Samuel Ramírez Beltrán on Human Rights in El Salvador

CRLN is privileged to host a special guest from El Salvador, Samuel Ramírez Beltrán in November for our annual speaking tour. Samuel is a leader of the social movement MOVIR (Movimiento de Víctimas del Régimen, or Movement of the Victims of the Regime). After the government of President Bukele began his State of Exception mass incarceration crusade in March 2022, MOVIR emerged as a direct response to the detentions and other arbitrary actions—profiling, raids, mass arrests. Since there was no effective institutional recourse for victims to file complaints or get help to locate their loved ones in detention, MOVIR organized to fill that void. MOVIR’s work consists mainly of issuing public denunciations of arbitrary arrests, organizing protests, and accompanying friends and family of detainees. Says Samuel Ramírez: “The advantage of MOVIR is that our fight is to defend human rights. Yes. We are not controlled by any political party, organization or person. Yes. The violation of human rights drives us. The anguish of people who do not know what to do. Yes. This is our motivation. Nothing more.” [cited in “El Salvador: helping victims of the State of Exception,” by Cassian Jefferson, in Latin America Bureau https://lab.org.uk/el-salvador-helping-victims-of-the-state-of-exception/ .]

MOVIR’s campaigns highlight the role of grassroot social movements—differentiated from other nonprofit organizations by their lack of formal organization and funding and their use of protests alongside more formal channels of denunciation. The work is bold. It is also dangerous. Verbal attacks by the government—defamations and accusations on social media—and attempts to capture people during protests takes it toll. While Samuel Ramírez has chosen to remain in El Salvador, other colleagues have been forced to flee.

Samuel Ramírez is proud to be part of the most important community organization on the frontlines of the struggle against martial law in El Salvador. As an adolescent, he served as a guerrilla fighter for the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN). After the signing of the 1992 Peace Accords, he earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science. For many years, Samuel served as a social and labor organizer. Since 2022, he has accompanied families of the disappeared as they search for their loved ones, fight for due process, and struggle to survive.