El Salvador’s vice president admits mistakes in war on gangs but denies country is ‘police state’
SAN SALVADOR — El Salvador’s government has “made mistakes†in its war against the country’s gangs but has never undermined the country’s democracy in a bid to consolidate power, according to the man likely to be reelected vice president.
Félix Ulloa, temporarily on leave as El Salvador’s vice president while he runs for reelection alongside Nayib Bukele, defended his government’s controversial crackdown in an interview with the Associated Press on Tuesday, days before a presidential election the two men are expected to win easily. Such policies, he said, will continue until El Salvador’s gangs are defeated.
Ulloa acknowledged that, in the administration’s mass detention of citizens, the government had imprisoned thousands of people who had not committed any crime, something he said it was rectifying, but he justified the harsh actions as being widely popular and completely legal.
Since declaring a state of emergency in March 2022 following a surge in gang violence, the government has detained 76,000 people — more than 1% of the population in the small Central American nation. The declaration, which suspended some fundamental rights such as access to a lawyer and being told why you’re being arrested, has been renewed by the congress every month since.
“There is no perfect work by humans. ... Look at the big picture,†Ulloa said. “Understand what this country is doing when we have defended people and the human rights of millions of Salvadorans whose rights were being violated by criminal structures.â€
Around 7,000 people arrested under the state of emergency have since been released from prisons where authorities have been accused of torture, as well committing systematic and mass human rights abuses.
A judge sentenced former El Salvador President Mauricio Funes to 14 years in prison for negotiating a truce with gangs during his administration.
Ulloa said that in some cases officials might have asked security forces to meet detention quotas but that it was “not an order from executives, nor a government policy.â€
Human rights groups say more than 150 people have died in custody since the beginning of the crackdown.
Reporting by the Associated Press has documented that detainees pass through mass hearings of as many as 300 defendants at a time. They rarely have access to lawyers. The vast majority of those arrested under the emergency declaration remain in prison without having been tried.
“There is no police state,†Ulloa said. “Not a single right has been suspended in El Salvador. No public liberty has ever been suspended because of the state of emergency,†he said, before adding that a couple rights had actually been suspended but that it didn’t affect “honorable†Salvadorans.
Journalists in El Salvador who write about gangs can now be sent to prison. Two brothers defy the law with a story tying President Nayib Bukele to violent street gangs.
Ulloa said the state of emergency would continue to be extended until the government decides it is no longer needed.
“When we declare the country free of gangs, of criminals, of criminal structures, there will be no reason to have a state of emergency,†he said.
Following the crackdown, rates of violence have fallen sharply, with homicide rates dipping to some of the lowest in the Americas, and the government continues to enjoy sky-high rates of approval.
Ulloa firmly denied accusations by the U.S. that Bukele’s administration had negotiated with gangs before the surge in violence and the state of emergency that followed.
The U.S. Treasury says the government of El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele secretly negotiated a truce with leaders of the country’s powerful gangs.
He also denied that the administration had carried out any attacks on the press, despite journalists, activists, union leaders and opposition politicians saying they were routinely harassed, spied on and even detained by the government. He accused critics of the administration of working with the country’s opposition parties, and people claiming their rights had been violated of being “connected with the gangs.â€
Ulloa rejected accusations by constitutional scholars, experts and the political opposition that the government had undermined the country’s democracy by concentrating power in the executive branch.
One such move took place in 2021 when the newly elected congress — where Bukele’s allies have a majority — replaced the justices of the Supreme Court’s constitutional chamber with sympathetic judges. The government also pushed through electoral reforms that watchdogs say favored his own party, particularly in congressional and local elections.
Ulloa has maintained that seeking reelection is completely legal, adding that he and Bukele have taken leave before seeking a second term.
El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele has registered to run for reelection, which is prohibited by the constitution -- though the Supreme Court says a provision allows it.
“There is nothing that we have done that does not have a legal foundation,†Ulloa said.
Lawyers and analysts argue that at least six articles of the constitution prohibit presidential reelection in El Salvador. But a 2021 resolution by the same court that was purged by Bukele’s allies enabled him to run, and ordered the electoral authorities to comply with the resolution.
Ulloa would not directly answer a question as to whether he and Bukele would seek a third term. He echoed Bukele in saying that the current constitution prohibits it, but left open the possibility of seeking another term if the country’s constitution changes. Ulloa proposed more than 200 changes to the constitution in 2021.
“If the constitution is changed, [Bukele] wants to do it and the constitution enables that, I suppose he would be able to do so,†Ulloa said, adding that the current constitution allows for two terms. “A third is not allowed under the current constitution. I’m not saying it is not possible if it changes.â€
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