One journalist was targeted by smear campaigns. Another was rumored to have been wanted for arrest. And a third’s newsroom was raided and shut down by authorities — twice.
The repression forced them to flee their countries, but even from exile these three journalists remain committed to reporting what’s happening back home. They shared their stories with an online crowd of almost 200 people in a panel held on Nov. 18 by the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas.
“Voices in Exile: Journalism, Resistance, & Resilience in Latin America” featured Luz Mely Reyes, co-founder of Efecto Cocuyo of Venezuela; César Castro Fagoaga, co-founder of Revista Factum of El Salvador, and Carlos Fernando Chamorro, founder of Confidencial of Nicaragua.
Chamorro has gone into exile twice since anti-government protests began in 2018. Repression from the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo immediately followed. The government raided and took over the headquarters of his media outlet twice.
“One thing is an emergency, when you have to leave your country to protect yourself, you or several groups of journalists,” Chamorro said. “Another thing is permanent exile. It's a permanent condition which we have been going through in the last four years, since 2021. And it's not just myself as the director of Confidencial, it's all our newsroom – everyone.”
He added that there are no longer independent news outlets operating in Nicaragua, with scores of journalists going into exile to avoid imprisonment.
“When all freedoms have been eliminated, when there is no freedom of reunion, freedom of mobilization, electoral freedom, religious freedom, the last reserve of freedom is journalism in exile,” Chamorro said. “This is what keeps us working, every day in exile.”
Fagoaga had known for years that exile was a possibility because of his work in El Salvador, and said he had even warned his family.
“But it was still a reality that was very difficult to believe, very difficult to face. We knew the moment would come, but we just didn't know exactly when,” he said.
In May 2025, the government began arresting people en masse. The time came for Fagoaga to leave. Some 53 journalists from El Salvador have been forced into exile since, according to Reporters Without Borders.
“My decision to go into exile was a painful, but necessary act of survival. It was a strategic move to protect myself and my family, and to ensure that Factum’s mission to report the truth could continue from outside,” he said.
Luz Mely Reyes reflected on the moment all journalists must decide whether or how to continue when repressive governments attempt to snuff out the independent press.
“In my case, I have spent all of my life, all of my life doing journalism,” Reyes said. “I always say that I have the good fortune that I grew up in a democracy. So that is different from other young people, from other generations, that they couldn't see how democracy was. So, I have a responsibility also with this generation that is coming, because we can learn from each other.”
Fagoaga outlined two purposes for doing journalism in exile.
The first is as a historical repository in the face of an authoritarian regime trying to control the narrative.
“Our work, for me, must focus on documenting the precise moment we’re living through right now,” he said. “This is very important to future Salvadorian generations and those outside El Salvador, to understand how the country lost its democracy, and succumbed to a new dictatorship.”
The second purpose, he said, is to serve as a warning to other countries.
“Our experience is clear and painful, not just El Salvador’s experience. Nicaragua, Venezuela, Cuba’s experience,” he said. “It's a painful reminder to countries that are currently being tempted by the idea of solving a nation’s problems through populism and authoritarianism. It's easy to believe that handing absolute power to one person is the easiest way to fix things, but our history, the story of the world proves that that is impossible.”
Looking to the future, Reyes, the self-described “optimist” of the group, said she has turned to community for support while living and working in exile.
“I'm continuing doing my job, even if the situation gets complicated, and I know that in my heart, and I have to say in my heart, and in my soul, that nothing lasts forever,” she said.
Fagoaga said he sees hope in the journalists continuing to work from exile and in the young women and men who are just joining the profession and their commitment to society. And finally, he also knows that “no dictatorship is eternal.”
Chamorro said hope comes in the form of connection with other Nicaraguans living in the country and abroad, and knowing that there will be change.
“We will not provoke that change. I mean, I don’t have that kind of naive ambition, idea that we will be the promoters of change, but as long as we are there, as we are telling the story, as we are criticizing, I think we are building that freedom of conscience, of resistance, principle for change, for those that have to make the change possible.”
