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Investigating El Salvador’s crackdown on gangs

A crackdown on gangs in El Salvador drops the murder rate in the country by more than 50 percent, but at what price?

In this photo provided by El Salvador's presidential press office, inmates identified by authorities as gang members are seated on the prison floor of the Terrorism Confinement Center in Tecoluca, El Salvador, Wednesday, March 15, 2023
In this photo provided by El Salvador's presidential press office, inmates identified by authorities as gang members are seated on the prison floor of the Terrorism Confinement Center in Tecoluca, El Salvador, Wednesday, March 15, 2023 [El Salvador presidential press office/AFP]
Published On 13 Jun 2023

It has been more than a year since El Salvador declared a state of emergency as part of President Nayib Bukele’s promise to crack down on gangs. Since March 2022, the country’s murder rate has dropped by more than half. But, in the process, the government arrested almost 70,000 people while suspending every citizen’s constitutional right to legal defence and allowing indefinite pre-trial detention. Despite El Salvador’s repressive new reality, Bukele and his policy remain extremely popular. Raising the question, is El Salvador becoming a police state?

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In this episode: 

  • Monica Villamizar (@monica_vv), Freelance Correspondent

Episode credits:

This episode was produced by Khaled Soltan and Miranda Lin and host Kevin Hirten, in for Malika Bilal. Miranda Lin fact-checked this episode.

Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. This episode was mixed by Tim St Clair.

Our lead of audience development and engagement is Aya Elmileik. Munera Al Dosari and Adam Abou-Gad are our engagement producers.

Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer, and Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera’s head of audio.

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Source: Al Jazeera