Óscar Enrique MARTÍNEZ D´AUBUISSON
Image Credit: Personal Archive
Judicial harassment of author and journalist for his work
Journalist and author Óscar Martínez received threats after publishing a series of interviews with leaders of a gang, who recounted pacts made with the government. Spokespersons publicly accused Oscar Martínez, along with El Faro’s director, of ‘apology for crime and illicit groups’. He left El Salvador temporarily following reports of an arrest warrant, but in July 2025 he announced that he would stay abroad indefinitely for fear of reprisals.
Author Óscar Martínez D’Aubisson, editor-in-chief of the online media outlet El Faro received threats in 2025 as a consequence of the former’s journalistic investigations. On 1 May 2025, El Faro published a series of interviews with two fugitive leaders of the Barrio 18 Revolucionarios gang. The interviewees recount the pacts they made with President Nayib Bukele's government. Shortly afterwards, pro-government officials and spokespersons threatened and smeared Martínez, along with Carlos Martínez, ,accusing him of being an apologist for crime and illicit groups. In May, faced with a threat of criminal charges, they both left El Salvador for their own safety.
Staff at El Faro have suffered attacks for many years, including surveillance, smear campaigns and judicial harassment. In January 2021, the IACHR granted precautionary measures to 34 of its journalists.
Award-winning journalist Óscar Martínez, born in 1983, is a founding member of Sala Negra, project covering violence in Central America (2011–2018), and Head of Special Investigations at Elfaro.net (2018–2021). He has been editor-in-chief of El Faro since 2021. He is the author of the books Los migrantes que no importan (The Migrants Who Do Not Matter) (2021), A History of Violence (2017), and (Los muertos y el periodista) (The Dead and the Journalist) (2021), among others. He received the Fernando Benítez National Prize for Cultural Journalism (2018), the King of Spain International Journalism Prize (2019); and the Gabo Prize for Best Coverage in 2020, among others.