El Salvador President Nayib Bukele brushed aside accusations from human rights organizations that his government holds political prisoners and has committed crimes against humanity in its campaign against street gangs. Bukele said after two reports detailed alleged abuses under the state of emergency that has shaped his security policy for nearly four years.
“It is amusing to see all the NGOs, think tanks, media outlets, and paid journalists of (George) Soros attacking in unison and in such an obviously coordinated way,” the president wrote, referring to the American billionaire without providing evidence of coordination. “I would be worried if it were not so. It means we are on the right path. Thank God,” he added.
The accusations surfaced this week as Bukele’s government faces growing international scrutiny over mass arrests carried out without judicial warrants. A report by the Salvadoran humanitarian organization Cristosal, presented March 5 in Guatemala, identified at least 86 people currently held as political prisoners. The group said the cases mark the first such detentions since the 1992 peace accords ended the country’s civil war.
Cristosal research director René Valiente told reporters the pattern of persecution targets human rights defenders, journalists, union leaders and environmental activists critical of the anti-gang crackdown. He compared the situation to conditions in Venezuela and Nicaragua. The report also documented a broader strategy of criminalization since 2021, including surveillance, stigmatization and prolonged pretrial detention.
A second assessment came from an international group of experts known as GIPES, backed by the International Commission of Jurists, the International Federation for Human Rights and other organizations. Presented March 10 during Inter-American Commission on Human Rights sessions, the report concluded there are reasonable grounds to believe crimes against humanity are occurring.
The experts documented systematic acts including torture, enforced disappearances and deaths in custody as part of a state policy promoted at the highest levels of government. Data cited in the assessment pointed to 403 deaths in state custody, including four children, and 540 cases of forced disappearance under the emergency measures.
Bukele’s offensive began after a spike in gang violence in March 2022. Authorities have detained more than 90,000 people since then. The president has publicly acknowledged that about 8,000 of those arrested were later released for lack of evidence. The state of emergency suspends certain constitutional rights and has been extended dozens of times. It remains in force.
Homicide rates have fallen sharply under the policy, dropping more than 90 percent from previous peaks and placing El Salvador among the safest countries in the Western Hemisphere according to government statistics. Salvadoran officials rejected the new reports. Vice Foreign Minister Adriana Mira said the government does not engage in forced disappearances or related violations.
Public Defender General René Escobar echoed the denial, stating that the country rejects any policy involving torture, sexual violence or arbitrary executions. The Cristosal report highlighted specific cases, including the detention of anti-corruption lawyer Ruth López, who leads the organization’s anti-corruption unit, and constitutional lawyer Enrique Anaya, a vocal critic of Bukele.
Noah Bullock, Cristosal’s executive director, described the pattern as evidence of a dictatorship that persecutes dissent behind the security gains. The GIPES experts called for an independent international mission to investigate the violations and urged the creation of a case-review commission for detainees. They also recommended restoring judicial independence, which critics say has eroded since 2021 when Bukele’s allies dismissed magistrates and replaced them with loyalists.
The state of emergency continues to draw mixed reactions inside El Salvador. Supporters credit it with ending decades of gang control in neighborhoods, while opponents argue it has come at the cost of due process and civil liberties. No immediate changes to the policy have been announced. The emergency decree can be extended by the legislature, which remains dominated by Bukele’s New Ideas party.
International bodies including the United Nations and the Organization of American States have previously expressed concern over the scale of detentions and lack of oversight. The latest reports add pressure for accountability as the measures enter their fifth year.
