"This is their new home, and here they can no longer hurt the people." On February 24, local time, Salvadoran President Bukele announced through social media, accompanied by a video - thousands of gangster suspects were transferred to a newly built giant prison.
The government of El Salvador recently said it would maintain a state of emergency in the country until all gang members are caught. El Salvador's anti-gang campaign, which lasted nearly a year, led to a significant drop in crime in El Salvador, despite controversial allegations of violations of due process and the rule of law. Local people say they can now go out at night, which was previously unthinkable.
The "largest prison in the Americas" was put into use
According to Reuters, the Salvadoran government has launched a massive prisoner transfer operation, in which thousands of gangster suspects were transferred to a newly built giant prison that claims to be "the largest prison in the Americas" and has a designed capacity of 40,000 prisoners.
Videos posted by Booker via social media showed prisoners dressed only in white shorts, shaved hair, crouched on the ground in a phalanx, waiting for transport. "(Here) looks like a sea of tattoos from afar." Reuters wrote.
On February 1, 2023, local time, in Tekoluca, El Salvador, police stood guard in the newly completed giant prison. Photo/Visual China
Last March, El Salvador entered a national emergency to combat gang crime, suspending a number of constitutional rights that allowed military and police services to arrest suspects without warrants, and suspects were not entitled to a lawyer's defence. Bukele called it "war on gangsters."
So far, more than 64,000 suspects have been arrested in the iron-fisted crackdown, and local prisons are overcrowded. The government had to build new prisons to house prisoners.
According to CNN, El Salvador has the highest incarceration rate in the world, and together with those who are already serving their sentences, El Salvador has about 100,000 people in prison, about 2% of the country's adult population.
According to the Salvadoran government, many gang members have hid in remote areas or fled abroad after the anti-gang campaign, and authorities will need to arrest about 10,000 people to achieve their goal of eliminating gangs.
El Salvador's Minister of Justice and Security, Gustavo Villatoro, recently said that "as long as murderers and terrorists (referring to gang members) are on the run, the [anti-gang) operation must continue." Salvador's justice and security services are working with Mexico, Guatemala, the United States and other countries to hunt down gang members who have fled.
The number of murders fell by more than half
El Salvador was once the country with the most rampant violent crime in the world. According to a 2020 study published by Jonathan D. Rosen, an associate professor at the City University of New Jersey, El Salvador overtook Honduras in 2015 as the country with the worst violent crime in the world. Gangs such as Barrio 18 and MS-13, with tens of thousands of members, are rampant in El Salvador.
According to a report by the Crisis Group, there were about 70,000 active gang members in El Salvador before last year's campaign began, and even politicians had to deal with gangsters for their election campaigns and government affairs.
According to statistics, in 2021, there were 1,140 homicides in El Salvador, with an average of up to 18 deaths due to murder per 100,000 citizens.
On Saturday, March 26, 2022, there were 62 murders in El Salvador, which was called "the bloodiest weekend in El Salvador in nearly 30 years".
El Salvador's National Congress urgently passed a decree on March 27, 2022, stating that in view of the current "serious interference by criminal organizations with public order", the country will enter a state of emergency from now on.
On March 31, 2022, local time, San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador, the suspect was arrested. Photo/Visual China
Under the slogan "War on the Gangsters", a large number of armed military and police officers searched for gang members on the streets and set up checkpoints to search for people coming. Military and police services arrested about 2,000 suspects in four days.
On December 3, 2022, El Salvador's anti-gang crime campaign escalated again. Tens of thousands of police and soldiers surrounded the country's largest city, Soyapango, a city long a hub for gangster activity. Video released by the government showed armed police marching through the city's streets, rounding down gang members street by street.
Tiziano Breda, an expert on Central America at the International Crisis Group, said El Salvador's iron-fisted anti-gang policy had worked, with the number of murders in the country falling by more than half.
In addition, many neighboring countries that are also plagued by gang problems, such as Honduras and Jamaica, have also begun to adopt similar anti-gang policies. "It's become a trend in Latin America." Juan Papier, an observer of human rights issues in the Americas, said.
El Salvador had also recently discussed the issue of gang crime with the Haitian Government, which had grown beyond the Government's control.
"It's time to go for a walk"
Juan Papier said El Salvador's anti-gang strategy boils down to arrests, then social media campaigns, and possibly investigations into the suspects, which is contrary to the principle of the rule of law.
El Salvador has been under a prolonged state of emergency, with some constitutional rights suspended. Military police can make arrests without warrants, the government has unrestricted access to private communications, and suspects do not have the right to a lawyer.
On April 7, 2022, local time, San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador, military personnel stood guard and patrolled the community. Photo/Visual China
Villatoro said the current suspension of some constitutional rights is necessary and that the state of emergency is lifted when the security risk is "close to zero." Authorities have released about 3,700 people believed to have been coerced into joining the gang.
Polls show that the Salvadoran government's iron-fisted anti-gang campaign is well received by the population. A February survey by pollster Gallup found that 92 percent of Salvadorans approved of the anti-gang drive and said they felt safer.
"From what we know from the local community, most gangs have given in and gang members who have not been arrested have fled or gone into hiding," Breda said. However, it was mainly ordinary gang members who were hit, not gang leaders. ”
Reuters interviewed 10 residents of El Salvador's capital, San Salvador, who said the crackdown had made life better for ordinary people. People can now go out at night, visit the park or play football, and there are more tourists. All this was unthinkable in a period of gangsterism.
Alexander Gillen, a 24-year-old university student, says he loves graffiti art and can now paint in areas once controlled by gangsters. "Now we have the freedom to express ourselves and be able to use the public spaces of the community without worry," he said. ”
Manuel, a 45-year-old auto mechanic, said he had been forced to pay the gang protection money for up to 12 years. In the past, gang members would come to the door every two weeks to ask for protection money and threaten him to kill his wife and children if he didn't pay. Manuel was also often forced to repair cars for free for gangsters.
Since last July, no gang member has asked Manuel for protection money. "I feel much more relaxed. I can go for a walk. I went out for a walk with the kids every night and it was an experience I had never had before. ”
Beijing News reporter Chen Yikai
Edited by Zhang Lei Proofread by Wu Xingfa