Latin Analysis: El Salvador’s Human Rights Dilemma
El Salvador Presidency Press Office
Nayib Bukele, El Salvador’s current president, has called the attention of the media and politicians worldwide since he became head of state in June 2019. This is the case as he accomplished to reduce significantly the street-violence rate in the Central American country, which had had for several decades some of the most alarming violence rates in the world. He had gained unprecedented popularity not only amongst Salvadoreans, but he had been considered one of the most influential politicians in Latin America. Even recently, he was praised by international media for being one of the first Latin American leaders to adopt some of the stringiest precautionary measures to prevent the spread of Coronavirus; so much so, that it locked down even where there were not people sick with the virus within the nation yet.
Nevertheless, the president’s recent decisions have considerably lowered its past social approval and have even caused international media and human rights activists around the world to call the president a “dictator” and have accused him of being “authoritarian”.
Bukele’s priorities
Since his presidential campaign, Bukele had established that restoring social peace in El Salvador was his number one priority. Indeed, this proved to be true, as since he became president, his administration strengthened the national army and police forces to catch criminals, such that the first two months of 2020 were the most peaceful the country had known since the end of its civil war in 1992.
The novel low criminal rates were expected to keep decreasing over time, especially since the Salvadorean government imposed one of the globe’s most strict preventive lockdowns in the world. However, surprisingly enough, this was not the case. Contrary to what was expected, violence rates seemed to boost during the lockdown, such that to-date, approximately 20 Salvadoreans die daily due to the increased criminality.
Experts suspected that this phenomenon had occurred due to prisoners in Salvadorean jails having found a way to communicate with the outside world. Thus, it was believed that several members of “gangs” (such as the “Mara Salvatrucha” group) had been plotting violent acts from within the cells and had been able to communicate with their fellow gang members in the exterior such that they could execute said plans. In addition, it was believed that gangs had been taking advantage of police officers and national military focusing on controlling the COVID-19 crisis to perform criminal acts.
Therefore, Bukele’s administration decided to take immediate action to control the increase of violence rates in the streets of El Salvador. The president decided to reduce the number of prisons in the country, such that the majority of the prisoners could be all locked in a few selected prisons. Bukele established that, in this way, he aimed to “mix” members of several gang groups to obstruct communication between members of one organization. Also, he indicated that security in these establishments would be much reinforced, such that the government could have better control over the “most dangerous” criminals.
As proof that the current Salvadorean administration’s priority remained to be the national security, the current administration uploaded several images of the prison in which all of the convicts were reunited. In the pictures, prisoners are shown in a position of subjugation, almost completely naked, and in extreme proximity to one another.
Political analysts have declared that the government’s release of said images serves two main political purposes. The first, to send a message to the gang leaders, as an indirect threat that if they do not control the current raising violent rates, their imprisoned peoples would be the ones suffering the consequences. The second is to “scare” other gang members and show them their potential future in prison if they continue to perform acts against the state.
The Concern on Human Rights
Even before president Bukele decided to take the abovementioned reasons to reestablish peace in El Salvador, the Central American country already had some of the most populated prison cells in the world, as well as some of the unhealthiest ones. This is the case as not only the extremely hot temperatures and lack of sanitation make them so, but because it is also an infamous contagion point of Tuberculosis. This situation had already provoked the death of thousands of convicts in past years.
Given the coronavirus outbreak and Bukele’s new plan for reducing criminality, the situation has become ever graver. Even when Salvadorean jails have a capacity of 18,051 prisoners, it has been established that, as of today, each center holds more than 38,000 people. The numbers, as well as the pictures released by the Salvadorean government, make it evident that prisoners have no opportunity to carry the recommended precautionary measures to stop the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Indeed, with such overpopulation of each center, there is no space to establish social distancing between people.
In consequence, international organizations and human rights activists all around the world have called out the Salvadorean government. The UN Human Rights Watch officers recommended to temporarily switch to house arrest or free the most vulnerable prisoners, including sick people, pregnant women, and senior citizens. Nevertheless, up until now, the Bukele has announced no change in his current plans.
Furthermore, experts have indicated that, if the overcrowding of prisons continues, these will most definitely become a high-contagion point of the coronavirus, which will positively trespass the prison walls and will affect the Salvadorean citizens. Therefore, this situation could offset the past strict lockdown efforts to control the coronavirus that has been taking place in the cities.
Further to this, national security experts have declared Bukele’s plans to be detrimental to its main purpose of re-establishing peace in El Salvador. This is so, as the fact that several members of enemy gangs are forced to live with one another, might cause gang-rivalries to develop into more intense violence within the cells which would also be shown in the Salvadorean cities.
It is due to this reason that many political researchers fear that Bukele’s government could potentially develop in “another” Latin American dictatorship that operates under a “the end justifies the means” vision. Truth is, the Salvadorean president is now facing a tough dilemma; on the one hand, releasing the prisoners would most likely raise the street-violence rates again, as well as it would, politically, make him seem “weak” in fighting the gangs long used to terrorizing governments and citizens. On the second hand, sticking to his original plan will most definitely cause strong criticism from the international community and multilateral institutions, as well as he could potentially be creating a coronavirus bomb that could reverse all of the past measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and gravely risk the health of the Salvadorean citizens.
