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The president of El Salvador defended his strategy against gangs, highlighting the positive numbers in terms of security with a drop in the number of homicides. This is happening at a time when the images of the treatment of detainees in the new mega-prison travel the world and set off the alarm for respect for human rights. Bukele had a virtual crossover with his Colombian counterpart Gustavo Petro, while the United States reminded him of the duty to guarantee “due legal process.”
For President Nayib Bukele, El Salvador is the safest country in Latin America. That is the speech that he maintains to support his policies to end the gang violence that overwhelms the territory.
This was repeated this Thursday, March 2, by the Salvadoran Minister of Foreign Affairs, Alexandra Hill, during her video message at the United Nations Human Rights Council, and in this way Bukele defends himself against questions from the international community, concerned about the possible violation of human rights of inmates.
For the local Administration, one of the keys is in the Territorial Control Plan. “Many voices without knowledge or foundation have spoken out against this immense effort by the country, but the best indicator that we are on the right track are the millions of Salvadorans who approve the measures,” Hill told the UN after speaking about “verifiable figures”.
However, the concerns that arise in the international community are not related to numbers or the fight against gangs; Rather, it lies in the methods and treatment that, as can be seen in videos circulated by the Salvadoran government itself, can lead to violations of the rights of detainees.
Concerns have deepened since the inauguration of the Center for the Confinement of Terrorism (CECOT), the large maximum security prison for 40,000 prisoners, to which 2,000 have already been transferred.
In the images, they are seen scantily clad and being harshly treated by jailers, with violence and degradation.
For Colombian President Gustavo Petro, this prison is a “concentration camp,” a concept that led to an exchange with Bukele via Twitter.
In the discussion, the Salvadoran highlighted that the homicide rate in the Central American nation “is now in single digits” and that the improvement was “rapid, because the dead do not recover.”
“I want Colombia to actually manage to lower homicide rates, as we Salvadorans have achieved,” he concluded suspiciously, stating that “results outweigh rhetoric.”
For his part, Petro, who lamented the number of young prisoners in El Salvador, responded by emphasizing the construction of universities in recent decades, where the numbers have also been reduced, and ironically invited his peer to form an “international forum.”
“The president of El Salvador feels proud because he managed to reduce the homicide rate by subjugating the gangs that are now in those prisons, which in my opinion are gruesome,” he added.
The United States enters to mediate in the controversy
This Thursday the United States also joined the warnings for El Salvador on the protection of human rights. He did so through the spokesman for local diplomacy, who recalled the “responsibility to guarantee the safety of the population”, but also to “respect human rights”.
Although he stressed “the challenge” that “stopping gang violence” is for the Central American country, he reiterated that the State must “guarantee due legal process.”
The Bukele Government insists that there are more than 64,000 criminals who have been arrested since the state of emergency that was in force a year ago. However, there have been complaints about arbitrary detentions.
Salvadoran humanitarian organizations and the Office for the Defense of Human Rights indicate that they have received more than 7,900 complaints of outrages, the majority of unjustified arrests.
with EFE
