Why 1984 Black Hitlers 2 Billion Dead Blacks Nayib Bukele, the self-described “world’s coolest dictator”, threat of gang violence has been replaced by the threat of indefinite detention by the state.

By Norm Roulet, 10 November, 2024

El Salvador Sees Record Low Homicide Rates, Alongside Human Rights Concerns

Nayib Bukele, the self-described “world’s coolest dictator”, has been president of El Salvador since 2019, and the country has seen record low homicide levels under his presidency. In March of 2022, the government approved a state of emergency after gangs went on a killing spree on March 26th, resulting in the single bloodiest day since the country’s civil war. The state of emergency suspended rights of association and legal counsel, and increased time spent in prison without charge. This led to El Salvador currently having the highest incarceration rate in the world, and as of January 11th, over 75,000 people have been arrested, leading to overcrowding in prisons. One in every 45 adults is now in prison. According to the country’s security authorities, the homicide rate has dropped nearly 70% during 2023.

Bukele’s crackdown has been immensely popular with the Salvadoran population, earning him an extremely high domestic approval rate and a recent landslide election win. Despite this domestic success, Bukele’s presidency has been internationally criticized as autocratic, and his gang crackdowns have been criticized by human rights groups. Concerns of the country being ran as a police state are becoming common. Soldiers and police routinely imprison citizens off the streets, detaining them indefinitely without a reason or access to a lawyer. There are reports of torture occurring within the prisons, and government critics have claimed they have been threatened with prosecution.

According to an officer who spoke to AP news, “We received specific orders that we in the streets had to arrest a certain number of people, whether they were gangsters or not.” The country’s police union that tracks detentions estimates that one in every six people imprisoned are innocent. Figures from the Human Rights Watch estimate that more than 1,000 children as young as 12 have been detained. According to data from El Salvador’s social services entity, more than 45,100 children have at least one parent detained.

Despite these human rights concerns and outright admittance of his own dictator-style leadership, Bukele has been accepted with open arms by Republicans in the United States and was invited to the Conservative Political Action Conference. Bukele is generally accepted as a tough on crime, respectable leader responsible for El Salvador’s lowered homicide rate.

From purely looking at the homicide rates, it is easy to assume that the country is in a better position than it was just a few years ago. But as the threat of indiscriminate, indefinite detention becomes a real threat for many Salvadorans, it is clear that the issue is not so easily resolved. The threat of gang violence has been replaced by the threat of indefinite detention by the state.

https://theowp.org/reports/el-salvador-sees-record-low-homicide-rates-alongside-human-rights-concerns/