The State of Exception was launched in March 2022 in response to a surge in gang-related killings that claimed 87 lives within just three days.
Since then, over 81,500 alleged gang members and collaborators have been arrested as part of the security measure, most of whom are in pre-trial detention.
Gustavo Villatoro, the Salvadoran Minister of Justice and Public Security, confirmed in a TV interview on August 26, 2024, that nearly 81,900 people have been arrested under the security measure.
Villatoro also confirmed that El Salvador’s Mega-Prison CECOT, or terrorism confinement center, is currently housing 14,500 inmates.
The Salvadoran State of Exception is an emergency regime that began as a direct response to a spike in homicides that occurred in late March 2022.
Up to this day, the Salvadoran legislature has consecutively approved the extension of the emergency regime 29 times, each for 30 days.
SEE ALSO: El Salvador State of Exception; A Security Measure Implemented to Fight Gangs
Human Rights Violations
Local and national human rights organizations claim that the State of Exception needs to end as it has violated many individuals’ human rights. Cristosal, a local human rights organization, has released reports regarding these abuses.
Amnesty International for the Americas, in its statement for the two years of the State of Exception in El Salvador, assured that it cannot be “a success” to replace gang violence with state violence.
The organization indicated that Nayib Bukele’s government implements the security measure extraordinarily and temporarily without any evaluation or counterweight in the country and with a timid response from the international community.
State of Exception Success
The controversial State of Exception has the approval of most Salvadorans; it is also credited for reducing the country’s homicide rate and achieving many days with zero homicides.
Salvadoran authorities have reported that the country has achieved over 472 days without homicides during the two years the State of Exception has been in place.
While local and international human rights organizations frequently criticize the State of Exception and advocate for its termination, the Bukele administration has reiterated its commitment to sustain it until every gang member is removed from the streets.