Almost 3,000 children have been arrested and 1,000 convicted over mostly gang membership-related charges in El Salvador as part of President Nayib Bukele’s so-called “war on gangs”. However, this success has come at a high cost for children’s rights. Children in juvenile detention facilities have reported torture, inhumane and unsanitary conditions, as well as a lack of food, healthcare, and family contact.
The rise of violence in El Salvador
The arrests began in March 2022, when President Nayib Bukele announced a state of exception and a set of “mano dura” (“iron fist”) policies aimed at tackling gang violence in what was then the murder capital of the world (The New Humanitarian, 2024). El Salvador faced soaring murder rates for decades and was considered the most violent country in the world in 2015 (Pinnow, 2024).
Two gangs – Barrio 18 and MS13 – had dominated life in El Salvador since the 1990s. By 2015, they counted 60,000 members in a country of 6 million. Most businesses were extorted, and the annual homicide rate was 103 per 100,000 (Graham, 2024).
For years, Salvadorans couldn’t lead normal lives because of gang extortion and continuous turf wars. They were charged to run their businesses, couldn’t walk from one block to another without risking their lives, and children would get caught up in gang crossfire on their way to school or while playing in the streets (Pinnow, 2024).
The transformation into safety
President Bukele tackled the crisis by launching a full-scale war on the gangs, declaring an ongoing state of exception only hours after the notorious MS-13 gang murdered 87 people over one weekend in March 2022, breaking a clandestine truce his government had established a year earlier (Pinnow, 2024). Initially intended to last for only 30 days, the state of emergency has since been shockingly extended 20 times, leading to a more than two-year war being waged on vulnerable communities (Harikrishna, 2024).
By locking up more than 1% of the population, Bukele has turned one of Latin America’s most violent countries into one of its safest: according to official data, in 2023 the homicide rate had fallen to 2.4 per 100,000 (Graham, 2024). By 2023, homicide rates had dropped by 70% and the country now has the lowest murder rate in Latin America and has become a model for other countries in the region (Pinnow, 2024).
Children as the most vulnerable victims of security policies
Human rights activists are quick to stress that this success has come with a high cost, with more than 76,000 people arrested, many of them in what witnesses have described as indiscriminate sweeps (The New Humanitarian, 2024). Amid fears of an authoritarian drift and widespread reports of human rights violations, critics say the crackdown on gangs has caused the government’s attention on humanitarian issues to dwindle, and flag that it is the most vulnerable that are paying the highest cost for the country’s security, for instance children (Pinnow, 2024).
Since March 2022, the police and military have arrested 2,900 children. The situation is alarming. A new report documents rights violations against detained children, including torture and other forms of ill-treatment, such as inhumane and unsanitary conditions, as well as lack of food, healthcare, and family contact (Maier, 2024).
Detention practices and violations
Many of the children arrested in the crackdown have no apparent connection to gangs or criminal activities (Graham, 2024). More than 1,000 of the arrested children have been convicted with sentences of between 10 to 20 years in prison, often on broad charges such as “unlawful association” – which is extremely broadly defined – and using uncorroborated and contradictory statements by police (Maier, 2024).
Additionally, authorities coerced children into making false confessions to crimes through a combination of abusive plea deals and sometimes mistreatment or torture (Maier, 2024). A child recounted authority questioning him about potential gang affiliations, before placing him in a cell. Judges and prosecutors routinely have kept children in prolonged pretrial detention, a practice that, given the dire conditions of juvenile detention facilities, exposed children to heightened risks of abuse (HRW, 2024).
In almost all of the cases documented by Human Rights Watch (HRW), detained children were denied family visits during weeks or months in detention (HRW, 2024). Some of them have also been denied access to lawyers (Maier, 2024).
The use of several forms of violence
Human Rights Watch (HRW) documented 22 cases of children who were beaten and physically ill-treated by security forces during and after arrest, at police stations, shelters, and confinement centres in El Espino, Freedom Path, Tonacatepeque, and Female. Police or soldiers repeatedly kicked and beat them with batons and belts. Authorities often used abusive language—and sometimes death threats—during the physical abuse.
Thirteen children said security officers denied them blankets or mattresses, and they had to sleep on the floor for several days or weeks. In two cases, children were subjected to sleep deprivation. Punishments also included taking away their mattresses and clothes, reducing the number of meals they received, spraying pepper spray into their cells, and making them wear the same clothes for days before they were laundered (HRW, 2024).
Several children had suffered violence by other detainees, including beatings and in two cases sexual violence, and guards did little or nothing to protect them. Some said that cells were in practice controlled by gang members who called themselves “cell leaders.” They oversaw tasks including cleaning and food distribution, often using violence to enforce their rules. In some cases, they subjected detainees to interrogations about their gang affiliation (HRW, 2024).
Lack of access to adequate food and medical care
The children and their relatives interviewed described the conditions in detention as inadequate, including often overcrowded and unsanitary cells, lack of adequate nutritious food, lack of—or denial of—access to medication, adequate medical care, and education. Such an environment is dangerous for detained children, not only physically but also psychologically, undermining their dignity and hindering any meaningful efforts toward their reintegration into society (HRW, 2024).
“I spent seven days in a dirty, overcrowded cell, with “water spilling” from broken toilets into the dormitory where children slept, some without mattresses. The food, she said, was “bitter.”
– A 17-year-old girl from El Salvador (HRW, 2024)
The health professional witnessed diseases and conditions including tuberculosis, fungal infections and scabies, severe malnutrition, and digestive problems, including diarrhoea. The children often remained untreated, he said, and guards did not provide medication for chronic illnesses, for example, asthma inhalers (HRW, 2024).
Girls suffered also episodes of sexual abuse, both by guards and other detainees. The health professional interviewed reported he treated many for vaginal infections, which he believed may have resulted from abuse (HRW, 2024).
Overcrowding and detention as adults
While conditions in El Salvador’s juvenile detention centres have for a long time been deplorable, the increasingly punitive approach against children has resulted in at least temporary overcrowding in shelters, where children are held awaiting trial, and in juvenile detention facilities. As of October 2021, the combined official capacity of El Salvador’s four juvenile detention facilities was 500, with El Espino accommodating 100 children, Freedom Path and Tonacatepeque 150 each, and Female 100.
However, in September 2022, 1,730 children and adolescents were reported held in these centres, authorities said. El Espino held 381, Freedom Path 701, Tonacatepeque 322, and Female 326, meaning that the centres were at 381 percent, 467 percent, 214 percent, and 326 percent of capacity, respectively (HRW, 2024).
In some cases, children were held alongside adults during their first days after their arrest, before being moved to overcrowded juvenile facilities which the authors describe as “dangerous and dehumanising environments that fail to prioritise children’s well-being and reintegration” (Graham, 2024).
Poverty and double victimisation of children
Many of the children detained during the state of emergency lived in low-income neighbourhoods, where violence was a constant presence. Pervasive poverty, social exclusion, and lack of educational and work opportunities have left many with few viable paths forward, enabling gangs to prey on them and security forces to stigmatize them as criminals and harass them (HRW, 2024).
Children are double victims in this situation. First, children arrested often come from dangerous and economically disadvantaged communities, where limited access to education and job opportunities makes them more vulnerable to recruitment by gangs (The New Humanitarian, 2024). Second, security forces stigmatize them as criminals, detain them, and mistreat them (Maier, 2024).
To reinforce this dynamic, HRW reported news according to which the Education Ministry was asking teachers to report students with “antisocial behaviour,” using a specific form. The practice raises serious concerns about the rights and privacy of students, especially considering that most of them are children.
Forcing educators to inform on children’s suspected links to gangs undermines trust between teachers and students, turning schools into an environment of surveillance and suspicion instead of a safe space for learning and development. Moreover, labelling students based on the subjective criterion of “antisocial behaviour” can lead to stigmatization, discrimination, and possible abuse by authorities (HRS, 2024).
The long-lasting effects of detention on children
The consequences of detention for children deprived of liberty in such contexts can be profound and long-lasting. Detention significantly disrupts children’s education, often causing extended school absences that lead to academic setbacks and increased dropout risks. Additionally, the stigma associated with detention hinders social reintegration, damaging personal relationships and community acceptance (HRW, 2024).
“If you’ve been detained, you’re already considered a bad person. Because you were detained, you’re seen as bad. Neighbours and police look at you with suspicion. The police come to see where you work and ask what you’re doing. If you’re at home, they come to harass you. I’m afraid they’ll detain me again.”
– A 15-year-old student from El Salvador at the time of the detention (HRW, 2024).
Children held in detention are at risk of suffering from mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which can manifest in symptoms like insomnia and nightmares. The detention experience can also cause significant damage to their long-term cognitive and physical development (HRW, 2024).
Detention is a highly traumatic experience for children, as it involves a loss of control, enforced separation from the outside world, detachment from their community, culture, and religion, and the inability to experience life as predictable, meaningful, and safe. The longer children are detained, the more likely they are to be exposed to traumatic events and experience feelings of isolation, detachment, and loss of confidence, as research has shown a clear link between the length of detention and the severity of psychosocial and developmental issues faced by children (HRW, 2024).
Recommendations for action
As a state party to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), El Salvador is obligated to protect the rights of children, including by ensuring that actions take their best interests as a primary consideration, they are not arbitrarily deprived of liberty and are treated in a manner consistent with their age, dignity, and worth in all judicial proceedings (HRW, 2024).
Government
The government should establish an ad hoc mechanism to review the cases of those detained during the state of emergency. The mechanism should prioritize reviewing the cases of children and other vulnerable detainees, with a view to immediately releasing all those detained without evidence. Crucially, detention should only be used as a last resort for children, and for the shortest necessary period. When detention is unavoidable, it should take place in facilities that are safe, humane, and conducive to children’s reintegration into society (HRW, 2024).
The government should also develop a comprehensive security strategy that protects children from gang violence and recruitment, including by implementing violence prevention initiatives, rehabilitation programs for recruited children, and reintegration support for those in conflict with the law (HRW, 2024).
National institutions
The National Council of Early Childhood, Children and Adolescents (Consejo Nacional de la Primera Infancia, Niñez y Adolescencia, CONAPINA), which oversees the protection of children’s rights, should ensure that children in detention have access to education and health care and that juvenile detention facilities meet international human rights standards. It should also establish an independent complaint system regarding juvenile detention facilities (HRW, 2024).
International community
International action is needed to prevent further human rights violations in El Salvador. The governments of the United States, Latin America, and member states of the European Union should focus attention on the situation in El Salvador, including through the United Nations Human Rights Council. Foreign governments and international financial institutions should refrain from providing support to government institutions credibly alleged to be involved in abuses and should focus assistance on independent media and civil society (HRW, 2024).
Civil society
The international community should promote effective and rights-respecting security policies to ensure that people in El Salvador, and throughout Latin America, do not feel forced to choose between living under gang control, or intense state repression. They should prioritize supporting the rights of children who, whether at the hands of gangs or security forces, are likely to suffer the most (HRW, 2024).
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Written by Arianna Braga
References:
Graham, T. (2024). Thousands of children swept up in El Salvador mass arrests, rights body says. Retrieved from The Guardian at https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/article/2024/jul/16/el-salvador-children-detentions-human-rights-watch, accessed on 6 October 2024.
Harikrishna, S. (2024). Human Rights Violations against Children under El Salvador’s “State of Emergency”. Retrieved from Human Rights Research Centre at https://www.humanrightsresearch.org/post/human-rights-violations-against-children-under-el-salvador-s-state-of-emergency, accessed on 6 October 2024.
HRW (2024). El Salvador: Rights Violations Against Children in ‘State of Emergency’. Retrieved from Human Rights Watch – HRW at https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/07/16/el-salvador-rights-violations-against-children-state-emergency, accessed on 6 October 2024.
Maier, L.M. (2024). Daily Brief, Detained Children Tortured in El Salvador. Retrieved from Human Rights Watch at https://www.hrw.org/the-day-in-human-rights/2024/08/14 accessed on 6 October 2024.
Pinnow, F. (2024). In El Salvador, peaceful streets carry hidden costs. Retrieved from The New Humanitarian at https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/photo-feature/2024/03/13/el-salvador-peaceful-streets-carry-hidden-costs, accessed on 6 October 2024.
The New Humanitarian (2024). Salvadoran minors pay price of gang crackdown. Retrieved from The New Humanitarian at https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/news/2024/07/16/salvadoran-minors-pay-price-gang-crackdown, accessed on 6 October 2024.
