El Salvador Perspectives

El Salvador's police and security forces were burying eight of their own this week. The director of the National Civilian Police, Mauricio Arriaza Chicas, and seven other members of the police and armed forces were killed last Sunday night when the helicopter they were flying in crashed in eastern El Salvador. They died along with a fugitive banker wanted in a corruption case who was being returned to face justice in El Salvador. From the Associated Press report  of the event: El Salvador’s military says the national police director, other high-ranking police officials and a fugitive banker were among nine people killed in a military helicopter crash in a rural part of the country. The cause of the crash on Sunday night is under investigation. It occurred after the banker, Manuel Coto, was captured in Honduras over the weekend and handed over to Salvadoran authorities at the border. Coto, the former manager of the COSAVI savings and loan cooperative, had been the subject of an Int...

Let me start this post by saying that gangs have been a terrible scourge in El Salvador.  I have known too many men and boys gunned down by their obscene violence over the past two decades.  I have heard the stories of too many individuals and families who have fled their homes for fear of being the next victim.   They don't always succeed.  El Salvador will never have peace until the root causes of gang violence are addressed.   At the same time, I also know the stories of police abuses of people living in the marginalized communities throughout El Salvador, including those who spent days. months or years in prison before charges were found to be unsubstantiated.  We have seen  cases of the army disappearing youth from marginalized communities.  Nayib Bukele has tweeted orders to send suspects to solitary confinement in maximum security prisons, only to have them exonerated.       So confronting gang violence in El...

There is a wealth of coverage of El Salvador available in English this week on a potpourri of topics: Why is this Chicago cop training police in El Salvador? (Chicago Reader) --  "ITTA is a small police training company founded in Chicago that has trained more than 600 officers in El Salvador. That's problematic given the behavior of some of the U.S. officers running the program." El Salvador president gains most from prosecution of rivals  (InsightCrime) -- "The evidence used to indict several high-ranking politicians in El Salvador for negotiating with gangs has been around for years, raising questions about why prosecutors are bringing the cases now, and what President Nayib Bukele stands to gain." Challenges after an Attempted Self-coup in El Salvador  (El Faro English) -- "Bukele sees himself above the norms of his job, as well as free of legal formalities. He was set on demonstrating that his political experiment isn’t tied down to any rules. H...

This post was originally published on the website of InsightCrime with the title El Salvador to Omit Key Data From Official Homicide Tally By Parker Asmann The government of El Salvador says that homicide data will only include “social violence” and not instances involving confrontations with security forces, a move that makes it difficult to accurately analyze the country’s precarious security situation. El Salvador’s national police explained to President Nayib Bukele that the homicides registered in the country will no longer include victims of alleged confrontations between security forces and suspected gang members, nor those found dead and buried in graves, El Mundo reported . In the first 45 days of the Bukele administration, 35 suspected gang members have been killed in alleged confrontations with security forces — 22 in June and 13 in the first 15 days of July. Such incidents will no longer be included in the daily tally of violent deaths, according to El Diario de Hoy...

This article originally appeared on the website of InsightCrime with the title El Salvador Flirts with ‘Mano Dura’ Security Policies Again By Héctor Silva Ávalos The new administration of El Salvador President Nayib Bukele has already shown that it will adopt hardline measures to combat the MS13 and Barrio 18 street gangs — measures that have largely failed past governments. In April, then president-elect Bukele promised that on his first day in office his government would present an integrated plan to combat delinquency. Bukele, however, ultimately outlined a series of broad security policies during a short press conference on June 18. One priority was to send police and army into the streets to regain control of territories dominated by the MS13 and Barrio 18. Three days later, Bukele did exactly that, deploying 2,500 officers and 3,000 soldiers to the capital San Salvador and other city centers, as part of an effort to recover territory in the 12 municipalities most affect...

The cycle of violence in which El Salvador is trapped has not stopped.   This past weekend is just one of countless examples.  On Saturday, a police officer was killed in Santiago Nonualco, La Paz department.  Police said that gang members were behind the murder. Eleven miles away the next day La Prensa Grafica reports : Men in camouflage kill three alleged gang members in La Paz    The triple murder was committed on Sunday night in the municipality of San Pedro Masahuat.   June 10, 2019 Three men were killed on Sunday night in a house in the canton of Las Isletas in the municipality of San Pedro Masahuat, in the department of La Paz. The National Civil Police (PNC) asserted that the victims belonged to a gang. They were identified as Carlos Javier Renderos Góchez, Elmer Jovel Urbina and Walter Ulises Renderos Góchez; the last two are 22 years old. The attack occurred at approximately 10:00 at night and was committed by five men who...

In recent days. police and soldiers have been murdered in El Salvador at an alarming rate. Most recently we saw this yesterday, Sunday, April 28, when two police officers and three soldiers were killed in separate incidents.  The assassins all attacked off duty security forces as three of the five victims were killed at separate soccer fields as they played on their day off and the two others were also with family or friends. The murders bring the total of security forces killed in 2019 to 25, with 17 police and 8 soldiers killed.  Director of the National Civilian Police, Howard Cotto, asserted that the murders were ordered by leaders of MS-13. After the first murder surfaced yesterday, El Salvador's incoming president, Nayib Bukele, tweeted : ¡Otro policía asesinado hoy! Días de hasta 25 muertos. Con la crisis de medicamentos, agua, luz, FODES, sindicatos express, nuevas contrataciones, dejar vacías las arcas públicas, etc. No quisiera pensar que esta sea otra “...

It would be wrong to call almost 500 murders in 60 days good news, but for El Salvador, it is better news than the country has had in a long time. According to statistics from the country's National Civilian Police (PNC) reported in  El Faro , the homicide rate in the country has fallen steadily in the past three years to a much improved, but still bloody, level. In January and February there were 491 homicides in El Salvador.   Compare that to January and February of 2016, when there were 1404.  This was the lowest total for the first two months of a year since 2004, except for the years 2013 and 2014 during the so-called tregua , or gang truce. El Salvador has averaged about 8 homicides a day this year compared to an average of 18 daily during the bloodiest year, 2015.  These improved numbers continue a downward trend which started in 2017 and has continued. The government takes credit with the policies put in place by its security ministries. The im...

This article was originally published on the website of InsightCrime with the title  The Top Three Security Challenges Facing El Salvador’s President-Elect Nayib Bukele . Written by Héctor Silva Ávalos It is straight to business for El Salvador’s newly sworn-in President Nayib Bukele as he faces unparalleled expectations when it comes to tackling the country’s security policy. Some sources close to the president are giving the impression that Salvadorans will see daring, new proposals, but others fear Bukele will fall back on tried and not so true policies that have promised much but delivered little. InSight Crime delves into three of the major issues affecting El Salvador’s public security and anti-crime efforts , which the new president will have to deal with upon taking a seat in his office at the presidential palace. 1. Gang Activity Within the plan presented during his campaign, Bukele published a National Civil Police (Policía Nacional Civil – PNC) document tha...

This article originally appeared with the title  Homicides Down, Disappearances Up: El Salvador’s Conflicting Numbers on the website of Insight Crime. Written by Anna Grace - DECEMBER 13, 2018 Homicide rates in El Salvador are set to be at their lowest in years, yet the number of disappearances has increased dramatically in the same time, suggesting that the Salvadoran government does not have as a tight grasp on security issues as initial figures may imply. As 2018 draws to a close, the latest figures from the National Civil Police of El Salvador (Policía Nacional Civil – PNC) tell a tale of two countries. Murder rates in 2018 have dropped to their lowest levels since the 2012 gang truce , with 3,151 homicides registered as of December 7. However, 3,382 people have been reported missing, almost 200 more than the year before. This year, seven to 10 Salvadorans disappeared on average each day, El Diario reported . The number of those going missing has increased stea...

Since March 2016, El Salvador has had in place a series of "exceptional measures" to combat gang violence in the country.   These steps include measures in the prisons such as harsh solitary confinement for gang chiefs, elimination of visits to inmates, blocking of cell phone signals around prisons, as well as longer pretrial detention, more use of the military, and greater freedom of security forces to use deadly force in pursuit of suspected gang members.   Some of these measures are authorized explicitly by the exceptional measures decree, and others are simply an ever harsher approach to crime fighting. This week the director of the National Civilian Police, Howard Cotto, indicated that he thought the measures should be made permanent because they were "showing results."   Primarily Cotto is pointing to a reduction in the level of homicides from 2016 to 2017 of more than 25%.   Yet at the same time, there has been a dramatic increase in t...

There has been a dramatic surge in homicides in El Salvador in the past two weeks.  Source -- tweeted statistics from National Civilian Police (@PNC_SV) Until September 20, homicide rates were running below 10 homicides a day in September, with some days tallying as few as 3 or 4 homicides.    Yet something appeared to change on September 21.   The number of daily murders across El Salvador jumped above 20, including a high of 40 on September 23.    The average in the 12 days since September 21 has been 26 daily murders.   (Note -- the daily totals for September 17 and 30 were not available in what Salvadoran police have published). Authorities in El Salvador have advanced various explanations for this lethal increase.    One theory, advanced by Howard Cotto, director of the PNC, was that the rise in homicides was due to an internal struggle between factions of MS-13 in the country.    That theory, however,...

During 2017, El Salvador has seen a dramatic increase in the killing of members of the police and armed forces.   Through September 23, there have been 29 police agents killed, 13 members of the armed forces, and 2 prison guards, according to statistics from Justice and Security Minister, Mauricio Ramírez Landaverde.   This is a dramatic 600% increase from 2016 , when only 4 police and three soldiers had been killed through the end of August.  The numbers do not include family members of police and soldiers who have also been targeted.   The surge in killings of security force members comes at a time when the overall homicide rate has been cut almost in half. These killings have lead to calls from the PDDH and others for greater protection for elements of the police and armed forces.   The murders are almost certainly committed primarily by gangs in the country and could represent reprisals in response to the harsh tactics implemented by the government as ...

At the same time that journalists and human rights groups are denouncing the problem of extra-judicial killings by security forces in El Salvador, the government is increasing even more its iron fist approach to law enforcement. The government has announced that it is deploying more military and police at bus stops, markets and plazas and other places where people congregate in San Salvador.   In the two days since the announcement, I saw heavily armed soldiers and military equipment at such places at Plaza Salvador del Mundo and the Arbol de Paz traffic circle. In addition, the security forces were enacting random checkpoints on the streets in the capital city, adding to the vehicular chaos of San Salvador.   Passengers at bus terminals were being checked for identification to determine if they were on wanted lists. Police were also  shown checking finger prints of youth who were not carrying identification with them. The government announced that it had stag...

At the end of August, investigative journalists at Revista Factum published a detailed account of the operations of an organized group within El Salvador's security forces which had carried out multiple extra-judicial killings of alleged gang members, as well as sexual assaults and extortion.   The squad within El Salvador's elite anti-gang forces would execute young men and then arrange the scene to look as if there had been an armed confrontation between gang members and the police. The very detailed reporting created an initial stir in El Salvador, yet it appears that little change should be expected from the police or armed forces. Particularly concerning are the threats and intimidation directed at the journalists of Revista Factum and El Faro who have been exposing these cases.   The Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas described the situation : However, Factum reported that the specialized unit of the Prosecutor’s Office against organized crime had not adva...

On October 13, 2016, USAID in El Salvador tweeted: . @USAID -supported Use of Force manual will guide #ElSalvador police to ensure respect for #humanrights & their own integrity in daily job pic.twitter.com/GTn7LGGvsZ — USAID/El Salvador (@USAIDES) October 13, 2016 There was a formal presentation event that day, covered by all the press , with speeches from Larry Sacks, director of the USAID in El Salvador, and Howard Cotto, director of the PNC. So I was curious, with all the concern over fatal confrontations between the gangs and El Salvador's security forces, what this Use of Force manual might contain. It took me a Freedom of Information Act request to get a copy from USAID, but it finally arrived today.  The document is titled "A Conceptual Framework for the Use of Force and the Employment of Lethal Arms by the National Civilian Police of El Salvador" and consists of a scant 13 pages.  You can download it here . The manual is summarized by this pyrami...

Reporters at RevistaFactum have published detailed descriptions of three extra-judicial killings by members of an elite anti-gang unit of El Salvador's police force.  Their work is republished in English at InsightCrime .    The reporting details the tactics the unit used to execute gang members in the central part of the country. The existence of extra-judicial killings is not news in El Salvador.   But the specifics of the reporting, which forces authorities to open an investigation, is uncommon and important. The reporters also detail how elements of the unit used social media to collaborate and select targets: The Facebook page was but one way the police participating in these allegedly extrajudicial executions and other crimes communicated. With Rastreador's assistance, Factum followed a WhatsApp channel in which at least 50 police shared photos of dead boys and men, all alleged gang members, as well as tips on how to avoid judicial scrutiny, notices abou...

Last week researchers from the Public Opinion Institute at the University of Central America (IUDOP) and Florida International University released the results of polling concerning the perceptions of the Salvadoran public concerning the police.  The report is titled Legitimacy and Public Confidence in the Police in El Salvador . The report surveyed persons throughout El Salvador about their interactions with police and their views of police practices.  Although many persons, especially the youth, have been subjected to abuse by police, there is still significant tolerance for such practices.  While 60% of Salvadoran believe that the police should follow the law in combating crime, 40.1% would approve the use of torture in dealing with gang leaders, 34.6% would approve extrajudicial executions and 17.2% are okay with practices of "social cleansing." These relatively high levels of acceptance for abuses directed at gang members, no doubt lead to respondents reporting...

The mother spoke in a quiet voice in the small office of the human rights lawyer.  She told the story of her daughter's disappearance.  Her daughter had gotten in a pick-up for the ride to the highway and the bus which would take her home.   Three hours later, the girl had not arrived.   Calls to her cell phone went unanswered.   The mother was told that the pick-up had been stopped and her daughter removed.    That was all she knew. Relatives had advised the mother not to report the event to the police.   There was probably gang involvement and getting the police involved would endanger the rest of the family.   The mother did not go to the police.   This visit to the human rights lawyers was the first time she had told the story to anyone outside of the family.   When eventually she went to the police accompanied by the lawyers, the police indicated it was unlikely there was much they could do.    Disappeared, presumed...