Amnesty: El Salvador Committing Human Rights Abuses in Gang Purge

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Facts

• Amnesty International on Monday published a new report alleging that El Salvador's authorities have committed systematic human rights abuses since a state of emergency was declared last year.¹
• The rights group alleged that the year-long war against gangs has resulted in more than 66K arbitrary detentions, as well as enforced disappearances, torture, and the deaths of at least 132 citizens in state custody.²
• It also accused the country's government, judiciary, and security forces of weaponizing the criminal justice system to unjustly imprison a large number of Salvadorans, mostly believed to be innocent civilians.³
• Last month, Salvadorian Pres. Nayib Bukele extended the state of emergency — initially decreed for a period of 30 days on March 27, 2022 to curb gun violence — for the twelfth time, stating that the measure 'allowed the Salvadoran population to feel a sense of security.'⁴
• The government also recently opened a new 'mega-prison' with the capacity to detain more than 40K detainees, so as to house gang members who Bukele said 'will live for decades, all mixed, unable to do any further harm to the population.'⁵
• Bukele's anti-gang policy remains popular with Salvadorans, with his approval ratings having recently surged to around 90%. According to government data, the country experienced a homicide rate of 103 per 100K inhabitants in 2015; in 2022, it had dropped to 7.8 per 100K.⁶

Sources: ¹Al Jazeera, ²Amnesty international, ³Common Dreams, ⁴The manila times, ⁵BBC News and ⁶El país english.

Narratives

• Narrative A, as provided by Bloomberg línea. The war on gangs has produced an extraordinary change in El Salvador, which recently celebrated a 300-day streak without a single homicide. The emergency decree has reduced violence and proved popular in a country that, over three days in March 2022, reported the violent deaths of 88 people. The state of emergency hasn't violated human rights or suspended public liberties — it has only imprisoned terrorists and reduced high crime rates, making the country safer.
• Narrative B, as provided by Wola. Amnesty's findings and demands chime with evidence of mass human rights abuses revealed through the leak of a government database, including the unlawful detention of children and mass arrests without investigation. Impoverished Salvadorans are being criminalized, rounded up, and wrongfully imprisoned despite the absence of any affiliation with gangs. The current state of emergency is eroding democracy and civil rights in El Salvador, and is being used to further the government's campaign of silencing opponents and independent media.