El Ciudadano
Original article: Régimen de excepción de Bukele: ONG registra 554 muertes en cárceles y denuncia que 94% de las víctimas no eran pandilleras
The state of emergency declared by President Nayib Bukele has resulted in a shocking total of 554 fatalities within Salvadoran prisons, according to the latest count from the non-governmental organization Socorro Jurídico Humanitario (SJH). This figure, released last week, includes individuals who were detained during the enforcement of this extraordinary measure, implemented by the far-right leader since March 2022, ostensibly to combat gang violence.
The NGO has been vocal in labeling these deaths as a direct consequence of state action, emphasizing that the victims died while in government custody, either due to institutional violence or systematic denial of medical care.
The most alarming statistic from the report indicates that 94% of the deceased had no links to gangs, debunking the official narrative that the strategy solely impacts criminals. The humanitarian organization decried that these individuals were imprisoned without due process and that their deaths occurred amid complete impunity for those responsible.
Established to provide legal assistance to families affected by this policy, the SJH warned that this figure may only be the tip of the iceberg, as the actual death toll could easily exceed a thousand, given a clear government effort to conceal information during mass judicial processes.
In light of these serious allegations, Bukele’s government has maintained complete silence, failing to make any statements or respond to international community concerns.
State of Emergency as a Tool for Control
The state of emergency, which has been renewed 53 times, suspends fundamental constitutional rights such as the right to defense and the inviolability of communications. This approach has facilitated the detention of over 92,000 individuals, whom Bukele’s administration accuses of belonging to or collaborating with criminal organizations. Initially presented as a response to the crime wave that peaked in March 2022 when members of the Mara Salvatrucha gang murdered 87 citizens, it has evolved into Bukele’s central political strategy to maintain power through a perpetual re-election, despite constitutional prohibitions.
The cost of this «iron fist» approach is evident in over 6,400 reported human rights violations received by various organizations, including arbitrary detentions and torture.
The prison system has become so overwhelmed that currently one in every 50 people in El Salvador is incarcerated, representing an unprecedented incarceration rate in the region. Journalist Óscar Martínez, editor-in-chief of the newspaper El Faro and currently in exile for investigating Bukele’s government, has reported that trials are conducted en masse and in secret, allowing over 900 individuals to be tried in a single courtroom without the accused having access to their files or even being aware of the charges against them.
In an interview with La Estrella de Panamá, he recounted that when El Faro managed to access 690 initial requests from the prosecutor’s office, they found that in many cases, the sole reason for incarcerating someone was simply because they «appeared nervous.»
According to Martínez, the government has allocated millions of public funds to create supportive media outlets like Diario El Salvador, raise salaries for journalists to turn them into public relations agents, and finance a network of slanderers through state advertising allocations. This machinery has allowed international political figures and others from the far-right to align with the “Bukele brand” as an easy way to achieve favorable electoral results, all while ignoring the authoritarian nature of a model that centralizes power and eliminates all checks and balances.
Martínez cautioned that the Bukele model signifies the total accumulation of power and the dismantling of checks on authority, sending a message to those who admire the Salvadoran president: «If you are not prepared to be detained at a soldier’s whim, then you do not understand who Bukele is.«
Featured image: La República. Perú.
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