Anti-Militarism: News & Updates

After nine months, the Salvadoran Congress has once again voted for an extension of the ongoing State of Emergency (aka State of Exception) in the country. This marks the tenth extension and will be in effect from January 17 until February 15. The extension was passed with 67 votes in favor, an immense approval rate in a Congress with only 84 seats. President Bukele justifies this by claiming that 80% of the country is controlled by gangs, with Mara Salvatrucha (MS13) and Barrio 18 being the largest with an estimated membership of 70,000 members between both of them.

Earlier this month the Salvadoran government announced a drop of 56.8% in the country's murder rate. But the government's number of 496 registered homicides is questionable at best. Many deaths are never registered, and killings during clashes between gang members and security forces are not included. Civil rights groups have counted at least 600 killings in 2022. With the State of Emergency going into its 11th month, activists and rights groups keep articulating concerns about power abuses by security forces. 

The official detention numbers since March 2022 have risen to 61,000 detentions. In January, Human Rights Watch published a statement putting forward the fact that "hundreds of people with no connections to gangs have been detained." 

Expanding the State of Exception Smells of Danger and Is Associated with Possible Police Abuses.   Leticia Salomón, a sociologist and researcher, is of the opinion that suspending constitutional guarantees always smells of danger and is associated with the excesses that the police can commit when capturing alleged suspects of committing criminal actions and that result in human rights violations.

Mirna Flores, a violence and security researchers, issued a warning: “It must be taken into account that as the state of exception expands, it can be perpetuated, and strengthen an authoritarian culture, and we cannot continue emulating a system like the one in El Salvador, based on arrests and full jails,” he says. Flowers.

For Flores, it is necessary to counteract the “strong hand” discourse, and that the State implement comprehensive measures that give new opportunities to youth. "Criminal gangs must be forcefully attacked, but this is done institutionally, with a reliable and efficient police force, that is not corrupt and that earns the trust of the citizenry and with citizens that from the municipalities participate in the strategies of security.

On January 11, the Witness Against Torture collective will hold its annual days of fasting and protest in Washington, DC, to Shut Down Guantánamo! IRTF staff and volunteers will take part.

Leading up to this, we will share stories of inmates, their treatment by the media and more.

Our first post tells the story of Khaled Qassim, who was imprisoned in 2002 without charges. Despite President Obama's promise to close Guantánamo and a 2022 clearance for release, Khaled is still held in the torture facility.

This post also includes a description of ways you can help shut down Guantánamo and support former inmates and detainees cleared for release who are still imprisoned there. 

Carlos Herrera was arrested on Espíritu Santo Island in El Salvador on May 13. His family has been unable to contact him since.

Mr. Herrera is 21 years old. He had been working as a “lanchero,” a harbor ferry boat skipper, since he dropped out of high school, supporting his family by moving people and goods back and forth from the mainland and Espíritu Santo, an island in El Salvador’s Jiquilisco Bay in the southeast department of Usulután. Esperanza Pineda, Mr. Herrera’s aunt, described him as a fun-loving young man who is always making people laugh and teasing her by disheveling her hair.

. The main economic activities on Espíritu Santo are subsistence agriculture and fishing. There are no gangs. Espíritu Santo’s comparable immunity to the gang violence that is a plague to other Salvadoran communities makes the arrests here that much harder to understand, residents say.