'Electrified On Her Knees': The Harsh Reports Of The Mass Arrests In El Salvador

More than 68,000 people were arrested during the exceptional regime in El Salvador

Photo: Getty Images / BBC News Brazil

“Hands up. If they go down, we’ll kill them. You’ll only get out of here alive if you’re lucky.”

This is just one of the harsh reports from El Salvador, where President Nayib Bukele enacted an emergency regime 14 months ago amid his socalled “war on gangs.”

The above account comes in particular from a young man who was imprisoned in Mariona prison and later released after being declared innocent.

He shared his story with Cristosal, the Central American country’s largest human rights organization. The organization released a report on Monday (29) based on hundreds of interviews with former detainees, detainees’ relatives and experts, as well as forensic certificates and police bulletins.

“[Presos] They were electrocuted on their knees. One of them even had blood drawn. When they entered the sector where they were supposed to be, the guards beat them again,” the young man said.

The report concluded that since March 27, 2022 (the date the state of emergency came into effect), dozens of prisoners have died from torture, beatings or lack of health care.

Cristosal recorded the deaths of at least 153 people in state custody, all arrested during the exceptional regime.

Of these, 29 prisoners died violently; 46 “probable violent death” or suspected “criminal activity”.

According to the report, it remains a “common pattern” on the bodies of detainees with bruises, marked by beatings, bruises, injuries from sharp objects, choking or hanging.

Relatives and human rights organizations complain that many of those arrested are innocent

Photo: Getty Images / BBC News Brazil

The report cites the case of a 52yearold man who owns a business and a plantation who was harassed by gang members for years and forced to provide them with food. With the exceptional regime, the man was accused of collaborating with the gangs and arrested.

According to a death certificate from the Instituto de Medicina Legal de El Salvador, the man died of cerebral edema.

Meanwhile, the Salvadoran authorities have classified official information on the matter as confidential and claim that deaths in prisons are of natural causes.

“I heard the opposition say that people are dying in prisons. And that somehow we kill prisoners or let them die.” […] “There are some who have terminal illnesses, etc.,” Bukele said during a live broadcast on Oct. 16 last year.

exemption

The exemption was imposed in El Salvador after 76 murders were registered in the country in just 48 hours in March last year.

According to reports including news website El Faro, the killing spree was the result of the breach of an alleged pact between the government and the MS13 gang.

While US Attorneys have recently pointed to a connection between the government and MS13, the Salvadoran executive branch has consistently denied engaging in any sort of negotiation with the gang.

In the last year, which has eroded the right to privacy in communications and due process, more than 68,000 people have been arrested for alleged gang connections.

The organization recorded the deaths of at least 153 people in state custody, all arrested during the exceptional regime

Photo: Getty Images / BBC News Brazil

With a population of 6.3 million and thousands of recent arrests, El Salvador has the highest incarceration rate in the world.

Relatives and organizations complain that many of those arrested are innocent.

In an exclusive interview with the BBC in March, to mark the first year of the derogation, VicePresident Félix Ulloa acknowledged that with an ongoing operation of this magnitude, a mistake may have been made that people may have been arrested with no connection to the gangs MS13 or Barrio 18 had.

But Ulloa also argued that “more than 90% of the population agrees with the state of emergency and would like it to be extended”.

“The only ones complaining are activists who don’t know what’s going on in the country and the political opposition,” the vice president said.

The Cristosal Organization, on the other hand, states that “the permanent suspension of constitutional guarantees under the exceptional regime is the only public policy tool used by the government.”