FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 15, 2026

MORE THAN 100 INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS DENOUNCE THIRD EXTENSION OF PRETRIAL IMPRISONMENT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDER FIDEL ZAVALA AND LA FLORESTA COMMUNITY CO-DEFENDANTS

As El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele announces the potential granting of conditional releases for thousands of people detained under the State of Exception—insisting on their guilt despite growing international condemnation of widespread violations of due process and other human rights—his government continues prolonging the imprisonment of human rights defender Fidel Zavala, and twenty-one members of the La Floresta community, arrested in February 2025 while organizing against the mass eviction of more than 200 campesino families.

On October 15, on the heels of Bukele’s unprecedented announcement, more than 100 human rights, faith based, solidarity, and Salvadoran diaspora organizations from 19 countries called for their immediate release and denounced the Salvadoran government for “criminalizing people who organize in defense of their rights.”

The organizational letter responds to a September 11, 2026 ruling from the Fifth Court against Organized Crime approving the Attorney General of the Republic’s request to extend the investigation phase in the La Floresta case until August 25, 2027, the third extension in the case. Without a special hearing,  those detained are likely to  remain in pretrial detention for at least two and a half years without having been brought to trial.

Read full letter and list of signers here.

In their letter directed to the Attorney General’s Office, the Human Rights Ombudsperson, the Supreme Court and members of the Fifth Organized Crime tribunal, the organizations decried that further prolonging the proceedings prevents Zavala and the La Floresta community members from defending themselves against the charges of unlawful association and illegal land sales, among others, which the defense has repeatedly denounced as unsupported by evidence. 

The case began in February 2025, as families in La Floresta were organizing against the mass eviction of more than 200 campesino families who had lived on the land for over a decade. UNIDEHC, a human rights organization that provides legal and organizational support to communities facing displacement and other human rights violations, was accompanying residents resisting the eviction. On February 25, 2025, twenty-one members of the community were arrested along with Zavala, who was serving as a UNIDEHC spokesperson.

Zavala had been unjustly imprisoned once before in 2022, spending approximately 13 months in prison. Following his release in March 2023, he filed complaints over torture, corruption, and other abuses by prison personnel that he had witnessed, becoming a vocal critic of abuses in El Salvador’s prison system.

In response to the extension of the pretrial detention period, Amnesty International updated its Urgent Alert to raise concerns about Zavala’s safety in detention, warning that his previous complaints against prison personnel could expose him to reprisals and calling on Salvadoran authorities to ensure he is not transferred or held in conditions that could place his physical or psychological integrity at risk.

The international organizations also expressed concern over the “possible deterioration” of Zavala’s health and warned against a possible transfer to La Esperanza prison, commonly known as Mariona, “where his life would be at risk” under the custody of guards he previously denounced for torture and corruption.

The signatories describe the La Floresta case as part of a broader pattern in which communities defending themselves against displacement - and the human rights defenders who accompany them - are being prosecuted not through the regular courts but through El Salvador’s organized crime system, where due process rights are nearly absent.

The proceedings have also extended to UNIDEHC attorneys Ivania Cruz and Rudy Joya, who worked alongside Zavala in accompanying the La Floresta community and are now living in exile.

Alexis Stoumbelis, Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador: “Bukele’s announcement about plans to conditionally release tens of thousands of people, most of whom were likely unjustly detained in the first place, obscures one of the real aims of the State of Exception: to persecute and threaten communities organizing to defend land and water rights by accusing them of ‘illicit associations.’ CISPES joins the international call for the immediate and unconditional release of the 21 inhabitants of La Floresta and human rights activist Fidel Zavala who accompanied them as they confronted the government for violating their right to organize.”

Vicki Gass, Latin American Working Group (LAWG): “The Latin America Working Group (LAWG) condemns the Salvadoran Attorney General's request to extend for the third time the investigation period in the case of Fidel Zavala, this time until August 2027. Bukele’s announcement that he  plans to grant conditional early release to thousands of detainees attempts to silence the work of courageous human rights defenders like Zavala, who have risked their own freedom to demand accountability for the  violence and torture happening inside El Salvador’s prisons. Detaining Fidel indefinitely on false charges once again underscores the Salvadoran government’s lack of evidence. The charges against Fidel and members of the La Floresta community should be dropped and they should be released unconditionally, just like thousands of other innocent people arrested under the State of Exception.”

James Lafferty, Director Emeritus, Los Angeles Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild: "The Los Angeles Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild joins world leaders and civil justice organizations worldwide in demanding the immediate release of Fidel Zavala and La Floresta Community Leaders imprisoned in El Salvador. We denounce the further investigation as nothing more than an open attempt to silence them and other human rights defenders who support their struggles. This case has represented a violation of international law since it began in February 2025. La Foresta has every right to organize against the mass eviction of over 200 campesino families who had lived on their land for over a decade. We condemn the torture, corruption and many other abuses by prison employees that Zavala has witnessed. We recognize and condemn the prosecution of this case, as it is clearly another example of the government's attempt to silence all who are courageously struggling to build a more just country for all the peoples of El Salvador."

The Solidarity Committee of Salvadorans in the Basque Country: “The Solidarity Committee of Salvadorans in the Basque Country joins organizations from around the world in demanding the immediate release of Fidel Zavala and the residents of the La Floresta community, who have been unjustly imprisoned in El Salvador. In light of President Bukele's recent statements regarding the release of half of those detained under the state of exception, we call for the release of political prisoners as well.”

Ana María Méndez-Dardón, Director for Central America, Washington Office on Latin America, (WOLA): “The Salvadoran government is using an authoritarian criminal justice system to silence people who dare to defend their communities and challenge abuses of power. Fidel Zavala and the La Floresta community leaders have spent over a year and a half in pretrial detention without due process. This is not justice, it is criminalization and a broken rule of law. The Salvadoran authorities must immediately release those unjustly detained, end the persecution of human rights defenders, and respect the right of Salvadorans to denounce abuses without fear of imprisonment or retaliation”

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