Suspected gang members jailed. SECRETARIA DE PRENSA DE LA PRESI / Portal
INTERVIEW – The state of emergency renewed this Thursday has enabled the arrest of 66,000 gang members since Nayib Bukele’s election in 2019. 2% of the population is behind bars, explains researcher Christophe Ventura.
Nayib Bukele, elected President of El Salvador in 2019, is leading a repressive policy against gangs with nearly 66,000 arrests. The state of emergency was declared in March 2022 and extended for the twelfth time on March 16, 2023. It was imposed after a spate of 87 attacks attributed to the “maras,” terrorist gangs, in the country. Christophe Ventura, research director at IRIS and specialist in Latin America, explains to Le Figaro the downside of this draconian security policy.
THE FIGARO. – What does the state of emergency, renewed for the twelfth time in a year, entail?
Christopher Ventura. – Quite simply to give the police and army all the powers to arrest any suspect without prior investigation or a special warrant. Anyone can therefore be arrested or imprisoned. These policies, led by Nayib Bukele, have made El Salvador the country with the highest incarceration per capita, as around 2% of the population…
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