El Salvador President Nayib Bukele Defends Gang Crackdown During UN General Assembly

El Salvador President Nayib Bukele was at the UN on Tuesday for the UN General Assembly. In his speech, the young Central American leader defended his violent crackdowns on the various gangs plaguing his country.

Bukele has faced mounting international criticism from other countries, as well as various human rights groups regarding those controversial crackdowns. However, during his UN speech, Bukele said that if El Salvador listened to those critics, he stated that his country would once again become the "murder capital of the world."

"Today, I come to tell you that that debate is over," said the El Salvador leader. "The decisions we took were correct. We are no longer the world death capital and we achieved it in record time. Today we are a model of security and no one can doubt it. There are the results. They are irrefutable."

According to the Associated Press, however, critics have pointed out that because of the State of Emergency declared by Bukele, there is no due process for suspected gang members, with thousands of innocent people being caught up and arrested just on the suspicion that they belong to gangs like MS-13 and Barrio-18.

The UN itself has expressed concerns over Bukele's gang crackdowns, with the UN Human Rights Office noting the "widespread human rights violations, thousands of unsubstantiated arrests, and dozens of in-custody deaths" that happened all over El Salvador.

Despite the criticisms abroad, Nayib Bukele remains one of the most popular leaders in El Salvador. As he runs for re-election, he is expected to use the gang crackdowns as the centerpiece of his policy and woo Salvadorans to vote for him again.

Majority of El Salvador Residents Support Nayib Bukele Despite Lockdowns

Nayib Bukele has called himself the "World's Coolest Dictator" and he is said to be acting like one as his government has punished several points of dissent in the country, forcing judges over 60 to retire and replacing them with judges loyal to him.

Residents of one of El Salvador's most gang-infested districts are praising Bukele, with residents telling the Financial Times that things have changed for the better since the crackdown.

Lourdes was once run by these notorious gangs, extorting businesses and getting innocent civilians caught up in their street skirmishes. These days, however, citizens noted that things are much more peaceful there.

Despite this, the crackdowns have resulted in El Salvador sliding down the Freedom in the World index from "free" to "partly free." This is attributed to the "widespread corruption undermining democracy and the rule of law and a lack of physical security remaining a problem."

El Salvador Had Mass Trials for Arrested Gang Members

Back in July, with thousands of suspected gang members arrested without warrants, El Salvador cleared the way for mass trials to be made for the arrested individuals. This was part of Bukele's plan to step up his year-long crackdown against the gangs.

According to The Guardian, up to 900 people can be tried at the same time if they come from the same region and the same criminal group. Due to the violent relationship between the various gangs, the criminal groups would be tried separately.

The country has now imprisoned around 2% of its entire adult population due to these crackdowns, with the country even opening up a mega-prison that is considered the largest in the Americas. It could hold up to 70,000 inmates.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

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