SAN SALVADOR (AP) – At least 241 people have died in El Salvador’s prisons since President Nayib Boucle launched a “war on gangs” two years ago, according to a humanitarian legal relief organization.
Ingrid Escobar, head of the rights group, said she had received 500 reports of deaths in state custody and confirmed about half of them, including two minors. Last year, the organization recorded 126 deaths, only half the number recorded this year.
40,000 children in El Salvador are in prison without parents, accounting for 1% of the population
In March 2022, Bukele announced a “state of exception” waiving many constitutional rights to fight the gangs that have terrorized the Central American nation.
Men detained under a state of emergency are transported by cargo truck to a detention center in Soyapango, El Salvador, Friday, October 7, 2022. Lawmakers granted the request from President Nayib Bukele on Friday, March 8, 2024. The anti-gang emergency order has been extended for one month for the 24th consecutive time. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)
Since then, El Salvador has arrested and jailed 80,000 people, more than 1% of the country’s population, often with little evidence of gang ties and little access to due process. Prisons have been likened to torture chambers, and conditions continue to be dire.
According to the NGO report, “44% of these deaths were due to violence or severe torture, and 29% were due to lack of access to medical care.”
Mr. Boucle remains popular in El Salvador, where the government has been accused of massive human rights abuses in the crackdown, but the murder rate has fallen sharply since his arrest. This Central American country has gone from being one of the most dangerous countries in the world to having one of the lowest murder rates in the region.
Bukele rode on his popularity to win re-election in February. This is despite the fact that the country’s constitution prohibits a second term for the president.
The government has already been forced to release 7,000 people due to lack of evidence, and El Salvador’s vice president told The Associated Press in January that the government “made a mistake” in the arrests.
Rights groups estimate that 35% of those arrested during the two-year exception regime were innocent, and assert that 94% of those killed had no gang ties.
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“The majority were workers, including informal traders, taxi drivers and informal transport workers, farmers, fishermen, evangelical pastors and preachers, municipal officials, and one trade unionist.” The book says:
Humanitarian Legal Redress also called on the Salvadoran government to investigate the “murders” and “enforced disappearances of all detainees” that occurred inside the prison.
