2022 Salvadoran gang crackdown

The 2022 Salvadoran gang crackdown involves policies and legislation enacted in El Salvador to combat an ongoing crisis of gang violence, particularly a spree of killings that took place in March 2022. Overseen by President Nayib Bukele, the crackdown involves repeated thirty-day states of emergency during which freedom of assembly is curtailed and police powers are greatly expanded. These so-called “iron fist” tactics have resulted in the arrests of more than forty-six thousand people on related charges. Many supporters believe consider this crackdown to be highly effective in stabilizing El Salvador, while many critics point out that the tactics infringe upon citizen’s civil liberties and could create dangerous precedents.

Background

El Salvador is a small country in Central America that is situated between Honduras and Guatemala. El Salvador has a long history of political instability that is often accompanied by violence, which culminated in a bloody and protracted civil war that lasted from 1979 to 1992. Although that conflict ended with a peace treaty that remains in effect into the 2020s, El Salvador continued to experience ongoing unrest and violence. In particular, the 1990s and 2000s were characterized by the formation of powerful street gangs in the country, many of which were involved in drugs and kidnappings.

Two of the largest criminal gangs in El Salvador were Mara Salvatrucha (known as MS-13) and its rival, Barrio 18 (or Mara 18). These gangs both formed in the United States in the 1980s. Their members were Salvadoran refugees who had fled to Los Angeles and surrounding areas to escape the Salvadoran civil war. The passage of anti-gang legislation in the United States led to many of these gang members being deported back to El Salvador, where they promptly resumed their gang activities. The El Salvador government tried to combat this swiftly rising trend in the 2000s with strict “iron fist” police tactics and punishments. However, packing gang members into prisons only caused the gang mentality to grow. Later, national leaders attempted to negotiate truces between the most powerful and destructive gangs, with limited effect. In 2019, Nayib Bukele assumed the presidency of El Salvador. He reportedly continued and even extended the policies of dealing with gang leaders, both to reduce violence and, allegedly, to prop up his own political support base.

The gang violence has contributed to an ongoing epidemic of homicide that gained El Salvador the moniker of “the murder capital of the world” and caused thousands of Salvadoran citizens to flee their country and seek refuge elsewhere, frequently in the United States. The homicide rate remained perilously high throughout much of the 2010s but began to decline around 2016. Many Salvadorans hoped this was a sign that the gang activity was ebbing, and the country might be moving toward a more peaceful future. This notion was erased in March 2022, however, when a shocking spate of gang violence pushed national authorities to take unprecedented and highly controversial steps to stabilize El Salvador.

Overview

In March 2022, the hopes for deescalated violence in El Salvador vanished. From March 25 to March 27, at least eighty-seven homicides took place in the country; on March 26 alone, more than sixty people died in the bloodiest day in the country since the end of its civil war thirty years previously. Investigations suggested that the victims were widely varied and few of them had close ties to gangs, but authorities believed that MS-13 and Barrio 18 were behind the murder sprees.

President Bukele acted quickly, and on March 27, established a nationwide state of emergency that would last for thirty days. During this time, some of the rights guaranteed in the Salvadoran constitution were removed or restricted. For example, the right to assemble freely was curtailed, as was the right to have guaranteed legal counsel during a trial. Bukele also gave national law enforcement groups greatly expanded powers, allowing them to raid and arrest suspects without warrants, and ordered prisons to reduce food rations to incarcerated gang members. Meanwhile, other government leaders focused on the legal system and pushed legislation that would greatly increase jail sentencing for all convicted gang members.

These tactics, while severe, led to the arrests and imprisonments of thousands of likely gang members during the first thirty-day duration. The Salvadoran government authorized a second thirty days of emergency starting on April 25. In May, June, and July, similar measures followed. As of July 2022, the latest thirty-day state of emergency was set to last until the end of August.

According to a July 20, 2022, BBC report, the emergency rules in El Salvador have led to the arrests of forty-six thousand people on gang-related charges—a significant percentage of the country’s whole population of 6.5 million. As of 2020, President Bukele, along with many other members of the government and their supporters, believed that the numbers spoke for themselves. They felt that the strict measures were justified in combating the crisis situation that had developed in the country, and that only the “iron fist” approach could handle the otherwise out-of-control gang threat. Some have praised the measures as ending El Salvador’s reputation as the global leader in criminal violence. As of May 2022, a large majority of Salvadorans approved of the crackdowns and Bukele’s presidency in general.

At the same time, however, the “iron fist” approach has proven highly controversial, with many critics around the world warning that it represents a serious threat to civil liberties. Critics point out that mass arrests with reduced legal protections take away citizen’s essential rights and open the door for wrongful arrests and potential abuses. Many people have also questioned Bukele’s position in the matter and suggested that he may be using the crackdown along with other tactics to strengthen his own political position. Meanwhile, the gang crisis and social turmoil continues to stir a migration crisis, with thousands of Salvadorans attempting to flee to the United States and other countries.

Bibliography

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Buschschlüter, Vanessa. “El Salvador Gangs: State of Emergency Extended Again.” BBC News, 20 July 2022, www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-62205981. Accessed 27 July 2022.

Centeno, Michelle. “Stolen Childhood: Gang Violence in El Salvador.” UNICEF, 24 Nov. 2017, www.unicef.org/stories/stolen-childhood-gang-violence-el-salvador. Accessed 27 July 2022.

Ching, Erik. Stories of Civil War in El Salvador: A Battle Over Memory. University of North Carolina Press, 2016.

“Gang Violence Crackdown Sees 30,000 Arrested in El Salvador.” EuroNews, 20 May 2022, www.euronews.com/2022/05/20/gang-violence-crackdown-sees-30-000-arrested-in-el-salvador. Accessed 27 July 2022.

Phillips, Tom. “El Salvador to Escalate its Security Crackdown After Death of Police Officers.” The Guardian, 29 June 2022, www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jun/29/el-salvador-nayib-bukele-security-crackdown-gangs. Accessed 27 July 2022.

Renteria, Nelson. “In El Salvador’s Gang Crackdown, Quotas Drive ‘Arbitrary’ Arrests of Innocents.” Reuters, 16 May 2022, www.reuters.com/world/americas/el-salvadors-gang-crackdown-quotas-drive-arbitrary-arrests-innocents-2022-05-16/. Accessed 27 July 2022.

Roy, Diana. “Why Has Gang Violence Spiked in El Salvador?” Council on Foreign Relations, 4 May 2022, www.cfr.org/in-brief/why-has-gang-violence-spiked-el-salvador-bukele. Accessed 27 July 2022.