By: Staff Writer
July 16, 2024
El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele has ensured that 79,211 in his country was arrested as a result of the gang crackdown started in May, 2022 says Human Rights organization “Cristobal,” in a recent report.
Cristobal also reports that there was also 265 people who died in custody since May, 2022.
Drawing from a two-year, in-depth investigation, Cristosal presents evidence of systematic and widespread human rights violations including arbitrary detentions, torture, and deaths that raise serious concerns about the potential commission of crimes against humanity by the Salvadoran State.
El Salvador has been under a state of exception since March 2022. As a response to combat the country’s powerful street gangs, this “temporary measure” suspended constitutional rights, such as the presumption of innocence and the right to a fair trial. Cristosal presents its findings of its two-year investigation on the impact. The effects of these punitive policies have not only resulted in the deaths of 265 people in state custody, but have had a ripple effect throughout Salvadoran society, which is disproportionately felt by women.
The report, entitled, “Silence is not an Option: Investigation into the practices of torture, death, and failed justice in the state of exception” draws from 3,643 reports Cristosal has received of abuses or rights violations, 110 interviews, and the analysis of 7,742 cases of women detained under the state of exception. It draws from an in-depth investigation into 265 deaths (4 of which were infants) and the systematization and study of a sample of 1,178 cases of people detained between 2022 and 2024.
The report also said that: “Mass detentions as a result of the state of exception have impacted society as a while, leaving children without primary caregivers placing additional burdens on women.”
Also, “Torture has become a state policy, with cruel and inhuman treatment regularly practices in prisons and places of detention This, combined with deplorable conditions and lack of access to medical care has led to the deaths of at least 265 people in state custody, including four infants.”
Adding: “The justice system has failed and is complicit in the systematic violation of the human rights of the Salvadoran people.”
The report also “addresses the violation of the human rights of women caregivers and justice seekers. Cristosal verified that, after the mothers are arrested, the caregiving role is transferred to other women who thus become providers for several children and adolescents or an entire family group, with a high cost to their own physical and mental health, or to their life project. This burden deepens social inequalities, prevents women from achieving economic autonomy and exposes them to more poverty.”