Nayib Bukele’s Mano Dura Policies

Written By: MIMS Cohort 6 student Magaly Velasco-Escobar

Nayib Bukele, president of El Salvador, has implemented a series of Mano Dura Policies to stop violence stemming from the gangs. This crackdown on gangs has reduced the number of confirmed homicides in El Salvador, and crime levels have decreased. Still, as critics say, this is only a temporary solution, and history has shown the long-term effects outweigh the short-term ones.

Eight months into Bukele’s crackdown, an estimated 2% of the adult population (roughly 100,000 people) have been imprisoned, leading to the bloody killing spree by gangs that caused the current state of emergency in El Salvador. The state of emergency allows the government to relax constitutional rights such as due process and freedom of association. Also, loose constitutional protections have allowed security forces to harass locals and engage in human rights violations such as torture in detention and arbitrary arrest as police target low-income neighborhoods. Security forces encircle neighborhoods, conduct house-by-house searches, and mount roadblocks, all to round up gang members. Which, in theory, could be successful, but the arrests produced by these measures are entirely arbitrary and prejudicial. The state of emergency loosened requirements on arrests allowing security forces to make arrests based on questionable evidence, appearance or anonymous tip-offs, or unfounded allegations. Security forces are to crack down on gangs and gang affiliates, but the crackdown has led to the arrest of ordinary citizens; resorts estimate that roughly 1% are falsely arrested. With claims from Bukele the government arrested 10,000 gang members in 17 days, it is surprising that the number of falsely imprisoned people isn’t higher.

Additionally, amended laws for jail sentences came as part of loosened arrested requirements. The new laws increase jail sentences to 45 years and lower the age of arrest to 12 years old. A 12-year-old can be arrested, imprisoned, and placed in jail with hardcore gang members based on “suspicion” of gang affiliation. Under this new law, journalists can be sentenced to up to 15 years for disseminating gang-related messages or reporting on gangs’ territorial control; this outlaws reporting such as the one which exposed Bukele’s deal with the local gangs. In other words, journalists reporting gang-related stories risk imprisonment for up to 15 years if convicted of breaking this law. Bukele has authoritarian tendencies and has already packed the courts and judicial system with those loyal to him. Reports have already shown how journalists who have opposed or been critical of his government are among the arrested, which means that journalists who critique/ report the outcomes of his mano dura policies are risking their freedom by doing so.

Mano dura policies have historically been known to fail, cause even more damage than before, and have consistently failed to produce long-term changes. Francisco Guillermo Flores Perez, Salvadoran president from June 1999 - June 2004, enacted his policies to crack down on gang violence resulting only in increased extortion schemes and gang violence. Antonio Saca, Salvadoran president from June 2004 - June 2009, engaged in mass imprisonment of gangs, having the unintended consequence of the gangs consolidating power behind bars. Under his term, he deployed military and police to conduct crackdowns in gang-affiliated territories, which ended with clashes between gangs and law enforcement. Carlos Mauricio Funes Cartagena, Salvadoran president from 2009 - 2014, enacted a zero-tolerance approach, which resulted in homicide rates ballooning, forcing the minister of defense, David Victoriano Manguia Payes, to initiate a truce with the gangs for a reduction in homicide rates. Despite history showing that zero-tolerance policies and gang crackdowns consistently fail, Buckle has proceeded to enact his series of them. In his crackdown, 58,000 suspected gang-affiliated people have been placed behind bars between March and November 2022, overstuffing jails and creating a militarized society.

Not only that but research shows that jails are the perfect grounds for gang recruitment. Take, for example, a young man who was falsely detained and placed in a jail run by MS-13. The child may have entered without any gang affiliations but, due to survival or desperation, joins the gang while imprisoned, increasing recruitment numbers, the complete opposite of the intended result of the crackdowns and mass detainment. Gangs use prisons as centers for recruitment and as headquarters for extortion; therefore, the more inmates a prison has, the more likely members the gang will recruit. It should be noted that often many join gangs purely out of survival while inside, but once they are in the gang, they cannot leave. Bukele’s crackdown has reduced the number of confirmed homicides, extortion, and widespread violence in El Salvador, leading other Latin American Countries to enact similar policies. For example, Xiomara Castro, president of Honduras, issued a month-long state of emergency amid a rise in extortion schemes. This state of emergency suspended constitutional rights as she cracked down on criminal actors, again giving off the perception of a crime reduction. Extortion has been reduced dramatically, improving the perception of safety in the country, and communities have begun to recover public spaces, but this should be taken purely at face value. As already discussed, these policies do not last, and the gangs come back even more powerful, causing even more violence in their respective countries. Take, for example, March 2022, when a truce between the government and gangs fell apart. As a “negotiating tactic” MS- 16 went on a bloody killing spree to force the government to concede to their demands. History has shown that repressive security measures will do nothing to address the root causes of gang violence. Mass imprisonment is a “band-aid”; to the problem and is disproportionality targeting certain groups over others.

Security forces disproportionately target young men from poor neighborhoods, adding another target on their backs. They are targeted by the gangs to join them and by security forces who suspect them of having gang affiliations. Given they are now the targets of both the gangs and the security forces, the number of unaccompanied minors from the Northern Triangle is surpassing 2014 numbers. Additionally, it’s essential to understand that these crackdowns will lead to the gangs relocating to other parts of Central and Latin America, further destabilizing the region, meaning violence will simply migrate throughout the region without real solutions to the actual problem. The real issues are rooted in poverty and social insecurity, so instead of suspending constitutional rights and targeting everyday citizens, the government should be focused on addressing the causes that lead to gang membership.