Grave human rights violations under El Salvador’s state of emergency point to a systematic, widespread pattern of state abuse that has seen thousands of arbitrary detentions, the adoption of a policy of torture in detention centers and hundreds of deaths under state custody.
Since the state of emergency first began on March 27, 2022, Amnesty International has kept track of events, deploying five missions to the country to document the patterns of grave human rights violations. After each trip, the organization has testified to the gradually deteriorating circumstances of the victims and their families, throwing human rights in the country into ever deeper crisis. Allegations by human rights organizations, protests by victims, concerns expressed by regional bodies and appeals from the international community have all been met by the Salvadoran government with silence, indifference and a lack of transparency, further cementing a model of repression and impunity.
Increased militarization, above all in marginalized, impoverished communities, has brought back memories of past horrors, when the armed forces were used to repress the population. This approach, combined with efforts by state agents to stigmatize human rights organizations and the free press and to thwart their efforts, has fostered a climate of fear and intimidation that stifles civil society and spurs self-censorship.
“What the government calls ‘peace’ is actually an illusion intended to hide a repressive system, a structure of control and oppression that abuses its power and disregards the rights of those who were already invisible—people living in poverty, under state stigma, and marginalization—all in the name of a supposed security defined in a very narrow way,” said Ana Piquer, Americas director at Amnesty International.
A pattern of arbitrary detentions and systematic violations
Over 1,000 days, the Salvadoran authorities have detained more than 83,000 people, relying on an exceptional, temporary measure that, to date, without due evaluation or debate or any internal checks and balances, has been successively renewed on 33 separate occasions, making it a state policy.
Amnesty International has documented, through interviews with members of the National Civil Police (PNC), victims and their families, human rights organizations, and victims’ movements, that many arrests were carried out under the imposition of daily quotas, anonymous accusations, and discriminatory factors such as having tattoos or living in communities stigmatized by poverty and gang violence. In more than 60 cases documented by the organization, no administrative or judicial orders or prior investigations supporting these arrests were found.
By contrast, an excessive use of force by the authorities during the arrests was confirmed and a policy of mass detentions that ignores international human rights standards, such as the rule of law, the right to a fair trial and the outright prohibition on torture and discrimination.
“Detaining people without proof and subjecting them to mass trials is not justice; nor is it an effective or sustainable answer to the historic challenges faced in terms of security. Rather, it is an abuse that disregards human dignity and perpetuates the suffering of those who have already been historically marginalized by the State’s policies,” stated Ana Piquer, Americas director at Amnesty International.
Inhumane conditions and deaths in state custody
According to media reports, 1.8% of the Salvadoran population is behind bars, the highest incarceration rate on the continent. Based on figures from the latest population census, 3 out of every 100 men are in prison. This has led to a crisis of extreme overcrowding in most penitentiary centers, some of which, according to civil society organizations, have been running at over 300% capacity since the state of emergency was instituted. Victims have described conditions as “hellish”, characterized by a lack of medical care, substandard basic services such as food and water, and the cruel, degrading and inhumane treatment frequently meted out, including torture. According to local organizations, more than 300 deaths under state custody have been recorded. Amnesty International has documented cases of deaths due to beatings, torture and a lack of proper medical care.
“Each death under custody is a human tragedy and a systemic failure on the part of the Salvadoran state in safeguarding the lives of the people in its care,” stated Ana Piquer. “The fact that, despite these allegations, the government has failed to investigate these deaths or take any measures to guarantee justice and prevent future abuse, is also cause for concern”.
Since the state of emergency was first announced, the Bureau of Prisons has acted to promote a policy of cruel and degrading treatment, including torture, inside correctional facilities. According to local organizations and based on cases documented by Amnesty International, officials at the highest levels of the Bureau have impeded both the supervision of prisons by the Human Rights Ombudsperson’s Office and access by the Institute of Legal Medicine to conduct medical inspections, even in breach of court orders. Moreover, they have repeatedly ignored court rulings ordering the release of prisoners, incurring in a grave violation of due process and human rights.
“Security” without justice is meaningless
The lack of due process is alarming: mass trials, judges whose identity is withheld and the absence of any effective qualified defense have systematically violated rights such as the presumption of innocence and the right to a fair trial.
This scenario has been made possible by the gradual co-optation of the judicial system since 2021, undermining its independence, as well as a legal framework that, by way of express legal reforms pushed through by the Legislative Assembly, has been approved under the pretext of making the state of emergency easier to enforce, allowing for and giving a veneer of legality to the suspension of a set of rights and safeguards for due process. The main changes introduced include: the automatic use of pre-trial detentions for gang-related crimes, without any case-by-case analysis of the need or otherwise for this measure, in order to prevent, e.g. a serious crime or flight risk; and the elimination of time limits on pre-trial prison sentences for crimes associated with terrorist or unlawful groups. Such sentences can thus be applied indefinitely and run contrary to the right to be tried or released within a reasonable time frame.
Moreover, the undermining of the institutions charged with ensuring that Salvadorans have the right to a defense, such as the Attorney General’s Office, has further violated the right of those being prosecuted under the state of emergency to a qualified defense, which has been inadequate from the outset.
Similarly, the absence of any effective action by the Public Prosecutor’s Office or the Human Rights Ombudspersons Office to investigate and safeguard the rights of victims and their families are aspects that further aggravate the situation of those incarcerated.
Overall, these actions and omissions on the part of the state point to a plan to keep thousands of people with no proven gang background behind bars.
“The prolongation of the state of emergency and its normalization in law testifies to a worrying institutionalization of policies that massively violate human rights. Security without justice and without protecting the innocent is not real security. Far from resolving the problem as a whole, the authorities are merely leading the country to the edge of an abyss and trampling over the human rights of an entire generation,” concludes Ana Piquer. “The international community must act decisively to ensure that the Salvadoran state is held accountable and that it put an end to these systematic human rights violations.”
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