Civil society strategies for resistance in El Salvador

Despite several provisions prohibiting immediate re-election, Bukele has managed to get re-elected as president of El Salvador. His hard-line stance against crime, in a society where the population has been victimized by strengthened gangs, created a strong public demand for security. What is the cost of these policies and why do local organizations raise doubts about them?

El Salvador has the highest incarceration rate in the world. The state of exception, which has been in effect since March 2022, has led to more than 70,000 arrests, most of them arbitrary. Human rights organizations estimate that only a third of those incarcerated have ties to gangs and have documented systematic torture inside Salvadoran prisons.

We spoke with activists from three civil society organizations to learn about their strategies of resistance in a context of massive violations of fundamental rights. They are: Victoria Barrientos from DPLF-El Salvador, Gabriela Santos, director of the Human Rights Institute of the UCA, and Verónica Reyna, director of Human Rights at the Passionist Social Service.

Data Documentation and Systematization

“We have strengthened joint work with civil society organizations. Since there is no quality public information or disaggregated data on detained people, we put our systematized data together and share it to see more or less how things are going. The Government does not recognize our data, but it is an important consolidation exercise to characterize the different types of human rights violations.”

Gabriela Santos, Director of the Human Rights Institute of the José Simeón Cañas Central American University-UCA

A Collective Effort

“In El Salvador we are in an authoritarian context and many of the organizations are not able to cover the complete picture, but rather stay in a specific area. It is difficult to move that social muscle as has happened in other countries and we are looking for a way to coordinate the effort, so that a stop can be put and a stronger statement from the international community can be achieved. That is what is being worked on and on the search for allies in other countries and from other organizations.”

Victoria Barrientos of the Due Process of Law Foundation (DPLF)-El Salvador

Exhausting Internal Resources

“Although the outlook is quite adverse, we continue to bet on using the system. This allows, at least, for internal resources to be exhausted in order to access the international route. This is not easy, there is a lot of fear and it is time-consuming, since we do not know how many years it will be before we can see some type of reparation, but it is very important given the absolute closure of spaces.

It is important to keep insisting. There are very brave people who dare to file complaints, also with a view to being able to present them to international bodies.”

Gabriela Santos, Director of the Human Rights Institute of the José Simeón Cañas Central American University-UCA

Turning to the International System

“The general strategy is not only constant denunciation before the Inter-American System, but also identifying opportunities before the Universal System. The region is less frequent with the Universal System. We are betting on advocacy with friendly countries and on learning from the comparative experiences of other countries that have already gone through a similar situation. For example, with colleagues from Brazil to find out what strategy they used with Bolsonaro, but also with Honduras, Nicaragua, Mexico, and Venezuela.”

Victoria Barrientos of the Due Process of Law Foundation (DPLF)-El Salvador

Insisting on Denunciations

“There has been a systematic denunciation. Perhaps the strongest was in February 2020 when Bukele took over the Legislative Assembly and since then that denunciation has not stopped. The organizations have been preventing what is happening and pointing out what the medium and long-term effects and impacts are.”

Verónica Reyna, Human Rights director of the Passionist Social Service (SSPAS)

Accompanying Victims’ Movements

“This allows for reclaiming the struggles of the people who have been affected. It’s different for me to tell you: there are victims of the state of exception than for a parent of a detained child to tell you. That is key because it allows reaching people who are directly living the effects.

It is not the same to say: they are dismantling democracy, and for people not to know what that means, as it is to show how this type of state violence exercise ends up being the concrete life of people.”

Verónica Reyna, Human Rights director of the Passionist Social Service

Have you already listened to the series “Bukele: The Lord of Dreams” by Radio Ambulante? Let’s continue asking ourselves questions about how to resist authoritarianism and protect the future of democracy in our region.