It’s a phone call no editor wants to receive: a late night jolt from a reporter facing trouble. I have worked with journalists in challenging environments – writing on gang violence and public protests, or from rural, hard-to-reach areas of Latin America and the Caribbean. But it took 15 years before I got my first call from a colleague facing an arrest warrant for his work.
Nelson Rauda Zablah, our freelance correspondent in El Salvador, has documented his country’s democratic backsliding since President Nayib Bukele took office in 2019.
Nelson has been reporting for the Monitor for two years. In that time, I’ve gotten to know him both professionally and as a friend. In addition to discussing the news, hashing out story ideas, and editing his work, I’ve reported and traveled with him in El Salvador.
When I learned that he was facing the risk of arrest, I felt concerned. I informed Monitor management, offered an advance on his next story payment, and urged him to stay in close touch.
As Nelson told me this summer, he’s felt in recent years that his reporting was part of a fine balance: Mr. Bukele’s widespread popularity meant Salvadoran journalists could write critically about the government’s moves without making much of a dent in the leader’s approval ratings, and, by tolerating these reports, Mr. Bukele could tell the world that El Salvador had a viable free press.
But, as Nelson writes in this week’s cover story, his future as a reporter in El Salvador is now uncertain, as he joins the ranks of exiled journalists around the globe. At a time when there are more autocratic governments worldwide than democratic ones, being exiled “is almost a cliché, it’s that common,” he writes.
Watching as he navigates the next steps outside his home country and away from family, I’m mostly in awe. In early August, we met in Boston, in the Monitor newsroom, where Nelson spoke to colleagues about reporting on El Salvador and the changes he witnessed leading up to his exile.
His future – one he had never imagined before exile – is starting to come into focus. I’m grateful for his safety. And I’ll keep my ringer on for future updates.
