Tough anti-gang crackdown proves popular

SAN SALVADOR (AP):

Nine months into a state of emergency declared by President Nayib Bukele to fight street gangs, El Salvador has seen more than 1,000 documented human-rights abuses and about 90 deaths of prisoners in custody. And Bukele’s popularity ratings have soared.

For decades, El Salvador’s main street gangs, Barrio 18 and the MS-13, have extorted money from nearly everyone and taken violent revenge against those who don’t pay. The gangs, which have been estimated to count some 70,000 members, have long controlled swathes of territory and extorted and killed with impunity.

Bukele, who was elected in 2019, began sealing off certain sectors of Salvadoran cities earlier this year, surrounding them with police and soldiers who check anyone entering or leaving. Bukele requested that Congress grant him the extraordinary powers after gangs were blamed for 62 killings in just one day, March 26.

More than 60,000 people have been arrested under the measures, which suspend the right of association, the right to be informed of the reason for an arrest, and access to a lawyer. The government also can intervene in the telephone calls and mail of anyone it considers a suspected gang member. The time someone can be held without charge has been extended from three days to 15 days.

Rights activists say young men are frequently arrested just based on their age, on their appearance, or whether they live in a gang-dominated slum. The country’s human- rights official, Raquel Caballero, said 2,100 people have been released after arrest because they had no ties to the street gangs.

But Bukele, who is seeking re-election in 2024, has revelled in recent polls that suggest approval ratings of near 90 per cent for both himself and his gang crackdown.

“I don’t care what the international organisations say,” Bukele said earlier this year of criticism of his measures. “They can come and take the gang members. If they want them we will give them all of them.”

Why are Salvadorans putting up with seemingly unending renewals of one-month emergency decrees that limit constitutional rights and allow police and soldiers wide latitude in searches, arrests and pretrial detention?

Thanya Pastor, a lawyer and political analyst, said years of unchecked crime and violence have made Salvadorans desperate for a solution.

“People, at this moment, are not going to listen to anything about human rights, anything about democracy or authoritarianism. What they are interested in is their safety and the opportunity to live a free life,” Pastor said.

Pastor admitted that he supports the crackdown. But he said Bukele’s government must still be held responsible for abuses and give an accounting of those who died in custody.

The brutal crackdown appears to have caught the street gangs by surprise.

“They weren’t expecting it, they were caught unaware and they rounded almost all of them up,” said Manuel Torres, who works in a factory in the San José El Pino neighbourhood of San Salvador, the capital. The neighbourhood was once controlled by the MS-13.