In recent years, El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, has become popular because of his controversial ways of handling crime and his interviews and speeches where he hints at the authoritarian characteristics of his government. However, dictator or not, it cannot be denied that he has cleaned up gangs in El Salvador.
The small Central American country has been one of the most dangerous places in the world for several decades. The gangs, or “maras” as they are commonly known, had completely overrun the security forces of El Salvador and were expanding their operations into neighboring countries in coordination with other criminal organizations.
In fact, each mara had its own tattoo code, so gang members could be recognized by almost any passer-by in broad daylight. However, after the election of Bukele, many of these gangs have been severely reduced, with their remaining members being army fugitives.
Bukele won the election promising to end gangs with strict measures. Between these measures, the most prominent are the state of emergency measure to immediately imprison gang members captured without trial or bring an army detachment into Congress to pressure lawmakers to pass their budget.
There is debate as to whether these actions were necessary to restore security in El Salvador.
THE PRISON SYSTEM IS NECESSARY
By: Santiago Montanez, Opinion Columnist
One of the cornerstones of Bukele’s reforms was a change in the way prisons operate in El Salvador. Before 2019, many of these prisons posed as what is known in Latin America as “white elephants,” structures that cost a lot of money but are really useless. In the El Salvador case, the prisons became strongholds for the gangs, after the government handed the control.
The gangs controlled the streets and even entire sectors of the cities, where security forces could not directly transit because of the risk of being killed. Today, prisons impose fear on many gang members.
However, this shift in perception came with a profound reform of how these prisons are used. For starters, Bukele has used the army for various offensives against gangs to capture as many of them as possible.
Once the prisons were full, he began to reduce the quality of life of prisoners. Personal space, the cell quota, water and food available were directly affected, indirectly, eradicating corruption among the security forces responsible for monitoring these facilities and thus reducing contact with the outside world by the prisoners.
When the gangs announced repressions in April 2022 against the civilian population because of government actions, Bukele threatened to starve prisoners while continuing his military offensives to dismantle gang structures.
In turn, he built one of the world’s largest prisons known as the CECOT (Terrorism Containment Center) and began to categorize and treat gangs not as organized crime groups but as terrorist organizations.
Following that decision, El Salvador became one of the safest countries in the world and there are even days when there are no murders. However, many human rights organizations have complained about the inhumane treatment of gang members.
But they forget gang members have been killing innocent people, including teenagers of 16 or less, proudly showing membership to one of these gangs through their tattoos. The gangs terrorized entire neighborhoods of El Salvador, waging bloody wars among themselves or against the state. Most of these gang members deserve what is happening to them, however cruel it may seem.
The hope of redemption for many of them is nil, and if they were tried in the United States, many of them would receive the death penalty. But Bukele keeps them in custody as a symbol of state power and the new ability of security forces to defeat gangs without bloodshed.
It is because of the effectiveness of these tactics and the clean way in which entire groups are captured without prolonged armed conflict in civilian-filled territory that many governments in South America are considering copying this system, like Ecuador, Honduras and Costa Rica.
Despite its failures and suspicions of internal corruption in the government, the prison system of El Salvador has made it a safe country that now has opportunities for foreign investment and tourism at the expense of a few thousand gang members who not only did not produce, but took things away from the people and affected not only Salvadorans but millions of people on the continent.
THE PRISON SYSTEM IS UNNECESSARY
By: Ethan Ernst, Opinion Columnist
In 2016, El Salvador was known as the “murder capital of the world.” Now, it is called one of the safest countries on Earth.
This sudden and massive change was brought about by a harsh crackdown on crime, which has earned Bukele much popularity. Accomplishing this monumental feat, however, required the sacrifice of many civil liberties, leaving the future of El Salvador uncertain.
The country has been under a constant state of emergency since the crackdown began in March 2022, giving the government increased power to combat El Salvador’s gangs at the cost of basic rights. Moreover, Bukele is currently in his second term as president, which was previously prohibited by El Salvador’s constitution and has raised concerns of authoritarian intentions.
El Salvador’s justice system has also undergone significant and worrying changes, chiefly represented by the Terrorism Confinement Center or CECOT. Many human rights violations have been reported within this prison, such as extreme overcrowding, mass arbitrary detention and torture.
It can be argued that these measures were necessary, as the gangs trapped El Salvador in poverty to empower themselves. However, many innocents and those convicted of minor crimes have been swept up in this wave of extreme retribution.
Thousands of people who were wrongly arrested have been released from El Salvador’s jails since the crackdown, yet they were still subjected to inhumane treatment by both guards and other prisoners. Hundreds of prisoners are children, some of whom were sentenced for five years for making gang signs online.
This hard-on-crime approach alone cannot prevent crime in the future, which the government has acknowledged and taken steps to address. However, there remains the possibility that the government’s crackdown on gangs could create more gangs in the future.
Many children have lost one or both parents to El Salvador’s prisons. Education cannot replace the love of parents, and poverty is a serious issue for the children who have been left behind.
Conditions such as these can easily lead children to a life of crime. In fact, this was a key reason behind the formation of El Salvador’s gangs after its civil war.
There is no doubt that the citizens of El Salvador needed protection from gang violence, but Bukele’s government has gone too far. His decisions subject his people to unnecessary suffering and risk recreating the very problem he has apparently solved.
