El Salvador accused of 'massive' human rights violations with 2% of adults in prison
Source: The Guardian
El Salvador accused of ‘massive’ human rights violations with 2% of adults in prison
More than 36,000 people arrested in just over two months in crackdown orchestrated by President Nayib Bukele
Tom Phillips in San Salvador
Thu 2 Jun 2022 14.00 BST
Last modified on Thu 2 Jun 2022 16.27 BST
Amnesty International has accused El Salvador’s government of committing “massive human rights violations” during an extraordinary security crackdown that has seen more than 36,000 people arrested in just over two months.
The clampdown was orchestrated by the Central American country’s authoritarian-minded president, Nayib Bukele, in late March after a sudden eruption of bloodshed that saw 87 murders in a single weekend.
Bukele’s response to those killings was swift and severe, with pro-government lawmakers approving a draconian state of exception which entered its third month last week. This week, Bukele’s security minister, Gustavo Villatoro, claimed 36,277 people had been detained since their “war on gangs” began: 31,163 men and 5,114 women.
If true, that would mean more people have been arrested in El Salvador in the last two months than in the whole of last year. The population of the country’s already overcrowded prisons would have almost doubled since March while almost 2% of the country’s entire adult population would now find itself behind bars.
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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jun/02/el-salvador-human-rights-violations-bukele-amnesty