Salvador

SHOW DECK

STORY

SALVADOR DRAWS A LINE IN THE SAND

On March 27, following an explosion of violence that resulted in 62 homicides in a single day, reportedly due to the rupture of negotiations between the government of El Salvador and gang leaders, President Nayib Bukele requested, and the national assembly approved a state of exception that suspended the rights to freedom of expression, association and due process.

Initially authorized for 30 days, the state of exception has been renewed five times and remains in force.

THE PURGE. According to official sources, as of August ‘22, more than 50,000 individuals, whom Salvadoran officials have variously referred to as criminals & terrorists, had been detained under the state of exception.

Of these, 44,000 had been placed in indefinite preventive detention in overcrowded prisons with little or no access to counsel or evidence presented against them.