One Salvadoran a day goes missing under security crackdown, groups say
SAN SALVADOR — El Salvador, a small Central American nation whose government has spearheaded a brutal crackdown on criminal gangs, is seeing one person go missing each day, according to a group of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) citing prosecutors’ data.
SAN SALVADOR — El Salvador, a small Central American nation whose government has spearheaded a brutal crackdown on criminal gangs, is seeing one person go missing each day, according to a group of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) citing prosecutors’ data.
The attorney general’s office counted 366 people who went missing in the 12 months to May 31 this year, the Working Group for Missing Persons in El Salvador, an association of nine NGOs, reported on Wednesday.
El Salvador’s government, meanwhile, reports more than 650 days without any homicides since President Nayib Bukele came to power in June of 2019.
Bukele launched a so-called state-of-exception in March 2022, under which certain civil rights are suspended, suspects have been sent to mass trials and a “mega-prison” has been built.
He has won widespread popularity for improving security, securing re-election with a landslide 85% of the vote this February, but human rights groups have reported dozens of deaths in custody and said children have been arbitrarily detained, tortured and beaten.
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