The Alejandro Muyshondt files


I wrote a few weeks ago about the arrest and death in prison of Nayib Bukele's National Security Adviser, Alejandro Muyshondt.  New journalistic investigations have revealed secret recordings of conversations Muyshondt made on his phone of meetings with high officials in the Bukele government. Among the officials are the current president of the Legislative Assembly Ernesto Castro, who was Bukele's private secretary and close adviser at the time the recordings were made, and Xavier Zablah, the president's cousin and head of the Nuevas Ideas party.   The recordings show that president Nayib Bukele's closest advisors instigated illicit spying on journalists and were aware of corrupt actors in the government and did nothing. 

Investigative journalist Héctor Silva Ávalos disclosed the existence of the recordings in new publications this week.

Among the disclosures in the recordings -- Castro and Muyshondt put in place a plan to spy on journalists and politicians and to hide it from the country's attorney general:   

[Raul Torres, an operative with Muyshondt] also outlined the objectives. The information they collect, he said at the meeting, will be used to “create campaigns,” to “cut off” journalists’ contact with their sources and to “know when a report is being prepared.” The government’s biggest problem, Torres said, is the “leaking” of documents.

Before Castro gives his approval to the project, Alejandro Muyshondt asked that the communication about it be compartmentalized, and that other intelligence entities in the State be excluded from it, such as the OIE [Office of State Intelligence], of which the security advisor does not have a good opinion. Here is part of that conversation:

-Alejandro Muyshondt: “Are you and I and the president going to be handling this or…?”

-Ernesto Castro: “Yes.”

Muyshondt discussed with Xavier Zablah his concern, shared by the US government, that Nayib Bukele was too friendly with legislator Guillermo Gallegos, whom the US had been investigating for ties with drug traffickers since at least 2014.

 This is part of one of the conversations with Zablah that Muyshondt has recorded on his cell phone:

-Alejandro Muyshondt: “I have been working with the DEA… with the person in charge of intelligence, she told me: either your president is protecting Gallegos or your president is with Gallegos…”

-Xavier Zablah: “I know it and we know it…”

-AM: “I hope he keeps his distance, because that will bring us a very high political cost…”

-XZ: “I know.”

-AM: “Look, the gringos have a hell of a lot of shit on Gallegos, so much so that he has a big file on him at the USDNY (Southern District Attorney’s Office of New York)… They are doing it ‘jayanamente’ (shamelessly), they are landing in San Juan La Herradura… When they seized USD 1.2 million in drugs, who was the one who jumped? Gallegos jumped and spoke to Chele (Mauricio) Arriaza (Chicas, director of the Police), threatening to dismiss him…” 

-XZ: “Look, I'm into those things, asshole…”

In another recording, Muyshondt and Castro discussed their knowledge of the corruption ring in the country's prisons led by prison director Osiris Luna Meza and his mother:

– Alejandro Muyshondt: “There is a huge mess in ASOCAMBIO [the prison commissary system], tiger. Uncontrolled theft. They removed Jesús de la O, but the lady (lover) is still there. And the Attorney General’s Office is putting together a file on that shit. Osiris’s (Luna) mother began to assemble certain groups of suppliers: “you give me the tamales and you give me I don’t know what” and there is always a commission (of money) involved. This person, with Jesús de la O, was in that scheme; (the prosecutors) have conversations, they have a lot of things that the Attorney General’s Office could take into account. They started to make a lot of money out of nothing… That shit (the independent newspaper) El Faro already has indications of that…”

-Ernesto Castro: “…They already have them well positioned”

-Muyshondt: “And that is a bomb that could be very counterproductive if they drop it before the elections. It is a well-documented hit and it is very difficult to refute it and create a smokescreen to get rid of such a hit…”

– Castro: “Yes.”

According to Silva's reporting, Muyshondt had multiple meetings outside El Salvador with US Justice Department and DEA officials where he discussed Gallegos.  Muyshondt knew it might get him killed.  US federal law enforcement sources told the reporter that they warned Muyshondt that he needed to leave the country.


Silva also published a report regarding the circumstances of Muyshondt's arrest and subsequent death in State custody.  Many of the details of his mistreatment in the hospital system had already been revealed in the RevistaFactum investigation and documentary.  Silva provides new information, including that, immediately after his arrest, Muyshondt had been beaten and tortured.  A bloody piece of clothing was returned to one of his relatives after his arrest. The police and attorney general raided and searched Muyshondt's home and residences of his family, as authorities looked for computer files and other evidence from the national security adviser.

** ** **   

You can read Silva's entire investigation in Spanish at these sites and listen to the audio recordings:

Ropa ensangrentada, un policía sospechoso y un hombre-vegetal llamado Alejandro Muyshondt, Prensa Comunitaria Kilómetro 169

El Salvador: Alejandro Muyshondt, el asesor de Nayib Bukele que supo demasiado y terminó muerto, Prensa Comunitaria Kilómetro 169

Los audios que revelan la oscura trama que precedió a la muerte de Alejandro Muyshondt, el asesor de Nayib Bukele que sabía demasiado, Infobae

El Faro, whose journalists were targeted by the spying scheme agreed by Castro and Muyshondt, also published its own article focusing on the recordings published first by Silva and provides some additional context.  Salvadoran President’s Office Ordered Espionage Against Journalists and Political Opponents

** ** **


Usually the Bukele regime and its allies are completely silent on investigations about malfeasance within the government. They do not go out to deny the reports, but simply ignore them to let the stories die and to avoid giving statements which can still be proven to be false.  And up until yesterday, that was the case with anything having to do with Muyshondt.

Yesterday the president of the Legislative Assembly, Ernesto Castro, whose voice figures prominently in the Muyshondt recordings, gave statements to the press to respond to the Silva articles.  


Castro asserted that it was easy to fake voices on recordings using artificial intelligence, saying that Infobae had even written an article about creating "deep fakes" with AI.   He attacked Silva as a "political operator of Mauricio Funes"  who was being investigated by the Attorney General for receiving  "sobresueldos" during the Funes government.  Castro claimed these articles were attacks by the same media who always attack the Legislative Assembly and that the Salvadoran people knew who is really on their side.   

Castro's remarks were subsequently reposted to social media by the official Legislative Assembly account on X, showing perhaps an extra level of concern by Castro about this story.  Meanwhile, Nayib Bukele and Attorney General Rodolfo Delgado remain completely silent on the topic, and the government's news outlets are ignoring the story. 

Silva responded on X to the statements by Castro:

This is the key phrase: He doesn't respond. He knows it's his voice. He knows what he talked about with Alejandro Muyshondt and what he asked of him. He does what they have done since this government began: attacking the press to avoid responding to evidence that, in reality, cannot be answered.

It is possible (although perhaps not likely) that we will receive additional information from El Salvador's response to the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, part of the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights.  The Special Rapporteur on July 11 sent a letter to the Salvadoran government expressing concern over the reports of Muyshondt's arrest, the secrecy over his imprisonment and medical care, and subsequent death in state custody. The letter requested answers to a series of questions about the reasons for his detention, the lack of information to the family, and his care while in custody.  According to the website of the Rapporteur, a response from the Salvadoran government was received September 5, but it had not yet been made available to the public.

El Faro concluded an editorial on the Muyshondt revelations in this way:

Muyshondt was isolated and tortured in the regime's prisons. There he died, devoured by the system of criminal impunity and the mafia that he also helped to empower. A mafia that continues to persecute critics and opponents while protecting allies whom its own police have profiled as drug traffickers and corrupt officials. This mafia, which today controls the Salvadoran present, intends to take over our future.


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