian sea rescues took effect in early 2023, NGO ships have been detained 29 times, leaving them languishing in harbours for 700 days instead of saving lives, according to the affected organisations. Another 822 days were lost navigating to far-off ports. What appears to be different this time around is that smaller vessels, such as the Dakini, which offers life vests and water but cannot bring people onboard due to its small size, are also being targeted, say campaigners. 'Therefore the practice of detention hits a new era – including now also ships of the so-called minifleet that are only supporting rescue operations,' the ship's crew said in a message to the Guardian. This year marks 10 years since NGO ships began operating in the Mediterranean. Over the years they've rescued more than 175,000 people, even as many have grappled with increased criminalisation and legal crackdowns. Earlier this month, 32 organisations issued a statement demanding that the Italian government end its 'systematic obstruction' of NGO search and rescue efforts. 'Deliberately keeping non-governmental search and rescue organisations away from the central Mediterranean causes countless more deaths at sea on one of the deadliest flight routes worldwide,' the statement noted. 'Without the presence of NGO assets and aircrafts, more people will drown while fleeing across the central Mediterranean, and human rights violations as well as shipwrecks will occur unnoticed.' Sign up to This is Europe The most pressing stories and debates for Europeans – from identity to economics to the environment after newsletter promotion The statement was made days after the crew of the Nadir received news that it had been detained for a second time. For another 20 days, the vessel had been unable to leave the port of Lampedusa, even as mayday calls rang out over the radio. 'It's like there's an invisible wall,' said James Watson, a British doctor who was on his fourth volunteer trip on the vessel when it was detained. 'You can hear about these cases which are really distressing, you can hear it in the voices of the people who are reporting them. Everyone of those cases is really scary and represents people whose lives are at risk. And then you're just sort of sat there, unable to do anything about it.' Figures from the International Organization for Migration suggest that this year more than 800 people have drowned in the Mediterranean, though the actual death toll is believed to be significantly higher. Ultimately Watson felt as though the Italian government's actions were aimed at quelling the crucial roles that NGO rescue ships play in the Mediterranean. 'These deliberate efforts to make the sea rescue harder, to take people who can be involved and help, out of that area not only increase the number of people dying but they kind of invisibilise it,' he said. 'If nobody is in the area to find boats, to report on boats, then we don't even know how many people are dying,' he said. 'So it's not just that people are going to die, which they definitely are, but nobody's even going to hear about those people dying.'
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
Home Office plan to share asylum hotel locations with food delivery firms is 'pointless' and will be 'ineffective' at stopping migrants working illegally, lawyers say
A Government plan to crack down on illegal migrant delivery riders by sharing the location of asylum hotels with food delivery companies is 'pointless' and 'ineffective', immigration lawyers warned today. The Home Office yesterday struck up a new agreement with Deliveroo, Just Eat and Uber Eats, where officials will share information about hotels in high-risk areas to help delivery companies uncover illegal working and suspend accounts. It comes after it was revealed how asylum seekers in taxpayer-funded hotels were raking in hundreds as delivery riders within days of crossing the Channel illegally on small boats. The scheme is aimed at stopping delivery riders sharing their accounts with migrants who do not have the right to work in the UK. Asylum seekers are not allowed to work for the first 12 months of being in the UK or until their application is approved. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the Labour party were taking 'decisive action to close loopholes and increase enforcement'. But, immigration lawyers today questioned how effective the crackdown will be as they called for a 'much tougher approach' over this 'blunt tool'. Emma Brooksbank, an immigration partner at Freeths, told MailOnline the agreement is 'expected to be ineffective'. She added: 'The intention is that Deliveroo, Just Eat and Uber Eats will quickly cancel accounts which are noted to be repeatedly active in high-risk areas, around asylum seeker hotels. 'It will not be difficult for illegal workers to bypass this restriction and avoid detection, thereby making the agreed data sharing pointless.' Ms Brooksbank said the 'gig ecomony operators are largely unregulated' and have 'no real incentive to clean up their act'. She added: 'The simple fact is that gig economy companies do not know who is using their app, and who is engaging with their customers under their brand name, making illegal work easy, effortless, and undetectable, which acts as a draw for illegal migrants to continue to arrive in small boats from France. The Government needs to take a much tougher approach, she said, suggesting companies must be held responsible and heavily fined for 'facilitating illegal work'. Angela Sharma, a barrister at Church Court Chambers, agreed telling MailOnline: 'Sharing information about the locations of asylum hotels may help identify hotspots where illegal working is more prevalent, but it's a blunt tool. 'The real issue lies in the ease with which delivery accounts can be sublet and exploited. Without stricter enforcement on platform verification and stronger deterrents for account sharing, this remains a systemic loophole. 'A tougher, more targeted approach that also holds companies accountable is needed to genuinely tackle the problem.' Sacha Wooldridge, partner and head of immigration at Birketts LLP, said data sharing 'will presumably enable stronger enforcement of penalties against those found to be acting unlawfully' and 'enable targeted police resourcing to higher crime locations'. But she added: 'If companies are already checking all drivers and substitute drivers on a daily basis, knowing the location of the hotels isn't likely to have a material impact.' And Victoria Welsh, partner and head of business immigration at Taylor Rose, said although the move is 'positive', the issue is 'wider than simply restricting access to legal employment.' Insisting the new scheme will bring about change, Home Secretary Ms Cooper said last night: 'Illegal working undermines honest business, exploits vulnerable individuals and fuels organised immigration crime. 'By enhancing our data sharing with delivery companies, we are taking decisive action to close loopholes and increase enforcement. 'The changes come alongside a 50% increase in raids and arrests for illegal working under the Plan for Change, greater security measures and tough new legislation.' Last month it emerged that migrants living in taxpayer-funded asylum hotels – including those who arrived by small boat – are securing work as fast food delivery riders within hours of entering Britain. Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said he had found evidence of asylum seekers breaking rules which bar them from working while their claim is processed by the Home Office. The Tory politician visited an asylum hotel in central London and posted a video showing bicycles fitted with delivery boxes for Deliveroo, Just Eat and Uber Eats parked outside. Days later, the Home Office said it had called in all three companies for a dressing down – and the meeting led to pledges to introduce 'facial recognition' systems on rider apps, such as those used by banks to confirm someone's identity. However, Deliveroo was refused access to hotel location data despite assurances it would be treated confidentially, the Times reported. Shadow Home Office minister Katie Lam said at the time: 'The fact that the Home Office is refusing to help them just shows how topsy-turvy this country's approach to migration has become. 'Crossing the Channel illegally is a crime. Working here illegally is a crime. 'Too many people are brazenly breaking the rules and it's a disgrace that the Home Office is aiding and abetting them.' Eddy Montgomery, Director of Enforcement, Compliance and Crime at the Home Office, said: 'This next step of co-ordinated working with delivery firms will help us target those who seek to work illegally in the gig economy and exploit their status in the UK. 'My teams will continue to carry out increased enforcement activity across the UK and I welcome this additional tool to disrupt and stop the abuse of our immigration system.' The Government has also announced the trialling of AI-powered facial recognition technology to determine whether Channel migrants are being wrongly identified as children. The Home Office announced testing on new technology will begin later this year with the hope it could be fully integrated into the asylum system in 2026. Ministers admitted that assessing the age of asylum seekers is 'an incredibly complex and difficult task' but said AI might soon provide quick and cost-effective results. More than 23,000 migrants have crossed the Channel so far this year, up more than 50 per cent on the same point last year and the highest number in the first six months since figures began in 2018. The Home Office says there are 32,345 asylum seekers being put up at taxpayer expense in hotels, with another 66,683 in houses and flats.
The Independent
a day ago
- Politics
- The Independent
El Salvador's new wave of political exiles say history is repeating itself
The fiercest voices of dissent against President Nayib Bukele have long feared a widespread crackdown. They weathered police raids on their homes, watched their friends being thrown into jail and jumped between safe houses so they can stay in El Salvador. Then they received a warning: Leave immediately. It's exile or prison. A combination of high-profile detentions, a new 'foreign agents' law, violent repression of peaceful protesters and the risk of imminent government detention has driven more than 100 political exiles to flee in recent months. The biggest exodus of journalists, lawyers, academics, environmentalists and human rights activists in years is a dark reminder of the nation's brutal civil war decades ago, when tens of thousands of people are believed to have escaped. Exiles who spoke to The Associated Press say they are scattered across Central America and Mexico with little more than backpacks and a lingering question of where they will end up. 'We're living through a moment where history is repeating itself," said Ingrid Escobar, leader of the human rights legal group Socorro Juridico, who fled El Salvador with her two children. 'We've lost everything," she said. Bukele's administration did not respond to requests for comment. 'We'll have to leave this country' Bukele, 43, has long been criticized for chipping away at democracy and committing human rights abuses in his war on gangs, in which the government waived constitutional rights and arrested more than 1% of El Salvador's population. Activists and journalists say for years they have faced mounting harassment and threats from the self-described 'world's coolest dictator,' whose tongue-in-cheek social media persona, bet on bitcoin and tough-on-crime discourse has gained him the adoration of many on the American right. Despite 60% of Salvadorans saying they fear publicly expressing political opinions in a recent poll, Bukele continues to enjoy soaring levels of approval because violence plummeted following his crackdown on gangs. Escobar — one of the populist's most vocal critics — said that as her organization challenged the government through thousands of legal cases, police constantly surveilled her family, showing up outside her mother's house and her 7- and 11-year-old children's schools. 'One day, we'll have to leave this country,' she told them, hoping it wasn't true. But things have reached an inflection point in recent months as Bukele grows emboldened by his alliance with President Donald Trump, namely due to the detention of hundreds of Venezuelan deportees in a Salvadoran prison made for gangs. In May, the El Salvador government passed a 'foreign agents' law resembling legislation used by Russia, Venezuela and Nicaragua to criminalize dissent by targeting organizations receiving overseas funding. Shortly after, police detained Ruth López, an anti-corruption lawyer at El Salvador's top human rights organization Cristosal, accusing her of corruption. López denies the allegations. As police escorted her in shackles to a June court appearance, she shouted: 'They're not going to silence me! I want a public trial!" Her detention came amid the arrests of several critics. On Thursday, Cristosal announced it had quietly evacuated all of its staff to Guatemala and Honduras, and shut down operations in El Salvador. 'The justice system has been weaponized against us," said Cristosal leader Noah Bullock. 'Nobody in El Salvador has any doubt that the government can detain whoever it wants and disappear them in prisons indefinitely." 'If I stay, will I die?' Escobar soon received news that her name appears on a list with 11 other journalists and activists targeted for detention. Escobar, who was about to enter treatment for sarcoma, a rare form of cancer, worried that if she was thrown in prison, she wouldn't receive care. Around a third of hundreds of deaths in prisons under Bukele were caused by a lack of medical attention. 'I asked myself one question: 'If I stay, will I die?'' she said. In June, she and her children slipped across the Guatemala border, flew to the U.S. and then to another Latin American country. She looks over her shoulder every day. Many of the exiles asked AP to not disclose their locations, fearing they could be tracked down. Others who have fled were too scared to speak on the record, even anonymously. A couple flees Journalist Mónica Rodríguez, 40, and her husband, 37-year-old activist Steve Magaña, are in exile. They were among a handful of people who documented on video Salvadoran police violently quashing a peaceful demonstration. Hundreds of protesters, including children and elderly people, wanted the president to stop the eviction of their rural community on a road near his house. 'It contradicted Bukele's discourse,' Rodríguez said. 'They were repressing people and we were the ones evidencing it." Bukele later posted on the social platform X that the community had been "manipulated" by NGOs and journalists, then announced the foreign agents law. Soon came the arrests and more people fled the country. Rodríguez said police showed photos of her and her husband to the community, asking where they were. Rodríguez and Magaña were already scared after masked police officers raided their home months earlier, seizing computers, cellphones, Magaña's credit cards and hard drives containing Rodríguez's reporting materials. The couple went into hiding, hopping between four safe houses in San Salvador before leaving the country. In June, the Association of Journalists in El Salvador reported that at least 40 journalists fled the country in a matter of weeks. 'We've lost it all' For some, including 55-year-old Jorge Beltrán, a reporter who served in the Salvadoran military during the civil war, it's a case of déjà vu. Between 1979 and 1992, war raged between a repressive, U.S.-backed government and leftist guerrillas. While there's no universally agreed upon number, historians believe tens of thousands of political exiles fled, including opposition leaders, journalists and human rights activists. The U.N. estimates around 1 million people left the country over the course of the war. 'I never thought I'd live through something like that again," Beltrán said. "The armed conflict paved the way for a fledgling democracy we enjoyed for a few years. ... Something was achieved. And now we've lost it all.' The journalist investigating corruption in El Salvador for the newspaper El Diario de Hoy said he pushed back against legal attacks before going into exile. Beltrán was sued by a business owner with close ties to the government over 'moral damages' for his investigation that uncovered evidence of corruption. He was ordered to pay $10 million by a Salvadoran court. Meanwhile, he said, officials constantly harassed him for not revealing his sources in stories about drug trafficking and continued forced disappearances. He eventually received a call from a government official warning that police might come for him. 'I recommend you leave the country. You're one of the 'objectives' they're looking to silence,' Beltrán said he was told. 'You can leave journalism, but they'll make you pay for what you already did.' He left El Salvador alone with two bags of medicine for high blood pressure and his war injuries, a book about government repression and two letters from his wife and daughter saying they hoped they would meet again one day. With bags still packed in another Central American country, he said he wants to seek asylum in Canada. Noting Trump and Bukele are allies, it's the only place in the hemisphere he thinks he will feel safe. 'Even here, I'm stuck behind bars,' he said, speaking from the home with barred windows where he's hiding. 'Exile is a prison.'
Associated Press
a day ago
- Politics
- Associated Press
El Salvador's new wave of political exiles say history is repeating itself
The fiercest voices of dissent against President Nayib Bukele have long feared a widespread crackdown. They weathered police raids on their homes, watched their friends being thrown into jail and jumped between safe houses so they can stay in El Salvador. Then they received a warning: Leave immediately. It's exile or prison. A combination of high-profile detentions, a new 'foreign agents' law, violent repression of peaceful protesters and the risk of imminent government detention has driven more than 100 political exiles to flee in recent months. The biggest exodus of journalists, lawyers, academics, environmentalists and human rights activists in years is a dark reminder of the nation's brutal civil war decades ago, when tens of thousands of people are believed to have escaped. Exiles who spoke to The Associated Press say they are scattered across Central America and Mexico with little more than backpacks and a lingering question of where they will end up. 'We're living through a moment where history is repeating itself,' said Ingrid Escobar, leader of the human rights legal group Socorro Juridico, who fled El Salvador with her two children. 'We've lost everything,' she said. Bukele's administration did not respond to requests for comment. 'We'll have to leave this country' Bukele, 43, has long been criticized for chipping away at democracy and committing human rights abuses in his war on gangs, in which the government waived constitutional rights and arrested more than 1% of El Salvador's population. Activists and journalists say for years they have faced mounting harassment and threats from the self-described 'world's coolest dictator,' whose tongue-in-cheek social media persona, bet on bitcoin and tough-on-crime discourse has gained him the adoration of many on the American right. Despite 60% of Salvadorans saying they fear publicly expressing political opinions in a recent poll, Bukele continues to enjoy soaring levels of approval because violence plummeted following his crackdown on gangs. Escobar — one of the populist's most vocal critics — said that as her organization challenged the government through thousands of legal cases, police constantly surveilled her family, showing up outside her mother's house and her 7- and 11-year-old children's schools. 'One day, we'll have to leave this country,' she told them, hoping it wasn't true. But things have reached an inflection point in recent months as Bukele grows emboldened by his alliance with President Donald Trump, namely due to the detention of hundreds of Venezuelan deportees in a Salvadoran prison made for gangs. In May, the El Salvador government passed a 'foreign agents' law resembling legislation used by Russia, Venezuela and Nicaragua to criminalize dissent by targeting organizations receiving overseas funding. Shortly after, police detained Ruth López, an anti-corruption lawyer at El Salvador's top human rights organization Cristosal, accusing her of corruption. López denies the allegations. As police escorted her in shackles to a June court appearance, she shouted: 'They're not going to silence me! I want a public trial!' Her detention came amid the arrests of several critics. On Thursday, Cristosal announced it had quietly evacuated all of its staff to Guatemala and Honduras, and shut down operations in El Salvador. 'The justice system has been weaponized against us,' said Cristosal leader Noah Bullock. 'Nobody in El Salvador has any doubt that the government can detain whoever it wants and disappear them in prisons indefinitely.' 'If I stay, will I die?' Escobar soon received news that her name appears on a list with 11 other journalists and activists targeted for detention. Escobar, who was about to enter treatment for sarcoma, a rare form of cancer, worried that if she was thrown in prison, she wouldn't receive care. Around a third of hundreds of deaths in prisons under Bukele were caused by a lack of medical attention. 'I asked myself one question: 'If I stay, will I die?'' she said. In June, she and her children slipped across the Guatemala border, flew to the U.S. and then to another Latin American country. She looks over her shoulder every day. Many of the exiles asked AP to not disclose their locations, fearing they could be tracked down. Others who have fled were too scared to speak on the record, even anonymously. A couple flees Journalist Mónica Rodríguez, 40, and her husband, 37-year-old activist Steve Magaña, are in exile. They were among a handful of people who documented on video Salvadoran police violently quashing a peaceful demonstration. Hundreds of protesters, including children and elderly people, wanted the president to stop the eviction of their rural community on a road near his house. 'It contradicted Bukele's discourse,' Rodríguez said. 'They were repressing people and we were the ones evidencing it.' Bukele later posted on the social platform X that the community had been 'manipulated' by NGOs and journalists, then announced the foreign agents law. Soon came the arrests and more people fled the country. Rodríguez said police showed photos of her and her husband to the community, asking where they were. Rodríguez and Magaña were already scared after masked police officers raided their home months earlier, seizing computers, cellphones, Magaña's credit cards and hard drives containing Rodríguez's reporting materials. The couple went into hiding, hopping between four safe houses in San Salvador before leaving the country. In June, the Association of Journalists in El Salvador reported that at least 40 journalists fled the country in a matter of weeks. 'We've lost it all' For some, including 55-year-old Jorge Beltrán, a reporter who served in the Salvadoran military during the civil war, it's a case of déjà vu. Between 1979 and 1992, war raged between a repressive, U.S.-backed government and leftist guerrillas. While there's no universally agreed upon number, historians believe tens of thousands of political exiles fled, including opposition leaders, journalists and human rights activists. The U.N. estimates around 1 million people left the country over the course of the war. 'I never thought I'd live through something like that again,' Beltrán said. 'The armed conflict paved the way for a fledgling democracy we enjoyed for a few years. ... Something was achieved. And now we've lost it all.' The journalist investigating corruption in El Salvador for the newspaper El Diario de Hoy said he pushed back against legal attacks before going into exile. Beltrán was sued by a business owner with close ties to the government over 'moral damages' for his investigation that uncovered evidence of corruption. He was ordered to pay $10 million by a Salvadoran court. Meanwhile, he said, officials constantly harassed him for not revealing his sources in stories about drug trafficking and continued forced disappearances. He eventually received a call from a government official warning that police might come for him. 'I recommend you leave the country. You're one of the 'objectives' they're looking to silence,' Beltrán said he was told. 'You can leave journalism, but they'll make you pay for what you already did.' He left El Salvador alone with two bags of medicine for high blood pressure and his war injuries, a book about government repression and two letters from his wife and daughter saying they hoped they would meet again one day. With bags still packed in another Central American country, he said he wants to seek asylum in Canada. Noting Trump and Bukele are allies, it's the only place in the hemisphere he thinks he will feel safe. 'Even here, I'm stuck behind bars,' he said, speaking from the home with barred windows where he's hiding. 'Exile is a prison.'
