In Italy it is known that when the conversation about mafia starts, at some point someone will say something like this: “The worst part about it is that everybody in the village knows who they are but the State protects only the criminals”. Hence, the solutions would seem, firstly, to imprison people even without conclusive proofs and, secondly, to accept also anonymous calls as testimonies. In this way good people could report abuses without the fear of facing repercussions. This is exactly the method used in El Salvador to make the homicide’s rate fall. In 2022 Bukele, the self- nominated world’s coolest dictator, declared a state of emergency that permits the suspension of several constitutional rights. In theory it should have lasted only 30 days, in practice it is still going on, on April 24 of 2024 it was confirmed for 30 more days. With the imprisonment of one in 45 adults, normal people can now walk around, even after sunset, without the fear of being one of the 106 per 100,000 people that were killed in a year (2015’s rate). In fact, in 2022 the rate became a reassuring 8 per 100,000 people (Nayib Bukele shows how to dismantle a democracy and stay popular, Jul 20th 2023). Safety is not the only gain of Bukele’s policy, small business reopened or expanded, and multinational firms are increasing their investments in the Country. Furthermore, the number of Salvadoreans trying to cross the border between Mexico and the U.S.A is significantly smaller (Gangsters in El Salvador are terrified of strongman Nayib Bukele, Feb 2nd 2024).
To achieve this extraordinary result several basic rights were put aside. Some of them are the right to defence, the guarantees that put a limit on how long someone may be detained, the right to be informed of the reasons behind detention and privacy protections around communications and correspondence. (El Salvador’s State of Exception, Explained, 2022) In western countries the criminal system is built in a way that weights false positives much more heavily than false negatives. Throughout history the collective sensitivity has reached the idea that convicting an innocent person is worse than the acquittal of a guilty person. Also the Salvadorean’s criminal system had this approach, however, with the declaration of the “state of exception” there was a shift. Now imprisoning plenty innocents is a fair price to achieve security. Furthermore, for western standards, even guilty people should not be put in Salvadoreans prisons because of their conditions. In fact, since locking up this many people requires a lot of founds, the government is, firstly, overcrowding both the pre-existent and new prisons and, secondly, partially relying on the families of the prisoners to maintain them. The problem is that usually the families cannot afford it, over half of the population earns less than $328 a month and the government is suggesting sending goods worth $150 every two weeks (Nayib Bukele shows how to dismantle a democracy and stay popular, Jul 20th 2023).
Nevertheless, Bukele is very popular, the majority of Salvadoreans appreciate him because the quality of their lives has significantly improved thanks to this policy. However, it is important to notice how, in doing so, Bukele has dismantled the democratic system of the country. Consequently, in the future this could come back and bite the part of the country that now is sustaining Bukele, because there are no guarantees anymore. The realization of his security plan was possible because he centralized the powers in his hands. In 2020 the Congress tried to deny him the funds he needed, and he marched into the chamber with the soldiers. He had already won the support of the army and the police granting them several benefits. Then, after he gained a larger majority in the following elections, he changed the rules to obtain even more seats in the Congress in the future. Thanks to his control over the Congress, he also managed to substitute the members of the Constitutional Court that had previously declared unconstitutional the power he had took during the pandemic. Both these judges and a third of the country’s judges were substituted with people loyal to him. Without these measures he would have not been able to enforce his security plan because it would have almost surely been declared unconstitutional (Nayib Bukele shows how to dismantle a democracy and stay popular, Jul 20th 2023). Afterall the world’s coolest dictator is still a dictator.
There’s more, Bukele’s majority in Congress also removed Attorney General Melara who was investigating on alleged negotiations between Bukele and the three main Salvadorean gangs. Moreover, the new prosecutor dismantled the unit that made the discoveries (Carlos Martínez, 2021). Hence, the astonishing results achieved by Bukele could be because of a deal with the gangs and not the outcome of his mass imprisonment. However, in any way it was reached, the decrease in violence probably isn’t sustainable, since the root causes were not addresses (Nayib Bukele shows how to dismantle a democracy and stay popular, Jul 20th 2023). El Salvador’s gangs’ main business is extortion (Perelló, Feb 8, 2024) because the country is characterized by a habit of violence and a lack of opportunities. Firstly, the country was wrecked by a civil war that lasted more than a decade and was over only in 1992. Therefore, there are still a lot of weapons on the loose and the people are used to a climate of violence. Secondly, young people are dawned to join these gang because of poor education opportunities and dysfunctional families (El Salvador Profile, 2020). Ignoring these problems the only solution is locking up as much potential criminals as possible. But, even setting aside every human rights concerned, this shouldn’t be considered an option. In fact, if the root causes are not dismantled the next generations will behave as the current one.
Bibliography
Carlos Martínez, G. C. (2021, August 23). Bukele's government negotiated with the three gangs and tried to hide the evidence. Retrieved from el faro 25: https://elfaro.net/es/202108/el_salvador/25668/Gobierno-de-Bukele-negoci%C3%B3-con-las-tres-pandillas-e-intent%C3%B3-esconder-la-evidencia.htm
El Salvador Profile. (2020, September 15). Retrieved from InSight Crime: https://insightcrime.org/el-salvador-organized-crime-news/el-salvador/
El Salvador’s State of Exception, Explained. (2022, April 27). Retrieved from Alianza Americas: https://www.alianzaamericas.org/region-central-america/el-salvadors-state-of-exception-explained/?lang=en
Gangsters in El Salvador are terrified of strongman Nayib Bukele. (Feb 2nd 2024). The Economist.
Nayib Bukele shows how to dismantle a democracy and stay popular. (Jul 20th 2023). The Economist.
Perelló, W. F. (Feb 8, 2024). The Drop in Crime in El Salvador Is Stunning, but It Has a Dark Side. The New York Times.
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