\n<\/p>\n
The draconian mass incarceration policy of El Salvador\u2019s president, Nayib Bukele, may have led to crimes against humanity, according to a new study by legal experts.<\/p>\n
By locking up 1.4% of the population without due process, Bukele turned El Salvador from one of Latin America\u2019s most violent countries into one of its least violent \u2013 but at the cost of human rights and the rule of law.<\/p>\n
The report, compiled by an international group of experts assembled by a group of international human rights organisations, documents the arbitrary imprisonment, torture, murder and forced disappearances that have taken place under the state of exception that began four years ago, describing them as \u201cthe result of a policy known and promoted by the highest levels of government\u201d.<\/p>\n
Given these widespread and systematic attacks on the civilian population, the authors conclude there are \u201creasonable grounds\u201d to believe that crimes against humanity are being committed, urging the United Nations to create an international mission to investigate.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe state must protect citizens from organised crime \u2013 but with the law, and with respect for human rights,\u201d said Santiago Canton, co-author of the report and general secretary of the International Commission of Jurists.<\/p>\n
El Salvador has been in a state of exception since 2022, when Bukele suspended constitutional rights and unleashed security forces to take on MS-13 and Barrio 18, the gangs that brutalised Salvadorian society for decades.<\/p>\n
Roughly 90,000 people have been arrested since. Most are being held in pre-trial detention, in grim conditions. Human rights organisations believe thousands without any ties to gangs have been swept up and have documented more than 400 deaths in custody.<\/p>\n
Many are in the Terrorism Confinement Centre (Cecot), a showpiece mega-prison built by Bukele specifically for gang members \u2013 and also where the Trump administration paid to hold more than 252 Venezuelan migrants it expelled, who have since spoken of the abuse and torture they faced before being sent back to Venezuela as part of a prisoner swap.<\/p>\n
Bukele\u2019s mass arrests broke the gangs\u2019 territorial grip, brought homicides down and gave most Salvadorians a kind of freedom they hadn\u2019t known for years. In 2024, they voted to give him an unconstitutional second consecutive term.<\/p>\n
The \u201cBukele model\u201d and its promise of security and popularity has won him admirers among leaders in Latin America and beyond.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has had a huge impact,\u201d said Canton. \u201cGovernments \u2013 mostly the new right that we are seeing, but also some from the left \u2013 are using it as an example. Go to any country that has elections and Bukele is there on the streets.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Chile, the incoming president, Jos\u00e9 Antonio Kast, recently described El Salvador as \u201ca lighthouse in a world roiled by organised crime\u201d.<\/p>\n
But Bukele has at the same time dismantled checks and balances on his power, firing judges who oppose him, changing the electoral system in his favour, and persecuting critics in civil society and the press, many of whom are now in exile.<\/p>\n
That includes Cristosal, a leading human rights organisation in Central America, which fled to Guatemala last July after its chief anti-corruption investigator, Ruth L\u00f3pez, was arrested.<\/p>\n
Almost a year later, L\u00f3pez remains in prison \u2013 along with another 85 political prisoners, according to Cristosal.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, El Salvador\u2019s congress, which is almost entirely dominated by Bukele\u2019s party, has scrapped presidential term limits, paving the way for Bukele to seek indefinite re-election.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt took us decades to build democracy in all these countries,\u201d said Canton. \u201cAnd the Bukele model that these Latin American politicians are lauding ultimately implies its destruction.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The draconian mass incarceration policy of El Salvador\u2019s president, Nayib Bukele, may have led to crimes against humanity, according to a new study by legal experts. By locking up 1.4% of the population without due process, Bukele turned El Salvador from one of Latin America\u2019s most violent countries into one of its least violent \u2013<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46468,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[5718,7411,7945,4644,1472,328,4727,23475,871,188],"class_list":{"0":"post-46467","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-crime-justice","8":"tag-arrest","9":"tag-crimes","10":"tag-humanity","11":"tag-led","12":"tag-mass","13":"tag-policy","14":"tag-salvador","15":"tag-salvadors","16":"tag-shows","17":"tag-study"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46467\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/46468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}