Bukele’s Anti-Gang Measures Are Disastrous for Human Rights

!!!

Issue Sep 07-13 2022: The majority of El Salvador’s populace supports President Nayib Bukele’s imposition of repeated states of emergency – five since March 2022 – in an iron-fisted attempt at wrestling crime and the rule of gangs in the country under state control. 

Tamara Taraciuk Broner reported for El Faro Magazine of San Salvador, arguing that despite support for Bukele’s executive control, such strategies have shown “time and time again to be ineffective.” There have been “disastrous consequences” for human rights from the moment the Bukele administration announced the first state of emergency in March of this year. 

Broner explained that by calling a state of emergency, the government has been able to arbitrarily detain people for alleged involvement in gangs. Since March, more than 50,000 people have been detained, dozens of whom have died due to the “inhumane conditions” in which the detainees are kept. 

Broner conceded that she understood why Salvadorans supported Bukele’s harsh measures as the Central American country has had one of the worst homicide rates in all the Western Hemisphere. Moreover, Bukele has used his “propaganda machine” to spread a war-like narrative, that “old libretto of war against the gangs.”

Bukele’s youthful personal brand has made use of social media, effectively “captivating many Salvadorans” by contrasting with the old political elite. Broner highlighted the disjunction of Bukele’s claim that “he who owes nothing, fears nothing,” as Human Rights Watch condemns the numerous detentions based just on someone’s physical appearance.