A leading rights group investigating corruption in El Salvador said Thursday it had been forced into exile due to "escalating repression" by President Nayib Bukele's administration.
The Cristosal group is a vocal critic of Bukele's controversial anti-crime policies and also provides assistance to families of migrants deported by the United States and imprisoned in El Salvador.
It denounced "harassment," "espionage" and "defamation" by what it called a "dictatorship" being established in El Salvador under Bukele, an ally of US President Donald Trump.
"Faced with increasing repression and the closure of democratic spaces in El Salvador, Cristosal is forced to suspend its operations in El Salvador," its director Noah Bullock told a news conference in Guatemala.
He said that "a repressive apparatus that acts without limits" meant that "we are forced to choose between prison or exile."
The withdrawal follows the arrest in May of the head of Cristosal's anti-corruption unit, Ruth Lopez, who is accused of illicit enrichment, a charge she denies.
In recent months, several other Bukele critics have been arrested in El Salvador.
Amnesty International this month declared Lopez a prisoner of conscience and called for her immediate release.
The activist's arrest was "part of a systematic pattern of criminalization that seeks to silence those who denounce abuses or demand justice and transparency in public administration," Amnesty Secretary General Agnes Callamard said.
A "foreign agents" law means that NGOs must pay a 30 percent tax on the funds they receive.
Cristosal, whose main source of income is donations, called it "an instrument of authoritarian control."
International rights groups reacted with alarm to Cristosal's exit.
"The cost: less justice for victims, weaker oversight of abuses, and fewer spaces for dissent," Juanita Goebertus, Americas director at Human Rights Watch, said on X.
The Washington Office on Latin America advocacy organization expressed its support for Cristosal and other civil society groups "facing harassment and defamation campaigns under Bukele's government."
Cristosal, which had around 30 activists in El Salvador, said the country "is no longer a state governed by the rule of law."
"When exercising freedoms or simply dissenting against power carries consequences, these are clear signs that a dictatorship has taken hold," Bullock said.
While rights groups have criticized Bukele's methods, a dramatic drop in the homicide rate has made him popular at home.
Cristosal helps families of Salvadorans caught up in Bukele's self-declared "war" on gangs, as well as more than 250 Venezuelans deported by Trump's administration, which paid El Salvador to hold them in a notorious high-security facility.
Cristosal said in April that police officers had entered its headquarters to film and photograph the premises and vehicles of journalists invited to a press conference.
The group, founded by Anglican bishops, said it would continue to operate from its offices in Guatemala and Honduras, after a quarter-century presence in El Salvador, to protect the safety of its members.
Thousands of people have been detained under Bukele's state of emergency, often without court orders, the right to phone calls or even to see a lawyer.
"Democratic institutions in El Salvador have disappeared and are under the control of Bukele's authoritarian regime," said Cristosal's head of litigation, Abraham Abrego.
A survey released by Central American University last week showed that six out of 10 Salvadorans fear criticizing the president or his government, as it could lead to "negative consequences," such as arrest.
