Overview

• President Nayib Bukele insisted his hardline security approach warrants being called a dictator if it prevents gang violence and corruption.
• He defended the May arrest of human rights advocate Ruth Lopez and two other NGO figures as essential to his anticorruption campaign.
• Thirteen international rights organizations including Amnesty International and WOLA condemned the detentions and called for the immediate release of those held without due process.
• Allies in the Salvadoran legislature approved a foreign agents law requiring groups with overseas funding to register and pay a 30 percent levy on incoming grants.
• Human rights commissioner Andres Guzman resigned at the end of May after defending the president against violation accusations and critics warn of an escalating authoritarian trend.