The police have arrested the Salvadoran photojournalist Diego Andrés Rosa Rosales in Seville for an Interpol arrest warrant processed by the Government of . The informant, 25 years old and who has requested asylum in Spain, is being held in a police station in the Andalusian capital waiting to appear tomorrow morning before a judge of the National Court to decide on his procedural situation, according to police sources.
Rosa arrived in Spain two months ago, on November 4, and is specialized in human rights and politics. He works for the media Infomedia and Zuma Press, and previously for The Lighthouse. “We are clear that Spain cannot collaborate with the repression of journalists by authoritarian dictators and other ilk,” censures Alfonso Bauluz, president of Reporters Without Borders, who reports that the photojournalist’s brother has been arrested in Argentina.
Rosa has submitted an asylum request to the Spanish authorities because she considers that her life is in danger due to harassment by the Bukele Government. This Friday he had an appointment to process it at a police station in Seville, but the police detained him to comply with the Interpol order. The asylum request has been presented “due to persecution and risk of arrest in his own country, as a consequence of his profile as an activist, who does not align with his Government,” clarifies Mercedes Alconada, head of legal services at the refugee organization CEAR in the western part of Andalusia.
Rosa’s lawyer, Marta Balmaceda, specifies about her appearance tomorrow: “I don’t think there will be problems, but the release has to be ordered by a judge. The asylum request has been made and is now placed in the hands of the Court.” Police sources detail that Group III of the Udyco of Seville has carried out the arrest of the photojournalist before being placed at the disposal of the National Court.
The magistrate who will hear his case tomorrow, Saturday, will decide whether to give the green light to the extradition request, but given that Rosa has a pending asylum request that must be approved or rejected by the Asylum and Refuge Office of the Ministry of the Interior, it is foreseeable that he will be released. In these cases, the person claims that their life is in danger and is usually released, although with their passport retained.
The United Nations has censured the abuse by the Bukele Government of the red notices requested from Interpol and used against fugitives from justice, to pursue and harass human rights defenders “beyond its borders,” according to the special rapporteurs of the international organization.
the rapporteurs denounced a month ago in a statement. The United Nations then intervened in favor of two Salvadoran lawyers defending human rights, Ivania Cruz and Rudy Joya, who have requested asylum in Spain and against whom the Central American president has also issued international arrest warrants.
