Human cost of El Salvador’s war on gangs revealed

The human cost of El Salvador's alleged war on gangs has been revealed in a new report, which claims that dozens of prisoners were tortured and killed in jail after being caught up in the year-long security crackdown.

The detailed 107-page report from human rights group Cristosal said that at least 153 people have died in custody after being arrested as part of President Nayib Bukele's year-long offensive against the Central American country's notorious pandillas. In most of the cases, Cristosal said the bodies of the victims showed signs of torture, beatings or strangulation. The murderers also showed signs of injury but were classified as having died of undetermined or natural causes, which could have been a greater number of violent deaths.

The rights group said it had obtained images and mortuary reports showing bodies with signs of asphyxiating, bone fractures, significant bruising, lacerations and even perforations. Nearly half of the victims were men aged 18 to 38. The NGO said that some prisoners were tortured with electric shocks.

Cristosal's director, Noah Bullock, said its findings highlighted how human rights violations were a systematic practice rather than an exception under El Salvador's current government.

The Human Rights Group's report was based on interviews with dozens of relatives of the dead and former inmates, as well as official forensic reports and field work.

El Salvador's government has responded to criticism of its anti-gang campaign, which has resulted in more than 67,000 arrests since its beginning in March 2022. It dismisses critical NGOs and media organizations as defenders of gangs and terrorists North American crypto enthusiasts have championed El Salvador's Bitcoin-loving authoritarian leader and his gang clampdown, as have right-wing populists in other Latin American countries struggling with violent crime.

The removal of gangs has enormous life-changing potential for the nation, the trailblazing news outlet El Faro reported earlier this year after chronicling the group's disappearance in a 5,000-word investigation. They have ruined the gangs as you know them, El Faro said.

However, these advancements have come at a steep price for El Salvador's democracy, human rights, civil liberties and the thousands of broken families whose members have been caught up in the government offensive.

Vilma Manc a said she was forced to raise her six grandchildren after both her two children, aged 22 and 29, were both jailed during the crackdown. Nobody helps me, not even to find food I don t know what to do, said Apopa, a 65-year-old who was recently diagnosed with stomach cancer.

Last year the Guardian documented the case of a young Salvadoran who died in mysterious circumstances shortly after he was arrested in Salcoatit n, a tourist town in El Salvador's coffee-growing heartlands.

Juan Jos Ib ez Garc, a 21-year-old restaurant worker who friends said had no links to crime, died last May, a fortnight after being arrested.

We had so many dreams to be parents, to build a business together, to study together and it s all gone, said Sandra Garc a, his 23-year-old girlfriend who admitted she had helped elected Bukele in 2019.

So many Salvadorans put our trust in Bukele and we were cheated, Garc said.