Does the Denial of Pillows and Meat Really Make El Salvador Safer?

How the El Salvadorian prison model, while brutally effective at reducing gang violence, has obliterated any semblance of human rights from their prisoners

On January 5, 2023, a security report from the Bukele regime in El Salvador reported a homicide rate of 7.8 per 100,000 people, compared to 106.3 per 100,000 in 2015 and 84.6 in 2017 (Gobierno de El Salvador, n.d.). At that time, it was the lowest homicide rate in Central America; their homicide rate today, at 2.4 per 100,000, is the second lowest in the Western Hemisphere (Macias, 2024). The spectacular swing from having the highest murder rate in the world in 2015 and 2016, to having a lower murder rate than many developed countries came under the leadership of President Nayib Bukele, who has recently anointed himself “philosopher king” of El Salvador, after being “elected” to a second term as president, bypassing a single term limit (Feirestein et al. 2024). Bukele, who took office in 2019, declared a state of emergency over El Salvador’s gang crisis on March 27, 2022 after a spat of 62 murders in 24 hours–the most violent day in the country since their civil war (BBC, 2022). Bukele’s government policies have emphasized combating government corruption and fighting against gangs such as MS-13 and Barrio 18, which widely ruled El Salvador and led to mass violence, extortion, and created hundreds of thousands of refugees (Batalova, 2023). As the Associated Press reports, Bukele’s widely popular and controversial state of emergency, now extended for the 24th time, has been in effect for over two years. In what he described as a war against the gangs, he has deployed the military and police across the country, conducting sweeps that rounded up gang members, suspected gang members, boys, and others, particularly those with tattoos. Human Rights Watch reports (2022; 2024) document the extent in which the regime’s security forces have indiscriminately arrested thousands of people on trumped-up charges ranging from unlawful association, to arrests where police or judges forced confessions from innocent people; HRW reports also uncovered that many people arrested were held without judicial process, as has become the norm since Bukele suspended constitutional protections following his state of emergency. The eventual place these convicted or suspected gang members end up is in detention facilities that are frequently described as brutally inhumane. One facility, CECOT, has gained international notoriety for its ruthless treatment of prisoners, which has both been praised as justified and also condemned for its human rights violations. Regardless of the cost, El Salvador citizens have felt that, for the first time in their memories, their country is safe. Countless testimonies juxtapose a reality that, despite the costs of Bukele’s crackdown from a human rights perspective, people feel safe to walk the streets of El Salvador, free from the repression of the gang members, many of whom have found themselves warehoused in El Salvador’s new terrorism detention center, CECOT. It is precisely this juxtaposition that this discussion will focus on, particularly the contrasting reality that the El Salvador crackdown has decreased violent crime but has increased human rights violations, particularly as they relate to the inhumane conditions at CECOT, and the treatment of prisoners across the state. 

What is CECOT? 

CECOT is a detention center in El Salvador meant for the country’s gang members, whom the country often refers to as terrorists. While access to the facility is limited for journalists and rights watchdogs, the prison has allowed many YouTube documentarians and a handful of journalists to tour the facility (See Ventas, 2024; Shirley, 2024; and Witness, 2024). Built in 2022, the prison is meant to house roughly 40,000 inmates; the walls are freshly painted white; inmates spend 23 to 23-and-a-half hours per day in cramped cells, with dozens of other cellmates who sleep in steel bunks, stacked, with no mattresses or blankets; white lights blare above the inmates heads all day, with the only darkness coming from the walls of the solitary confinement cells. One toilet awaits every 80 inmates, and a still-water vat is used for bathing, teeth brushing, and rinsing dishes after meals (inmates only eat with their hands, due to the fear of even plastic utensils being used as weapons). The inmates dine twice a day on meals consisting of rice with beans and cream; they eat another meal of rice and pasta, though meat is considered a forbidden food for the condemned inmates of CECOT. Facing the prisoners, guards, hooded and dressed in riot gear stand outside the cells; above the inmates, guards armed with shotguns patrol,  looking down into the cells. From documentary footage, prison employees dressed in scrubs pass out medication to the inmates, which can only be theorized as some form of narcotic to enforce the lifeless idleness demanded of the prisoners day in and day out. It is a cycle of inhumanity that has begun with corruption and gang terrorism but has now entered a new realm of terrorism, this time at the hands of the state. 

Human Rights Violations: Does it Matter?

An NBC News report (2024) highlighted recent concerns coming from human rights organizations, that 261 people, at least, have died while in custody in El Salvador since the beginning of the state of emergency. Analyzing the over 88,000 people swept up in Bukele’s sweeps, the report identified inmate deaths that were caused from torture, malnourishment, and violence. In short, the state of El Salvador is stepping in to fill a void in murders left when they rounded up the country’s gang and suspected gang population. The state of El Salvador’s flagship facility, CECOT, as well as detention centers across the country stand in stark violation of international conventions on human rights, including the Basic Principles for the Treatment of Prisoners, which demands compliance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, access to education, family visits, reintegration strategies, and most importantly, respect for the human dignity afforded to prisoners simply for being human. CECOT, by design, serves a goal of stripping away the humanity of the prisoners inside, which is specifically illustrated in the policies related to the conditions of the food and living conditions. Human Rights Watch (n.d.) notes that other documents including The United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners and the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment also outline guidelines that are shattered by CECOT and other El Salvadorian prison policies. In addition to the actual conditions of the prison, inmates inside are denied visitation, are often detained without any information provided to their families about their whereabouts, with thousands of minors being arbitrarily detained into these facilities, many of whom were forced to confess to crimes they did not commit. Many news organizations and human rights groups have tried to raise the issue to the public, but they have been met with considerable backlash from the public. It is unfathomable to many that the people inside the prisons should have their human rights considered; as the next section will demonstrate, commentators on documentaries feel that the treatment of the prisoners is fair, and the concerns expressed by human rights groups are misplaced. 

“The fact that other countries are worried about the inmates “human rights” is insane to me. These guys weren’t considering human rights when they raped and killed people. They do not deserve anything. They never considered the consequences of their actions because for the longest time they were in charge. Now, the prison shows them what they really are, nothing. They are less than nothing.” -@rachaelrachael4622

As one commenter in a documentary discusses, the idea that the rights of the prisoners of El Salvador matter should be considered is insane. To them, the prison itself is justice, and the torment of the people inside is fair. It is not just about public safety, but also the torment to the body of those who are locked up in the facility. 

“They kind of have the right idea. Spend money on making the prison modern and literally leak proof and not on making the prisoners comfortable.”-@olufagosebambulagose

“funny how English media wants to paint an image yet most people in the comments dont [sic] see anything wrong” -@pedropierre9594

What these next two commenters discuss is the idea that the prison’s priorities, on harsh conditions that focus on security over the comfort of the inmates is the correct policy; the note about “English” media refers to the concern expressed by some of the journalists in the facility that the conditions were inhumane, which this commenter disagrees with. To many, it is bizarre that there could be a concern about human rights, particularly for those accused or convicted of the terrible crimes that the gang members in El Salvador committed. 

Is Meat and a Pillow Too Much to Ask For?

As a report from the LA Times discusses, El Salvador has become a place that is now safe to travel to; people who have felt unsafe to travel the gang-run streets are returning for the first time in decades, but they do so at a heavy cost (Wilkinson, 2024). Where there were gangs, now, troops prowl the streets, looking for anyone they suspect of being in a gang. The continued suspension of constitutional rights mean that gang members and non gang members alike risk being swept up in a legal system largely void of due process. The facility where the condemned are forbidden to eat meat or sleep with a pillow is also the home to those who have spent years awaiting a trial for a crime they have not yet been convicted of. But even for the convicted, the current setup of CECOT, one that is violative of basic human rights principles, one that is intended to warehouse condemned humans in animalistic conditions, is a heavy cost itself. In a country that was for so long plagued by some of the highest rates of corruption and gang violence in the world, it must be considered if the level of human rights abuse and authoritarian policy was a wise counterbalance. Has the need for public safety truly been enhanced by the removal of the right to sleep with a pillow, to live in a cell with 80 other inmates, with bright lights, no privacy, forced medication, torture, premature death, malnourishment, and overall conditions that make solitary confinement appear inviting? The topic of CECOT and its barbarous conditions invokes two fundamental questions: is it truly necessary, in order to promote the respect and fulfillment of the human rights of the people of El Salvadore, to deny the human rights of others? Must the incarceration of convicted gang members come at the expense of their humanity and basic dignity? At one point the current crop of incarcerated gang members were children themselves, born into the systems of violence that predated their own ascent into gangs and violence. Their socialization was likely one that normalized violence and the behaviors which led to the paths they followed. This does not excuse their actions, but perhaps it means that their subsequent treatment can possess some dignity, dignity which if a gang member cannot offer to their victims, maybe a state can.

References

AP News. (2024, March 9). El Salvador extends anti-gang emergency decree for 24th time. it’s now been in effect for two years. AP News. https://apnews.com/article/el-salvador-gang-crackdown-emergency-decree-154d50d40d1f2a46a48b6880624df141

Basic principles for the treatment of prisoners | OHCHR. (n.d.-a). https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/basic-principles-treatment-prisoners

Batalova. (2023, July 17). Central American immigrants in the United States. migrationpolicy.org. https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/central-american-immigrants-united-states-2021

BBC. (2022, March 27). El Salvador: State of emergency after 62 gang killings in a day. BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-60893048

El Salvador registra el promedio de homicidios más bajo de Centroamérica - Presidencia de la República de El Salvador. (n.d.-b). https://www.presidencia.gob.sv/el-salvador-registra-el-promedio-de-homicidios-mas-bajo-de-centroamerica/

Feierstein et al. (2024, March 14). El Salvador’s Bukele: From “world’s coolest dictator” to “philosopher king.” United States Institute of Peace. https://www.usip.org/publications/2024/02/el-salvadors-bukele-worlds-coolest-dictator-philosopher-king

Flores-Macías, G. (2024, August 20). The costs of El Salvador’s crime crackdown. Foreign Affairs. https://www.foreignaffairs.com/central-america/bukele-costs-salvadors-crime-crackdown#:~:text=Despite%20ranking%20among%20the%20most,Western%20Hemisphere%20other%20than%20Canada.

Human Rights Watch. (2024, July 16). “your child does not exist here.” https://www.hrw.org/report/2024/07/16/your-child-does-not-exist-here/human-rights-abuses-against-children-under-el

Human rights watch: International human rights standards protecting prisoners. (n.d.). https://www.hrw.org/legacy/advocacy/prisons/stndrds.htm

NBCUniversal News Group. (2024, July 11). At least 261 people have died in El Salvador’s prisons under anti-gang crackdown, rights group says. NBCNews.com. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/el-salvadors-prisons-deaths-anti-gang-crackdown-rcna161327

Pappier, J. (2023, March 28). “We can arrest anyone we want.” Human Rights Watch. https://www.hrw.org/report/2022/12/07/we-can-arrest-anyone-we-want/widespread-human-rights-violations-under-el

Shirley. (2024). Inside CECOT The Mega Prison Full of Deadly Gangsters | El Salvador. YouTube.

Ventas, L. (2024, February 15). Coming face to face with inmates in El Salvador’s mega-jail. BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-68244963

Wilkinson. (2024, September 24). Bukele claims he cleaned up El Salvador. but at what cost?. Los Angeles Times. https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2024-09-24/el-salvador-bukele

Witness. (2024). The CECOT: Inside the Fortress Holding El Salvador’s Most Violent Gangsters | Witness | Documentary. YouTube.