© Marco Ugarte / AP
President Bukele’s government secretly negotiated a truce with the leaders of the country’s powerful street gangs, the US Treasury announced on Wednesday, December 8, 2021, nipping in the bud one of Bukele’s most touted successes in office. : a drop in the country’s homicide rate. Now, after his failure and after experiencing the bloodiest day of the century, the president has promised a “war” against the gangs.
This Wednesday, the laws approved by Congress came into force that punish, up to 15 years in prison, the publication of “any written statement” that alludes to the “territorial control” of the gangs. The journalists’ unions describe the new legislation as a “gag”, while President Nayib Bukele assures that he will not “give a truce” to the gangs in his fight to eradicate them from the country.
Tension due to the authoritarianism of the Government of Nayib Bukele in El Salvador. This Wednesday in the form of “restriction on freedom of the press”, as the country’s communication professionals accuse, after a reform in the Penal Code came into force that seeks to punish the media that “reproduce messages from the gangs” with up to 15 years in prison.
Without much discussion, the Salvadoran Congress approved these laws on Tuesday against messages “that can generate anxiety and panic in the population.” A decision that has double standards, since these also prohibit the publication of investigations such as the one that directly pointed to President Bukele for agreeing with the gangs –on many occasions these groups sent videos, interviews with politicians or their representatives to the media-.
This measure does not only reach newspapers, television and radio, it also affects citizens directly, since any public reference to those known as maras, such as graffiti, has been expressly prohibited..
To justify these authoritarian measures, President Bukele turned to history, specifically the Nazi Holocaust.
“When the Germans wanted to eradicate Nazism, they prohibited by law all Nazi symbols, as well as messages, apologies and everything that was aimed at promoting Nazism. Nobody said anything, it was understandable that it was like that. Now we will do that with the gangs, ”said the president on his Twitter account.
The so-called “war against the gangs” by the Government began as a result of the fact that between March 25 and 27, 2022, 87 homicides were registered throughout the country. March 26 was the bloodiest day of the last century for El Salvador, during that day alone 62 people were murdered; only 13 of the total belonged to criminal gangs. During the fateful day, ordinary civilians perished, such as a surfer or a shoe salesman.
After this episode, and despite the evidence that Nayib had previously agreed with the maras In exchange for political support and governance in 2021, the president promised to exterminate them.
Complaints from the union of journalists and NGOs
Bukele’s method of fighting gangs is what various organizations and even the international community criticize. This Wednesday, the United States asked the president to put an end to the state of emergency, declared on March 27, since it could threaten the fundamental rights of the population.
From the journalistic sphere, the president of the Association of Journalists of El Salvador (APES), César Castro Fagoaga, pointed to the legal reforms as “a clear attempt to censor the media.”
“Prohibiting journalism from reporting the reality of thousands of people who live in communities controlled by gangs will not have any effect on the lives of those people, but rather will create a mirage that is not true to the truth. Not mentioning the gangs won’t make them disappear either,” Castro said.
In this regard, the acting director for the Americas of Human Rights Watch (HRW), Tamara Taraciuk, described as “serious” this “reform that criminalizes even painting graffiti on gangs and the publication of information about them in the media if they generate ‘anxiety ‘”.
Along with this, the organization Amnesty International has expressed its concern that the Bukele government may use these decrees and strict policies to silence voices critical of the government. He also called for the rights of those behind bars, including gang members, to be respected.
But Bukele maintains that what he calls homeboys -gang members- do not deserve even “the slightest respect”.
“I don’t care what the international organizations say, that they come to protect our people, that they come to take those gang members away if they want them so much (…) If we want to one day be a developed country, we must do what the countries developed countries do, not what they tell us to do,” said Bukele during one of his public interventions on April 4.
The state of emergency, which is expected to last 30 days, allows Bukele to restrict freedom of entry and exit from the country or freedom of expression, among other things. A measure that also enables the police to arrest citizens without asking for reasons or explanations.
Threats to “not eat a single rice” to gang members
The “zero tolerance” policy appears to be becoming a reality in El Salvador. And the threats are a government tactic. This was demonstrated by Bukele on April 4 when he used his social networks to warn gang members in a video entitled “message to criminals”, asking them to allow themselves to be arrested without resistance and to forget about “revenge”.
“There are rumors out there that they want to start taking revenge on honest people at random (…) do that and there will be no meal time in prisons. Let’s see how long their homeboys there inside. I swear to God that they don’t eat a rice,” warned the leader during a graduation event for 205 military students from the National Academy of Public Security.
He even went so far as to say that the gangs are the “armed wing” of humanitarian organizations, the international community and opposition parties. Accusations that are completely unfounded.
In El Salvador, graffiti can be seen to mark a kind of border between the areas with the presence of opposing groups; of which many minors are a part -who will also be able to go to jail with the reform of the law-.
“An attempted homicide is going to be sanctioned almost the same as putting up graffiti. There is a disproportionality in the penalties. That is why the Penal Code is graduating the penalties according to the legal rights that are protected, as the maximum value is that of right to life (…) The increase in sentences does not solve the crime problem,” said a Salvadoran judge who wanted to remain anonymous. to the newspaper ‘El Faro’.
“Will @nayibbukele (Nayib Bukele) decide by Twitter, his Legislative Assembly, or his judges, who will be imprisoned for up to 15 years for this?” Taraciuk, of Human Rights Watch, pointed out regarding these reforms.
Since March 27, at least 100 complaints of rights violations have been collected, mainly issued by the families of alleged gang members arbitrarily arrested. According to the Executive, since that same day El Salvador has arrested thousands of gang members. A hunt that seems not to end soon.
With EFE and local media