El Salvador: critics and grateful citizens a year after the Nayiba Bukele gang war

“To be able to walk […]What the president has done is good for me,” Norma Gomez, 58, told the AFP news agency as she sold skin ointments on the street in San Salvador.

before the president Najib bukele start a “war” against the gangs in Saviorit was risky for anyone to move from the “territory” dominated by one criminal group to the territory of another.

A year later, people move from one area to another without fear, thousands of traders have stopped paying extortion gangs, but human rights organizations and the Catholic Church criticize the methods bukele.

“Today, I am confident that my daughter and son will leave school and go home alone on public transport without fear of being intercepted by gang members,” says Mauricio Reyes, a 51-year-old employee.

120,000 dead

Mara Salvatrucha And 18 quarterwith their two factions, set up “boundaries” in the areas they controlled, where everyone had to obey their rules at the risk of losing their lives.

They controlled 80% of the country, according to bukeleand they were financed by extortion and drug trafficking, and transport enterprises, shops and motels, now liquidated by the authorities.

They took territorial control after the end of the civil war (1980-1992) and are credited with 120,000 deaths, more than in the armed conflict (75,000).

mega prison

Everything started to change on March 27, 2022. By order bukeleCongress approved a state of emergency that gives the police and army the power to carry out mass arrests without a warrant in response to the escalation in violence that has killed 87 people.

The President staged massive raids on cities and built “the largest prison in America” ​​for 40,000 prisoners. The images posted bukele Hundreds of tattooed, barefoot, chained and bare-chested prisoners, dressed only in white shorts, are watched as they are transferred to this prison.

More than 66,000 suspected gang members have been detained. bukele it looks like we are close to ending these terrible gangs.

Salvadorans used to feel insecure, but now 92% admit that security has improved, according to a survey conducted by La Prensa Gráfica newspaper. “Security is good, not before. Today we move freely,” Carlos Dueñas, a 57-year-old street vendor, told AFP.

Positive

Researcher Carlos Karkacs of the Higher School of Economics and Business told AFP that “there is a near-neutralization (…) and there seems to be a destruction of gang structures, and this is positive.”

Now “there are real opportunities to penetrate into several areas where it was extremely difficult or risky before,” admits Laura Andrade, head of the Institute of Public Opinion at the University of Central America.

negative

Karkach admits that there is also a “negative” effect, since “the process of dismembering all institutional frameworks in matters of public safety and human rights has been completed.”

There was “a cession of rights by the population in exchange for an apparent or real improvement in security,” he says.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch criticized the methods bukelethe same as the Catholic hierarchy.

At a mass in memory of Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero (who was assassinated in 1980), Cardinal Gregorio Rosa Chávez said on Friday that he felt “sadness, frustration, powerlessness, shame and guilt.”

“We feel guilty because many of us have become intimidated, we have been silent, we have sunk into indifference. We seem to be anesthetic people, settled in our little world, enjoying peace, very similar to the peace of cemeteries,” the head of state added. cardinal.

For his part, Judge Juan Antonio Durán argues that “it has been a disastrous year” for justice “due to the human rights violations” of innocent detainees without “a proper trial”.

Young

bukele He is running for re-election in February 2024.

“I still believe that the state of emergency is a fundamentally political, pre-election strategy, and in this sense, it is likely to continue until the election,” Academician Jose Miguel Cruz from Florida International University (USA).

According to the government, young people used to suffer the most from gang violence, but many of them are still afraid.

“Before, our youth were hounded by gangs […]Now the young man is leaving in fear because the state of emergency will also take them if a soldier or a policeman does not like them,” plumber José Sánchez (AFP), 55, told AFP.