SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — A judge in El Salvador ordered Tuesday that a lawyer and well-known critic of President Nayib Bukele remain in jail as his prosecution on charges of money laundering proceeds in a blow to critics pushing back against the government.
Enrique Anaya was detained by police earlier this month on money laundering allegations just days after calling Bukele a “dictator” on live TV. His arrest has been the subject of an outcry by human rights defenders.
“Unfortunately, the result was not what we had hoped for,” Anaya's attorney Jaime Quintanilla said, adding that the case would now proceed into an investigative phase. He said they expected to hear more in the coming weeks.
Upon Anaya's arrest, authorities did not provide details about the allegations against him despite posting a photo of the constitutional lawyer in handcuffs surrounded by armed police.
Advocates, legal experts and international watchdogs have warned that Bukele has grown emboldened by his alliance with U.S. President Donald Trump. He has moved to silence critics through recent arrests and a new foreign agents law that sent chills through nongovernmental organizations that receive overseas funding. Anaya's June 10 arrest was just the latest example.
Another judge issued a similar decision against prominent human rights attorney Ruth Leonora López earlier this month. That judge ordered López, another outspoken Bukele critic, held for six months on charges of illegal enrichment.
Anaya's legal team insists that he is innocent and that the detention was purely political. Quintanilla, his lawyer, said it also violated his rights because he was not brought before a judge within 72 hours of his arrest as required by the country's constitution.
Rather, he was held for 14 days and instead appeared to be detained under emergency provisions that Bukele has used to crack down on the country's gangs and detain alleged gang members with little access to due process. Tuesday was the first time Anaya has appeared before a judge.
Quintanilla said this was illegal because Anaya was accused of a crime unconnected to gang violence. He had appealed to the country's Supreme Court, using a habeas corpus petition, which was partially granted Saturday, leading to Tuesday's hearing.
He had hoped that Anaya would be set free, but the detained lawyer was walked out of court in handcuffs surrounded by police. He nodded to reporters with his cuffed hands held to his chest.
Speaking to reporters during a break in the hearing, Quintanilla said he could not share further details about what occurred in the courtroom because the case is sealed, but said that prosecutors presented charges, the defense responded, and the judge ultimately allowed Anaya to speak.
“He (Anaya) obviously described what he has suffered during his detention, what has happened to him and matters specific to the case that cannot be disclosed,” Quintanilla said.
The defense attorney said Anaya’s medical condition is critical and blamed it on “overcrowding and confinement.” He mentioned that Anaya suffers from a chronic illness but did not provide further details.
Bukele has long faced criticism of what watchdogs say are clear human rights violations. But with recent moves by the Bukele administration, they see a worrisome escalation by the popular president, who enjoys extremely high approval ratings due to his gangs crackdown.
By suspending fundamental rights, Bukele has severely weakened gangs but also locked up 87,000 people for alleged gang ties, often with little evidence or due process. A number of those detained were also critics.
Bukele and his New Ideas party have taken control of all three branches of government, stacking the country’s Supreme Court with loyalists. Last year, he ran for reelection despite a constitutional ban, securing a resounding victory.
Police escort constitutional lawyer Enrique Anaya out of court after his hearing, following his arrest for alleged money laundering in San Salvador, El Salvador, Wednesday, June 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Salvador Melendez)
Police escort constitutional lawyer Enrique Anaya out of court after his hearing, following his arrest for alleged money laundering in San Salvador, El Salvador, Wednesday, June 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Salvador Melendez)
Police escort constitutional lawyer Enrique Anaya out of court after his hearing after his arrest for alleged money laundering in San Salvador, El Salvador, Wednesday, June 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Salvador Melendez)
NEW YORK (AP) — Reviving a campaign pledge, President Donald Trump wants a one-year, 10% cap on credit card interest rates, a move that could save Americans tens of billions of dollars but drew immediate opposition from an industry that has been in his corner.
Trump was not clear in his social media post Friday night whether a cap might take effect through executive action or legislation, though one Republican senator said he had spoken with the president and would work on a bill with his “full support.” Trump said he hoped it would be in place Jan. 20, one year after he took office.
Strong opposition is certain from Wall Street in addition to the credit card companies, which donated heavily to his 2024 campaign and have supported Trump's second-term agenda. Banks are making the argument that such a plan would most hurt poor people, at a time of economic concern, by curtailing or eliminating credit lines, driving them to high-cost alternatives like payday loans or pawnshops.
“We will no longer let the American Public be ripped off by Credit Card Companies that are charging Interest Rates of 20 to 30%,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Researchers who studied Trump’s campaign pledge after it was first announced found that Americans would save roughly $100 billion in interest a year if credit card rates were capped at 10%. The same researchers found that while the credit card industry would take a major hit, it would still be profitable, although credit card rewards and other perks might be scaled back.
About 195 million people in the United States had credit cards in 2024 and were assessed $160 billion in interest charges, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says. Americans are now carrying more credit card debt than ever, to the tune of about $1.23 trillion, according to figures from the New York Federal Reserve for the third quarter last year.
Further, Americans are paying, on average, between 19.65% and 21.5% in interest on credit cards according to the Federal Reserve and other industry tracking sources. That has come down in the past year as the central bank lowered benchmark rates, but is near the highs since federal regulators started tracking credit card rates in the mid-1990s. That’s significantly higher than a decade ago, when the average credit card interest rate was roughly 12%.
The Republican administration has proved particularly friendly until now to the credit card industry.
Capital One got little resistance from the White House when it finalized its purchase and merger with Discover Financial in early 2025, a deal that created the nation’s largest credit card company. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which is largely tasked with going after credit card companies for alleged wrongdoing, has been largely nonfunctional since Trump took office.
In a joint statement, the banking industry was opposed to Trump's proposal.
“If enacted, this cap would only drive consumers toward less regulated, more costly alternatives," the American Bankers Association and allied groups said.
Bank lobbyists have long argued that lowering interest rates on their credit card products would require the banks to lend less to high-risk borrowers. When Congress enacted a cap on the fee that stores pay large banks when customers use a debit card, banks responded by removing all rewards and perks from those cards. Debit card rewards only recently have trickled back into consumers' hands. For example, United Airlines now has a debit card that gives miles with purchases.
The U.S. already places interest rate caps on some financial products and for some demographics. The Military Lending Act makes it illegal to charge active-duty service members more than 36% for any financial product. The national regulator for credit unions has capped interest rates on credit union credit cards at 18%.
Credit card companies earn three streams of revenue from their products: fees charged to merchants, fees charged to customers and the interest charged on balances. The argument from some researchers and left-leaning policymakers is that the banks earn enough revenue from merchants to keep them profitable if interest rates were capped.
"A 10% credit card interest cap would save Americans $100 billion a year without causing massive account closures, as banks claim. That’s because the few large banks that dominate the credit card market are making absolutely massive profits on customers at all income levels," said Brian Shearer, director of competition and regulatory policy at the Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator, who wrote the research on the industry's impact of Trump's proposal last year.
There are some historic examples that interest rate caps do cut off the less creditworthy to financial products because banks are not able to price risk correctly. Arkansas has a strictly enforced interest rate cap of 17% and evidence points to the poor and less creditworthy being cut out of consumer credit markets in the state. Shearer's research showed that an interest rate cap of 10% would likely result in banks lending less to those with credit scores below 600.
The White House did not respond to questions about how the president seeks to cap the rate or whether he has spoken with credit card companies about the idea.
Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., who said he talked with Trump on Friday night, said the effort is meant to “lower costs for American families and to reign in greedy credit card companies who have been ripping off hardworking Americans for too long."
Legislation in both the House and the Senate would do what Trump is seeking.
Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Josh Hawley, R-Mo., released a plan in February that would immediately cap interest rates at 10% for five years, hoping to use Trump’s campaign promise to build momentum for their measure.
Hours before Trump's post, Sanders said that the president, rather than working to cap interest rates, had taken steps to deregulate big banks that allowed them to charge much higher credit card fees.
Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., have proposed similar legislation. Ocasio-Cortez is a frequent political target of Trump, while Luna is a close ally of the president.
Seung Min Kim reported from West Palm Beach, Fla.
President Donald Trump arrives on Air Force One at Palm Beach International Airport, Friday, Jan. 9, 2025, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
FILE - Visa and Mastercard credit cards are shown in Buffalo Grove, Ill., Feb. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)
