Report: Over 150 Died in Custody During El Salvador’s Gang Crackdown

Facts

• According to a 107-page report released Monday by the human rights organization Cristosal, 153 people have died in custody after being arrested as part of President Nayib Bukele's crackdown on criminal gangs.¹
• None of the dead had reportedly been convicted of the crime they were accused of. Four of the deceased were women, and the rest were men.²
• The report said the deaths in state custody were due to torture and severe injuries, with nearly half of the victims suffering violent deaths. Some of the deaths showed signs of deliberate denial of medical support and medicine, as well as malnutrition.³
• El Salvador's Legislative Assembly approved special powers following a surge in gang violence that suspended some fundamental liberties — such as having access to a lawyer and being informed of civil rights at the time of the arrest.⁴
• The nongovernmental organization called on President Bukele and the administration to provide information on prisoners' conditions, follow due process, free those who are declared innocent, and inform families.²
• This comes as the Bukele administration has sentenced former Pres. Mauricio Funes and his former Security Minister Gen. David Munguía Payes to 14 and 18 years behind bars, respectively, for their ties with criminal gangs.⁵

Sources: ¹Guardian, ²FOX News, ³The Telegraph, ⁴ABC News, and ⁵ITN.

Narratives

• Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by Americas Quarterly. In contrast with previous administrations, Bukele's crackdown on the country's notorious gangs has been highly successful, putting more than 60K dangerous criminals behind bars and dramatically slashing the murder rate that has plagued the nation for decades. Other nations in Latin America should take note of his wildly successful law and order policies, which have widespread approval with the voting public.
• Establishment-critical narrative, as provided by El País. Bukele's all-out war on criminal organizations has taken a terrible toll on democracy and human rights. Thousands of innocent people have been arrested on very loose grounds, as the rise in safety comes at the expense of grave human rights abuses. Bukele has consolidated his power to near-dictatorial levels — if he's let off the hook for his abuses, then any politician could be free from scrutiny.