The Humanitarian Legal Relief organization revealed that El Salvador President Nayib Bukele's "war on gangs" has taken its toll, and at least 241 people have died inside prisons, including some minors.

Ingrid Escobar, the director of Humanitarian Legal Relief, stated that their organization received 500 reports of deaths in state custody but was only able to confirm around half of them. Of these deaths, they confirmed that two minors died while in government custody.

The NGO noted that "of these deaths, 44% died of violent death, serious torture, 29% due to lack of medical attention," with Escobar noting that there had been a sharp rise in deaths this year, as compared to last year's numbers.

It has been over two years since Bukele began his gang crackdown when Congress and his administration announced a "state of exception" that waived several constitutional rights in order for the government to fight the violent gangs plaguing El Salvador, most notably Barrio 18 and MS-13. Since then, police have just arrested people suspected of being gang members without evidence that they actually are. As a result, many innocent young men were arrested as well.

According to the Associated Press, since the crackdowns began, over 80,000 people have been arrested under Nayib Bukele having emergency powers. This is now over 1% of the country's population. Those accused of being gang members, including innocent ones, have been thrown into prison, often with little to no evidence of their ties to gangs and almost no access to due process.

Despite human rights groups decrying the humanitarian conditions in El Salvador, Nayib Bukele remains very popular in the country, as his gang crackdown has led to declining homicide rates in the country, which used to have one of the highest murder rates in the world.

El Salvador Homicide Rates Declined by 70% in 2023, Says Nayib Bukele Government

Meanwhile, as human rights groups decried Nayib Bukele's methods, the El Salvador leader revealed that under his policies. The number of homicides in the country has declined by nearly 70% during 2023. He credited that prolonged state of emergency and his gang crackdown for this.

Justice and Security Minister Gustavo Villatoro stated that in 2022, El Salvador had around 495 murders. However, last year, there was a dramatic decrease as the number is now down to 154 murders.

NBC News ran the numbers and stated that this means that El Salvador now has one of the lowest murder rates in the Americas, with a homicide rate of 2.4 per 100,000 people. Only Canada has a lower murder rate than this.

Town Praising Nayib Bukele in Transforming It After Gang Crackdown

It is not just the big cities that have seen massive safety changes since Nayib Bukele's gang crackdowns began, but also small towns around the country, including Puerto el Triunfo, El Salvador.

Despite this, there were still reports of human rights violations from the government. One woman spoke with Al Jazeera and stated that the police arrested her nephew, a government employee, and accused him of being a gang member. They did not find any gang tattoos, nor did they have evidence, but they arrested him anyway.

Because of the random arrests, many are now afraid of police or military presence, with many questioning if this was the price for their safety against the gangs.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

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