The state of exception, whose purpose is to reduce violence generated by gangs, has been used to repress and silence voices critical of the Bukele governments actions, as is the case with the arrest of digital specialist Mario Gomez, who made statements about the use of Bitcoin and possible financial fraud by the Bukele government. Although the crime is not related to gang-generated violence, it was carried out under the rules of the emergency regime which allowed the elimination of some of Rivas constitutional guarantees. In May 2021, his administration donated 34,000 vaccines to cheering crowds in Honduras, where corruption and incompetence had produced a shortage of biologics. what types of deaths are included in the total homicide figures, removing, for example, the deaths of alleged gang members in confrontations with the police. When Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso hinted that Bukele had gone too far with his measures, he sounded like a voice in the desert. This reflects a significant drop in the rates of violence and violent deaths in a country that, just a few months ago, was considered one of the most violent in the world. The procedures for these express purchases have also been extended to the construction of the new megaprojects announced by Bukele: the airport and the Pacific train. 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. Then you can access your favorite statistics via the star in the header. It is not a matter of ignorance; it is a matter of harnessing the power of the Assembly to take full control over the judicial branch and the public ministry. . 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. The outlook, she said, is only getting darker, since the concentration of executive, legislative and judicial power in one person eliminates any protection for those citizens who file complaints or suffer violations of their rights. Punitive populism has been used for clientelistic-electoral purposes, generalizing a discourse that defends the creation of new crimes, the increase of penalties, and the use of prison as the most appropriate measures to address criminal acts. Bourse The Corruption Perceptions Index ranks countries and territories based on how corrupt their public sector is perceived to be. The Sordid Secrets of Cities. Trading Economics members can view, download and compare data from nearly 200 countries, including more than 20 million economic indicators, exchange rates, government bond yields, stock indexes and commodity prices. Continue to make use of the various U.S. targeted sanction regimes for government officials and other actors that compromise human rights, democracy and the rule of law. [Online]. It allows API clients to download millions of rows of historical data, to query our real-time economic calendar, subscribe to updates and receive quotes for currencies, commodities, stocks and bonds. Statista. Neither the press nor civil society has had access to detailed information on security policies and the fight against violence, such as the. The second theme is that many of you reached out after my Brazil column last week to point out the history of similar connections between politicians and violent groups in the United States and other wealthy countries. In addition to the mass arbitrary arrests and excessive force used by security forces both during these arrests and in the prisons themselves, there have also been cases of forced disappearances and human rights abuses committed by judicial authorities. And then there are the prisoners themselves. 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 violence and criminality is a problem of a political nature, of concentration of power. (I followed that up with some of Mike Daviss work, particularly his classics City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles and The Case for Letting Malibu Burn.). from Nevertheless, the arrests have succeeded in bringing down crime. Transparency International places El Salvador on its red list as a country whose perception of corruption is high, with a rating of 34/100 (0 is highly corrupt and 100 very clean) for 2021, a slight drop from the previous year where it scored 36/100, meaning an increase in public perception of corruption. The Bukele administration has been the target of reprimands and sanctions by the United States, and condemnations from human rights organizations. (Keep reading: El Salvador: first 2,000 gang members are transferred to the Bukele mega-prison). Maintaining an indefinite state of emergency and a high incarceration rate wont come cheap, and the countrys economy is not healthy. 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. El Salvador, a small country in the isthmus of Central America, is wracked by an implacable strain of gang warfare. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. This weekend, we learned that the Salvadoran Assembly moved to undermine its nations highest court, she said on May 4 at a Washington DC conference on democracy in the Americas. They wont see any daylight, Mr. President, Luna Meza, whom the U.S. government has placed on a list of officials suspected of corruption in El Salvador, proudly told Bukele. The press and civil society organizations have denounced a possible manipulation of information on violence rates, with clientelistic purposes. In 2020, according to statistics from the Salvadoran National Police, there were 20 homicides per 100,000 people; in 2021, the number dropped to 18 per 100,000. However, since the beginning of his government, Bukele has failed to comply with this law, declaring most public information as reserved, . A serious line of impunity has been drawn that becomes another fraud. 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. At least 60,000 Salvadorans have been imprisoned as a result of the crackdown, including hundreds of minors, often in what a recent joint report by Human Rights Watch and Cristosal calls indiscriminate raids. The report paints a chilling portrait of authorities run amok, arresting Salvadorans with no apparent connections to gangs abusive activity, sometimes acting merely on appearance or social background. As of November, 90 detainees had died in custody, according to the governments own numbers. Browse all of our subscriber-only newsletters here. When Seymour Hersh Strained to Keep Up With CounterPunch, Nichole Stephens, Administrative Assistant. El Salvadors Tough Policing Isnt What It Looks Like In a country with limited resources and great needs, every dollar poorly invested or diverted for personal purposes is a violation of the rights of thousands of citizens who depend on state resources and support. Nearly five months into the emergency regime, six social organizations had received 3,186 complaints of abuse of power, of which the majority were cases of arbitrary detentions. as a country whose perception of corruption is high, with a rating of 34/100 (0 is highly corrupt and 100 very clean) for 2021, a slight drop from the previous year where it scored 36/100, meaning an increase in public perception of corruption. But it has also virtually eliminated the right to a fair trial for those accused of gang membership. March 3, 2023, 12:29 p.m. 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. I very much agree, and hope to write more about that soon. If youre enjoying what youre reading, please consider recommending it to others. What has happened must be understood within a geopolitical analysis wider than the issue of the El Salvador governments relations with the United States and with other governments, Medrano said. El Salvador , 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. El Salvador: Turning a Blind Eye to Police Abuse and - WOLA China raises its military budget by more than 7 percent in 2023, Inherit the spirit of Lei Feng and promote the civilization of the new era_China Economic NetNational Economic Portal. White label accounts can distribute our data. Or when it comes to requesting loans, this government will absolutely face serious questions.. newspaper J. Edgar Hoover, the longtime F.B.I. For Celia Medrano, the Bukele administrations actions since February 2020 are proof that neither the president nor the new legislators have any interest in respecting institutions, laws or the Salvadoran Constitution. Nuevas Ideas [Bukeles party, which controls Congress] passed legislation that allows them to skip basic accountability. For now, the ministry in charge of such projects has sealed any information on the construction of the countrys jails. The Protection Racket, Gangs and Violence Slowly things are improving. , all of them allied with President Bukele. The projects finances have also been kept secret. The essence of this kind of violent politics is that it happens at the local level, so Ive also been reading about specific cities, and how their particular flavors of machine politics have sometimes opened up space for crime and corruption to flourish, encouraged state violence, or both. It combines the chaos that comes with being the headquarters of The dismissed justices were given no hearing, nor were they the subject of any investigation. Integrated volume button and mute button ezone.hk Technology Focus iPhone, [China Forbidden News]The inside story of the CCPs abandonment of the zero-clearing decision was exposed | The CCPs two sessions | US-Taiwan relations | Reuters, A private medical plane from Germany LANDED IN MOSCOW, A lack of childcare leads to higher part-time quotas. Vice-President Kamala Harris, who oversees the working group in migration, which is exploring the causes of Central American migration and the problems of the Northern Triangle (El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala), issued a warning about the Biden administrations reaction to the undermining of democracy and its institutions by Bukele and his deputies. Tackling Corruption in El Salvador In 2018, El Salvador received a Corruption Perception Index score of 35 out of 100, with 100 being no perceived corruption. In, Vanderbilt University. The international community is unlikely to take forceful action. Reuters indicates that " [p]olice corruption is common in Central America" (24 Aug. 2008). If left unchecked, it is hard to imagine that the police and soldiers will continue to patrol the streets for free. Manorama Online Several senators and congressmen who had already sent multiple letters to President Bukele over the allegations of human rights abuses, attacks on the press and journalists, and the danger of concentrating power in the executive branch, are now expressing concern over the rapprochement with the Chinese government, and its probable negative impact on human rights, institutionalism and the rule of law. It is essential that the Biden administration seek ways to make its initiatives such as Voices and the Strategy to Address the Root Causes of Migration in Central America more effective in protecting civil society and the independent press. 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. (Keep reading: The life of Salvadorans since Bukele built the mega-prison). G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century, City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles, Paths out of Dixie: The Democratization of Authoritarian Enclaves in Americas Deep South. (You may be interested in: Nayib Bukele: Is his presidential re-election possible in El Salvador in 2024?). To the messages of concern out of the U.S. were added warnings about the China-El Salvador relationship. 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. 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. While the state of exception has been the tool used by the government to violate fundamental guarantees and freedoms, as has been widely documented, there is another series of key rights, such as the right to public information, whose enjoyment and exercise have also been violated. "Share of respondents who were asked or had to pay a bribe in the last 12 months in El Salvador in 2021." The legal system is based on civil law. On a single day, 62 people were gunned down across the country, a level of violence not seen since the war ended. According to El Salvadors national police, there is now less than one murder a day. sanctions El Salvador officials accused of negotiating with But for now, as I often do, Ive been doing some broader reading to try to get a grounding in some of the relevant history. But within Latin America his fan club is growing (and will not stop), which applauds his repression and strong hand against gangs. The Historic Center - which one police intelligence official described as organized disorder - is the heart of the countrys capital city, San Salvador. Vanderbilt University. Profit from the additional features of your individual account. The law opens a wide path to impunity. 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. Nearly five months into the emergency regime, six social organizations had received, There is extreme overcrowding in the prisons which has led to deplorable conditions. It is also important to note that the Bukele administration has. Refworld (Read more: Clash between Petro and Bukele: this was the harsh exchange of messages). As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. As, point out, this is characteristic of populist leaders and their intentions to search for a direct relationship with the electorate, and a political discourse of friend/enemy. The only images available come from the government itself. Standard users can export data in a easy to use web interface or using an excel add-in. Theres more to Bukeles mass imprisonments, The scale of El Salvadors new prison is difficult to comprehend, Why Jan. 6 and its aftermath look far worse than Brazils failed coup. Machine politics, corruption and violence. To do so, Bukele declared a state of emergency, which has since seemingly become permanent. 33 /100. The removal of the justices and top prosecutor was condemned by Latin American social organizations, by the IACHR, by Ecuadors Constitutional Court and by Likewise, El Salvadors Ministry of Finance allocated $890 million in the general budget for 2022 for security and defense issues and an additional $400, for security issues through a combination of redirected funds and debt.
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