The state of emergency imposed since March 2022 by the controversial president Nayib Bukele in El Salvador has left more than 3,000 minors arbitrarily detained and subjected to trials with violations of due process, reveals a report published this Tuesday by the human rights organization Human Rights Watch (HRW). The investigation shows that more than 1,000 minors have also been convicted, accused of belonging to gangs or marasthe criminal groups against which Bukele has unleashed a fierce persecution, with serious abuses against thousands of detainees. “The security forces have subjected many of these children and adolescents to serious human rights violations during arrest, detention and even after their release,” HRW accuses in its report.
The 114-page document, titled ‘‘Your child does not exist here’: Human rights violations against children and adolescents during the state of emergency in El Salvador’,The report is based on more than 90 interviews with victims of abuse, their relatives and lawyers, witnesses, judges, police officers, security experts, teachers, former government officials, journalists and members of civil society. HRW also explains that it requested information from several government institutions and that its experts reviewed court records, as well as medical, educational and criminal records. “Many children and adolescents who have been detained and imprisoned had no apparent connection to abusive gang activities,” the report says.
HRW says authorities subjected detained children “to ill-treatment in detention that in some cases amounted to torture. Children were held in appalling conditions, including overcrowding, lack of access to adequate food and medical care, and lack of family contact. Some have been detained with adults, in violation of international human rights standards and Salvadoran law,” it adds. HRW stresses that “Salvadoran authorities have taken few, if any, measures to protect children and adolescents from violence by other detainees, including beatings and sexual assault.”
The authorities have accused the children in many cases of belonging to “illegal groups” and the sentences, the organization says, “have excessively broad definitions and provide for maximum sentences ranging from 10 to 20 years in prison.” HRW experts warn that these sentences were often based on uncorroborated and sometimes contradictory police testimony. “In many cases, the authorities forced children to make false confessions, through a combination of abusive court agreements and, at times, ill-treatment or torture. Judges and prosecutors have routinely kept children in prolonged pretrial detention, a practice that, given the appalling conditions of juvenile detention centers, has exposed children and adolescents to greater risks of abuse,” reveals the report.
The human rights organization echoes testimonies provided by victims of these abuses committed by the Salvadoran State. This is the case of Nicolás (the names of the victims have been changed to protect their identity), a 16-year-old student detained on July 10, 2022 at his school located in the municipality of Tacuba, department of Ahuachapán, in the west of this small country of just over 21,000 square kilometers. A relative told HRW that security forces entered the school and took the minor. “The security forces told his father that they were taking him to a police station “for an interview” and that “they would release him soon.” Two years later, Nicolás remains in custody,” HRW denounces. The minor was subjected to a trial on charges of belonging to illegal groups. His father asked a police officer to see his son during one of the hearings, but the officer replied: “Your son does not exist here.” A judge sentenced the teenager to two years and six months in prison in January 2023.
Another victim of state violence has been 17-year-old Oscar, also a student. The boy was detained in a rural community in Apopa, in the department of San Salvador, which includes the capital. He was also accused, without evidence, of belonging to illegal groups. “For five months, the authorities held him in a juvenile detention center called ‘El Espino,’ until a judge ordered his release in August 2022. Oscar told HRW that guards often beat him with batons during cell searches. He said that on several occasions he and other detainees were forced to kneel for three hours, naked, or under water at dawn. Sometimes, guards did not provide them with food for the entire day,” the organization notes in its report.
Girls have also been victims of these abuses. HRW collects the testimony of Carolina, 17 years old and arrested on July 1, 2022 by police and soldiers in a rural town in the department of Sonsonate. “They did not show her an arrest warrant. They accused her of collaborating with gangs. According to Carolina, she was taken to a police station where she was detained for seven days with adult women. A police officer tried to coerce her into identifying a gang member, whom she did not know, in exchange for being released,” HRW denounces. The young woman was transferred to a juvenile detention center, where she was held in a small, unsanitary cell with 25 other girls and adolescents. “Months later, a judge pressured Carolina and seven other minors to jointly plead guilty to collaborating with the MS-13 gang, which she denies,” HRW adds.
MS-13, or Mara Salvatrucha, is one of the most feared gang organizations in El Salvador for the savagery with which it committed its crimes, which included rape, arms smuggling, kidnapping, murder, and links to drug trafficking and international organized crime. Some organizations estimate that this group has grown to more than 25,000 members. Carolina told HRW that the judge who tried her threatened her and three other minors with sentences twice as long if they rejected the plea agreement. They all pleaded guilty and were sentenced to one year in prison. “We had no choice,” Carolina said. “We all wanted to be with our mother,” she added.
Bukele imposed his state of emergency in March 2022 in response to the brutal violence suffered by the Central American country, subjected to laws imposed by gangs, which controlled large territories and subjected the population to an environment of terror and extortion. To date, more than 80,000 people have been arrested and international organizations denounce abuses, torture, arbitrary detentions, spurious trials, and other cruel human rights violations. HRW reveals that detained minors have been subjected to deplorable conditions in detention, including, at times, overcrowding, and a lack of adequate food and medical care, as well as contact with lawyers and family members. “Children and adolescents from vulnerable communities in El Salvador have suffered serious human rights violations due to the indiscriminate detentions implemented by the government,” warns Juanita Goebertus, director of the Americas Division of Human Rights Watch. “The government should implement an effective security policy that respects human rights and dismantles gangs, prevents the recruitment of children and provides them with protection and opportunities,” she recommends.
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