On December 28 and 30, the Committee of Families of Political Prisoners and the Politically Persecuted (COFAPPES) gathered at the gates of the La Esperanza and Santa Ana prisons, sending messages of love and solidarity to family members detained as political prisoners.

At the infamous La Esperanza prison, also known as Mariona, in San Salvador, the group directed their messages at three former Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN)  politicians from the Zacatecoluca municipality. In a statement following the action, COFAPPES wrote, “Today, December 28, we were outside the Mariona prison, to transmit a message of solidarity and strength to our political prisoners through loudspeakers. [We have] faith that in 2025, Dr. Francisco Hirezi, Dennis Córdova and Jaime Valdez will be moved to house arrest in accordance with a judicial order granted a year ago, with which the regime has not yet complied.”

These actions, in addition to showing broader support for political prisoners, are an important form of communication, as legal and family visits have been suspended since March 2022, when the State of Exception was implemented. Recently, on December 10, organizations made up of families of incarcerated people, including many who have been arbitrarily detained under the State of Exception, delivered a letter to the Presidential Palace requesting the restoration of family visitation rights.

During the action, COFAPPES spokesperson Lourdes Palacios shared important news with the three political prisoners. “You all have had orders for alternatives to detention for 13 months and 6 days… and we understand that you have not been notified of the order because your lawyers have not been allowed inside the prison.” Seven U.S. Senators raised concerns about prisoners having “little to no access to legal counsel or information regarding the status of their detention” in a May 2024 letter to U.S. Secretary of State, Antony Blinken.

COFAPPES holds the general director of prisons, Osiris Luna, responsible for the failure to comply with the release orders. According to the Movement of Victims of the Regime (MOVIR), Luna has ignored over 20,000 judicial orders mandating the release of incarcerated people.

Recorded messages from across the Americas were also played over the speakers. “This solidarity also has no borders and messages have been sent from the United States, Mexico, and Argentina in solidarity with the political prisoners in El Salvador, as it is understood that Bukele's dictatorship is behind the failure to comply with the judicial resolutions, preventing the release of our comrades,” said Palacios.

During a similar action on December 30 outside of the “El Occidental” prison in Santa Ana, COFAPPES members broadcast their messages to several political prisoners, including Atilio Montalvo and José Santos Melara. Montalvo and Melara are two historic FMLN leaders who were arrested in May 2024, along with nine other leaders of the Alliance for a Peaceful El Salvador, which has organized dozens of peaceful protests against the Bukele government. The state has accused them of terrorism in relation to preaceful protests that has been announced for Bukele’s June 1 inauguration for an unconstitutional consecutive presidential term. Both Montalvo and Melara suffer from serious medical conditions, and their families and lawyers believe that their continued pre-trial detention is putting their lives at risk due to the poor prison conditions in which they are being held. Community journalist and University of El Salvador student Luís Menjívar, who was arrested after attending a press conference about the Alliance arrests on May 31, 2024, is also being held in Santa Ana.

On December 3, following an initial six months of pretrial detention for Montalvo, Melara, and Menjívar, a judge ordered that they be held for an additional six months. All three have had special hearings due to their health yet it appears that they will remain in prison until at least June 2025.

In a December 24 interview with the YSUCA radio station, Sonia Montalvo, daughter of Atilio, one of the signers of the 1992 Peace Accords that ended El Salvador’s 12-year civil war, lamented the more-than-80,000 detentions that have occurred since March 2022, including that of her father. “They have fractured the family. They have undermined the basis of society, which is families. We are very sad but will continue fighting.”