Press Release
Published on September 8, 2026
Today, Human Rights First (HRF) and the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights (RWCHR) recommended the Canadian government impose sanctions against El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele and other senior military and police officials for gross human rights violations in connection with the country’s ongoing “state of exception.” Evidence submitted by HRF and RWCHR to the Canadian government details the officials’ involvement in a campaign of torture, enforced disappearances, arbitrary detentions, and fair trial violations that have impacted tens of thousands of people.
“The Bukele regime has perpetrated gross human rights violations on a scale not seen in El Salvador since the country’s civil war, and justice and accountability are urgently needed to pressure the government to bring an end to this crisis,” said Amanda Strayer, Senior Counsel for Accountability at Human Rights First. “We urge the Canadian government to exercise its leadership in support of human rights and impose Magnitsky-style sanctions on the officials responsible for these widespread and horrific abuses.”
Since the Bukele government announced a “state of exception” in March 2022 that curtailed constitutional rights in response to ongoing gang violence, Salvadoran military and police officials have indiscriminately arrested and detained over 90,000 people, often with little to no evidence of gang involvement. Inside prison facilities, detainees have faced torture and severe conditions, resulting in the deaths of more than 500 people, including children. Journalists and other activists, including prominent human rights defender Ruth López Alfaro, have been targeted and arbitrarily detained for their efforts to call attention to these abuses and seek accountability.
As the architect of El Salvador’s state of exception, President Bukele bears responsibility for the abuses committed by Salvadoran officials in carrying out his so-called “war on gangs” since 2022. Other top Salvadoran officials, including Minister of Justice and Public Security Gustavo Villatoro, Vice Minister of Justice and Public Security Osiris Luna Meza, and Minister of National Defense René Merino Monroy, are also responsible for the abuses committed by officials of the agencies they oversee. Human Rights First and RWCHR have recommended these four individuals for sanctions in Canada on the basis of their involvement in gross human rights violations, following a similar recommendation Human Rights First made to the U.S. government in 2023.
“Canada has long championed human rights in the Western Hemisphere and globally, and the abuses in El Salvador demand our government’s urgent and serious attention,” said Gila Cotler, CEO of Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights. “Targeted sanctions against President Bukele and others in his administration would close a critical accountability gap and reflect Canada’s important role in holding human rights abusers accountable.”
Under Canadian law, Salvadoran officials could be eligible for Magnitsky-style sanctions under the Justice for Victims of Corrupt Foreign Officials Act, which enables Canada to impose financial restrictions against those responsible for or complicit in “gross violations of human rights.” Pursuant to that authority as well as the Special Economic Measures Act, Canada has been active in imposing sanctions against human rights violators in the Western Hemisphere and elsewhere, including for situations involving torture, arbitrary detention, and forced disappearances.
“Canada’s role in rejecting impunity is all the more vital as the Trump administration has chosen complicity in the abuses in El Salvador over accountability,” said Uzra Zeya, President and CEO of Human Rights First. “Since taking office, the U.S. government has illegally transferred hundreds of Venezuelans and Salvadorans, including asylum seekers, from the United States to El Salvador’s nightmarish prison system, where they have been disappeared and tortured in violation of U.S. domestic and international law. As we fight to end these abuses by the Trump administration, we call on Canada and other governments to denounce these human rights violations and support much-needed accountability for those responsible.”
Beginning in March 2025, U.S. officials negotiated with Bukele’s government to unlawfully deport hundreds of Venezuelans and thousands of Salvadoran individuals to El Salvador, some of whom have been detained in the infamous CECOT prison. In July 2025, El Salvador refouled Venezuelan asylum seekers and refugees back to the harms they fled in Venezuela. These actions are part of a pattern of tearing apart families and forcibly removing refugees, asylum seekers, and other migrants to dangerous third countries where they face grave human rights violations and the risk of chain refoulement. Human Rights First and our partner Refugees International have tracked and recorded 35 such third-country transfer agreements signed by the United States to unlawfully send thousands of people to countries around the world, regardless of the individual’s country of origin. Human Rights First is also challenging in federal court the Department of Homeland Security’s policy of deporting noncitizens to third countries without notice or the opportunity to challenge the removal on the grounds that they fear persecution, torture, and/or death in that country.
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Since 1978, Human Rights First has championed freedom and dignity for all, at home and abroad. Our near half-century of impact includes securing landmark protections for refugees, building bipartisan guardrails against torture, forging new frameworks to hold global human rights abusers accountable, and uplifting human rights defenders worldwide. Grounded in legal rigor and with a bias towards innovation, we build broad-based coalitions and equip them with new tools to ensure that justice and democracy prevail.
The Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights (RWCHR) takes on the most pressing struggles for justice, freedom, and democracy around the world. Founded and led by Irwin Cotler, former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, and based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, we mobilize and engage a non-partisan, global coalition of parliamentarians, scholars, jurists, NGOs, activists, and students to take a collective stand for international justice and human rights. Guided by Raoul Wallenberg’s legacy, we work to protect individuals persecuted by authoritarian regimes for their advocacy and civic engagement and to confront mass atrocity crimes globally.
