2016 Advocate Carlos Santos, the Salvadoran author, journalist, and former political prisoner, was awarded the 2026 Literary Prize in the category of testimonial literature from the Casa de las Americas for his work "Dr. Muerte: Confessions."The book heavily draws from real history, human rights struggles, and the author's own deep-seated background. Santos, who was a political prisoner in El Salvador during the 1980s under the National Police due to his involvement in an active political theater group, structured the narrative around memory, resistance, and the dark political underbelly of the era. The judges highlighted the book's "solid and precise language" and "prose without futile decorations," making it a deeply gripping, unembellished account of historical trauma.
