Salvadoran human rights activist César Bennedetto denounced that his son Óscar was detained on Thursday, June 26, and demanded his release, while lamenting that he had to “hide” his daughter after receiving a warning call announcing that “she would also be arrested.”

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“I know they have already searched for me everywhere. I have no police record, no criminal record, I owe nothing to the Court of Accounts, and I owe nothing to the Ministry of Finance,” Bennedetto (father) said at a press conference. According to him, “since they can’t do anything against me, they did it to my son.”

He “supported human rights defense efforts in rural areas” of the eastern department of La Unión. Additionally, last February he participated as a member of the National Union for the Defense of the Working Class (UNT) in a tour to denounce human and labor rights violations occurring in El Salvador before the International Labour Organization (ILO), according to local media.

“I will not stay silent, I will not leave the country. I want to tell this government that I am here and facing the situation; I will not hide,” the father stressed.

The text reads: The National Federation for the Defense of the Working Class (UNT) and the Movement for the Defense of Workers’ Rights (MDCT) denounce the arrest of the young Óscar Bennedetto Sánchez, son of César Bennedetto Sánchez, former PDDH employee and human rights defender.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), which is part of the Organization of American States (OAS), expressed its concern on June 6 about the “recent arrests of human rights defenders.”
The IACHR referred to the arrests of anti-corruption lawyer Ruth López—an outspoken critic of Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele—environmental lawyer Alejandro Henríquez, evangelical pastor and community leader José Ángel Pérez, and Fidel Zavala, spokesperson for a humanitarian organization. On June 7, lawyer Enrique Anaya, also a critic of Bukele, was arrested and accused of money laundering.

From March 2022, El Salvador is under a regime that has suspended certain due process guarantees. Since then, security forces have reported the detention of over 86,000 people, including more than 3,000 children.

Human Rights Watch has documented widespread human rights violations during this “state of exception”, including arbitrary arrests, torture and other ill-treatment, as well as serious breaches of due process. The vast majority of detainees remain in pretrial detention, many held in inhumane conditions.

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