One example of this was the decision to make, President Bukeles declaration of assets confidential, inherited from the war; however, measures such as the emergency regime have weakened democracy by limiting access to information and, under the criterion of protecting national security, a concept that was applied during the war. Enhancing Transparency and Accountability: U.S. programs in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras have trained more than 5,000 national and local government officials to implement internationally recognized transparency and accountability standards designed to combat corruption. According to official statistics, homicides decreased by more than a factor of 10 since 2015. Breaking news This says the United States). There is extreme overcrowding in the prisons which has led to deplorable conditions. If, in terms of security, this is similar to a dictatorship, in terms of public spending, this is already a dictatorship.. Reports from the Latin American health news collective Salud con Lupa found that the company that manufactured the masks purchased by the Health Ministry was owned by Koki Aguilar, who at the time was serving as president of the Environmental Fund of El Salvador (FONAB). The citizens of El Salvador have tacitly accepted Bukeles unprecedented crackdown on crime, and, for the time anyway, are ignoring its broader ramifications. Political news Then you can access your favorite statistics via the star in the header. Business Solutions including all features. El Salvador, a small country in the isthmus of Central America, is wracked by an implacable strain of gang warfare. and where there is no information about its management, particularly with regards to the loans obtained to finance its construction and the costs involved. Neither the press nor civil society has had access to detailed information on security policies and the fight against violence, such as the Territorial Control Plan, which was declared confidential for seven years by the IAIP. With information from the National Civil Police, Bukele has been reporting zero homicides in the country and again, on September 13, 2022, zero homicides were reported. And the social implications of the endeavor are no less striking. According to the news outlet. TV of LGP Data, placing second in the general ranking of La Nacin. Nevertheless, the arrests have succeeded in bringing down crime. Note: Inmate population density is based on reported prison capacity, not actual incarceration rates. Overview and forecasts on trending topics, Industry and market insights and forecasts, Key figures and rankings about companies and products, Consumer and brand insights and preferences in various industries, Detailed information about political and social topics, All key figures about countries and regions, Market forecast and expert KPIs for 600+ segments in 150+ countries, Insights on consumer attitudes and behavior worldwide, Business information on 60m+ public and private companies, Detailed information for 35,000+ online stores and marketplaces. Delgado had served as head of the prosecutors offices Organized Crime Unit in 2013, at which time a former agent of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency accused him of having ties to a drug trafficking organization known as the Texis Cartel. Web2.3.2 El Salvador has a framework of laws to penalise different forms of criminal activity and a functioning criminal justice system composed of the security forces police, military, intelligence services and the judiciary, comprised of the Supreme Court sitting above various subordinate courts. To learn more about J. Edgar Hoover, and particularly his notable lack of interest in prosecuting the mafia and other organized crime syndicates even as their power grew in American cities and they became intertwined with local governments, police, labor unions and other institutions until the Apalachin meeting in the late 1950s forced his hand, Ive picked up G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century, by Beverly Gage. health Europe Most seem to be fine with the trade-off. The President and Deputies Ensure Amnesty for Corruption. Lebanon.. Beyond the legal problems involved in the implementation and indefinite extension of the state of exception in El Salvador, during the five months that its been in effect, it has shown that the current approach to, . They can sign up here. News This does not imply free cooperation, but rather passing the debt to a third party. Call on the government of El Salvador to cease the abuse of public force and human rights violations against the population, and urge the Legislative Assembly not to continue to approve extensions to the state of emergency. Earlier this month, Nayib Bukele, president of El Salvador, unveiled his latest infrastructure project: a massive, first-world jail that could well become the largest penitentiary in the world, with an alleged capacity to hold 40,000 inmates. Another case is the recent arrest of Luis Alexander Rivas, who published a photo on Twitter of two of President Bukeles brothers with a group of bodyguards. World The governments of Guatemala and Honduras face larger and more geographically different territories and more mobilized civil societies, may find it difficult to copy Bukeles more aggressive police methods. Instead, there is individual interpretation by the sector in power that imposes its own understanding on constitutional precepts in order to justify violation of the Constitution itself. Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras and the Ukraine appear as hybrid regimes; while the Philippines, India, Indonesia, the Dominican Republic and Hungary as flawed democracies. The legislators loyal to Bukele claimed that links to both the countrys left and right were the main reason for their removal from the court. I very much agree, and hope to write more about that soon. And further afield, in Chile, which is experiencing a crime wave, pro-Bukele street parades have echoed on social media. According to data handled by the Ministry of Justice and Public Security, since the beginning of the state of exception until September 12, have been detained without arrest warrants or any guarantees such as due process. Crimes are universally understood to be news to the extent that they offer, however erroneously, a story, a lesson, a high concept, she wrote. It is becoming increasingly clear at the international level that we are in an authoritarian regime and that there are no limits for those who govern [and no] respect for internal laws, much less international regulations or even basic forms of understanding. Although it is difficult to corroborate the governments figures and to know with certainty the total number of detainees and how many of these have been arbitrary detentions, there are indications that many of these were carried out in an arbitrary manner. The Bukele administration has been the target of reprimands and sanctions by the United States, and condemnations from human rights organizations. so that, while the emergency regime is in force, the government is not obliged to comply with the legal procedures for state purchases and contracting, such as the publication of contracts for services and public works, as well as the evaluation of companies or persons to whom they are awarded, etc. (Read more: Was there a secret pact between Bukele and the gangs? An independent judiciary is critical to a healthy democracy and a strong economy. That meeting was later made public over official government channels, making it look as though the international community supported the Salvadoran president. Who is to say that these men, who are now being denied their rights and left to rot in questionable conditions, wont eventually become a bigger threat? But it has also virtually eliminated the right to a fair trial for those accused of gang membership. Gangs in El Salvador are using women's bodies for 'revenge and control' Bukele on Wednesday vigorously denied his administration was negotiating with gangs. The creation of a judicial culture of abuse of power and the normalization of the use of force as a method of social order by the National Civil Police, the Armed Forces, and the judiciary is alarming. In her swift retelling of that invention, Los Angeles is little more than a series of sales pitches stacked on top of each other, each one making promises about endless opportunities that eventually crumble on contact with reality, leaving ordinary citizens in economic or mortal peril. classifying information related to government management -which by law should be public- into confidential information, as in the case of the asset declarations of public officials and employees, including that of President Bukele, which was declared confidential in October 2020. Chart. El Salvadors new prison is as large as some of the most notorious prisons in the world, but inmates will be even more packed. According to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the actions of the states must be governed by the principles of publicity and transparency in public administration, which makes it possible for the people under its jurisdiction to exercise democratic control of the states actions, so that they can question, investigate, and consider whether public functions are being properly carried out. However, in many parts of Latin America, the reception to his policies has been more positive and benevolent. Due to the lack of access to information, there is no certainty about the procedure for the acquisition of goods or services in security matters, facilitating acts of corruption such as embezzlement. Castro, who campaigned from the left with an emphasis on curbing abuses by Honduran security forces, has called the Salvadoran president a role model and has placed 16 of the countrys 18 departments under a continued state of emergency, though the mass arrests have not yet arrived. This has led to further closure of civic space that is preventing citizens from accessing any type of information generated by the government and its public administration. The state of exception has favored corruption due to: In the framework of the war against gangs and under the state of exception, Bukele initiated the construction of a new prison that Bukele himself called a confinement center for terrorism and where there is no information about its management, particularly with regards to the loans obtained to finance its construction and the costs involved. Photograph Source: The White House Public Domain. This weekend, he announced the transfer of the first 2,000 prisoners to the new facility. Football Vanderbilt University. In comparison, in 2016, police recorded 5,278 homicidesa rate of approximately 80 per 100,000. Standing out among the irregular purchases mentioned is a corn purchase from the Mexican state of Sinaloa, in which the Agriculture Ministry paid 2.5 million dollars more than what a company in El Salvador would charge. Meanwhile, he cultivated an image of a benefactor abroad, protecting the Executive against criticism. The Infiltrators: Corruption in El Salvador's Police - InSight Crime In December, Guatemala turned over a gang leader with an arrest warrant for a series of slayings to El Salvador authorities, while Honduran President Xiomara Castro sent military police to the border with El Salvador to prevent suspected criminals will cross the border line. USA The prison is no white elephant, however. Arab Book We cannot cover with a cloak of impunity the prosecutors offices open investigation, through the Court of Accounts, of the irregular purchases caried out by the executive during a pandemic.. When Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso hinted that Bukele had gone too far with his measures, he sounded like a voice in the desert. sport SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (CN) Bond hearings were held Thursday for five powerful men accused of arms trafficking in El Salvador, with the court agreeing to release the defendants without conditions before trial. Read past editions of the newsletter here. We are facing a government that is not interested in having a good relationship with its neighbors or with other governments other than one in which its acions are praised and accepted.. The IML confimed that 35 of these were a result of torture or violent deaths, 22 of medical neglect, and the rest of undetermined causes. Id love your feedback on this newsletter. ET. According to El Salvadors national police, there is now less than one murder a day. , the National Civil Police declared under reserve the information on homicides and victims of the crime of disappearance in El Salvador, which demonstrates how data and information are concealed and unverifiable. If you are an admin, please authenticate by logging in again. This has led to many defendants being jailed without any access to legal defense. The press and civil society organizations have denounced a possible manipulation of information on violence rates, with clientelistic purposes. In this way, the democratic system has been delegitimized by excluding citizens in the processes of deliberation, management, and evaluation of public policies, especially those related to citizen security. Expand effective channels of communication with organizations, journalists, and social leaders so that they can express their concerns and present proposals, including ways to transmit information in a confidential and secure manner that could contribute to investigations in the United States for acts of corruption and human rights violations perpetrated by public officials in El Salvador. The CIAs Changing Take on the Climate Emergency, Emancipation, Hollywoods Best Civil War Film Ever. , the actions of the states must be governed by the principles of publicity and transparency in public administration, which makes it possible for the people under its jurisdiction to exercise democratic control of the states actions, so that they can question, investigate, and consider whether public functions are being properly carried out. A riot intervention squad, armed to the teeth, salutes him. MIAMI (AP) Allies of Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, including his Cabinet chief, have been included in a list of senior officials in Central America deemed buy more than $ 1.5 billion of Salvadoran debt. In addition, the emergency regime has exacerbated the de facto annulment -initiated by the Bukele government- of the right to access to public information. The best of the best: the portal for top lists & rankings: Strategy and business building for the data-driven economy: Show sources information 518, Ley On this front, on every front, we must respond. She went on to say, We are focused on attacking the causes and the roots of migration and among the roots we have identified corruption, impunity, the lack of good governance.. In most cases, the families of the victims are not informed or given details surrounding the cause of death, which suggests the possibility of an underreporting of deaths as a result of abuse or neglect. (More: Nayib Bukele attacks his critics: They are against the Salvadorans). No wonder: A recent poll showed that Bukele was twice as popular among Ecuadorians as any of the countrys politicians. The emergency regime has exacerbated the de facto suspension of this right that Bukeles government initiated in the beginning of his mandate, annulling citizens ability to verify the use of public funds by the National Civil Police and the Ministries of Security and Justice, among other institutions. Sources: Government of New York City, Government of New Delhi, news reports. Aguilar, who also gave out face masks for his personal campaign, said the protective masks were produced with recycled material that the Bukele administration bought. director, sits at a table speaking into several microphones in 1953. The international community is unlikely to take forceful action. CICIES was dissolved on 4 June 2021 by the Salvadoran government in protest of the OAS' decision to appoint Muyshondt as an anti-corruption advisor. If left unchecked, it is hard to imagine that the police and soldiers will continue to patrol the streets for free. Another typical situation that is constantly repeated is that of an irreverent actor, andoutsider which breaks into the political scene and captivates the electorate, with radical responses to longstanding structural problems. Tackling Insecurity, Corruption, and Impunity, Protecting Human Rights in Central America, Demilitarizing and Transforming Security Strategies, Fighting Corruption and Exposing Impunity, Enhancing Accountability: Police and Justice Reform, Drug Policy Debate and Reform in the Americas, Women, Drug Policies, and Incarceration in the Americas, Due Process and Access to Justice for Migrants, The WOLA Human Rights Awards & Benefit Gala.