Source: Amnesty International –
Grave human rights violations under El Salvador’s state of emergency point to a systematic, widespread pattern of state abuse that has seen thousands of arbitrary detentions, the adoption of a policy of torture in detention centres and hundreds of deaths under state custody.
Since the state of emergency first began on 27 March 2022, Amnesty International has kept track of events, deploying five missions to the country to document the patterns of grave human rights violations. After each trip, the organisation has testified to the gradually deteriorating circumstances of the victims and their families, throwing human rights in the country into ever deeper crisis. Allegations by human rights organisations, protests by victims, concerns expressed by regional bodies and appeals from the international community have all been met by the Salvadoran government with silence, indifference and a lack of transparency, further cementing a model of repression and impunity.
Increased militarisation, above all in marginalised, impoverished communities, has brought back memories of past horrors, when the armed forces were used to repress the population. This approach, combined with efforts by state agents to stigmatise human rights organisations and the free press and to thwart their efforts, has fostered a climate of fear and intimidation that stifles civil society and spurs self-censorship.
“What the government calls ‘peace’ is actually an illusion intended to hide a repressive system, a structure of control and oppression that abuses its power and disregards the rights of those who were already invisible—people living in poverty, under state stigma, and marginalization—all in the name of a supposed security defined in a very narrow way”, said Ana Piquer, Americas director at Amnesty International.
What the government calls ‘peace’ is in fact a mirage that pretends to conceal a repressive system, a structure of control and oppression that abuses its power and disregards the rights of those who were already invisible—people living in poverty, under state stigma, and marginalization—all in the name of a supposed security defined in a very narrow way.
Ana Piquer, Americas director at Amnesty International.