3,319 Children And Teenagers Arrested Since El Salvador Government Announces Emergency Cases Fighting Gangs

JAKARTA - The Human Rights Watch group in Tuesday's report said more than 60 children in El Salvador had been detained, tortured, and beaten arbitrarily since the government declared a state of emergency more than two years ago to fight gangs.

The New York-based human rights group, United States, revealed that the police and the troops of El Salvador have arrested 3,319 children and adolescents from March 2022 to April this year, since a state of emergency was imposed and certain civil rights suspended until the start of mass courts.

"Many children have been arrested and detained have no clear relationship with gang violence activities," the report said.

"In detention, authorities treated children very badly which in some cases constituted torture," the report continued.

The government of El Salvador did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment, but previously said torture did not occur in its prisons.

The report, compiled from more than 90 interviews, said jailed children were not provided with adequate food, health services, and contact with their families, and "in many cases" were forced to make false confessions.

"The authorities only take a little, if any, steps to protect children from violence by other prisoners, including beatings and sexual violence," HRW said.

The group documented 66 cases of minors who were subjected to arbitrary detention, torture and harassment by police, with warnings, arrests based on physical appearance and socio-economic conditions, not credible evidence.

The report also found that more than 1,000 minors had been sentenced to up to 12 years in prison for crimes widely defined in trials with doubtful evidence and lack of legal proceedings.

It is known that more than 80,500 people have been arrested under a state of emergency, which has succeeded drastically in reducing the number of killings, making this small country in Central America one of the safest in America, making President Nayib Bukele gain strong popular support.

Last week, local rights group Cristosal said at least 265 people had died in state custody, including four babies.