Nayib Bukele imposes a new siege on the gangs by mobilizing 7,000 soldiers in El Salvador

The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, has warned this Tuesday that he will not give up in his efforts to defeat the gangs that sow terror in the Central American country. The controversial president has announced a new operation in his war against so-called gangs, which includes a military fence in an area in the center of the country to prevent gang members from moving freely and to break their supply chains. The new offensive includes the mobilization starting this morning of 7,000 soldiers and 1,000 heavily armed police officers. Bukele has said that the siege “will be maintained as long as the operatives can extract all the gang members.”

The militarized zone includes the central province of Cabañas, an agricultural and livestock region where, according to the government, the gangs maintain extensive control, extort money from the inhabitants and sow violence. Combating this violence is the justification that Bukele has used since March 2022 to launch his disputed war against the gangs, which has included the imposition of an emergency regime that gives the Executive a free hand to act against criminal groups. The state of exception suspends the constitutional guarantees of citizens and has allowed the authorities to capture more than 70,000 people arbitrarily, without evidence to show that they have been part of criminal groups. This security strategy has been widely criticized by human rights organizations, which have denounced the disproportionate use of force against civilians, torture and disappearances, the death of prisoners in custody, and the censorship and persecution of critical voices.

“Since this morning, 7,000 soldiers and 1,000 police officers have established a security fence around the entire department of Cabañas. Their job will be to prevent gang members from leaving the department and cut off all the supply lines of the terrorist groups,” Bukele announced on Tuesday in a message posted on the X social network, formerly Twitter. This is his favorite tool to publicize his decisions, since there he has tens of thousands of followers who applaud his announcements.

From that network, he also responds to criticism against his military offensive. The most recent response was given by the president of Chile, Gabriel Boric, who said that “I believe that if in order to achieve a laudable objective, which is the desire for security that the vast majority of the population have in any country in the world, shortcuts are taken in terms of democratic convictions and respect for human rights, eventually that sooner or later ends up paying the bill”. According to Boric, “when you only focus from the wedge of who is the toughest or most categorical, or the most extreme measures to combat crime, in the end we are not solving the underlying issue and it is bread for today and hunger for tomorrow.” Bukele reacted furiously and said that “well, this government can do two things at the same time. A good security strategy includes the prevention and direct suppression of crime”. And he added: “how difficult it must be to lead a country, having so little common sense. Thank God Chileans are more than their president.” The Salvadoran president also faces the media that criticizes his measures. Bukele criticized a report published over the weekend by this newspaper: “This is not journalism, it is simple desperate activism, ordered by those who fear the power of example,” he said.

Bukele’s war against the gangs has sparked criticism from sectors that generally do not maintain a frontal position against the Executive, such as the Catholic Church. The Archbishop of San Salvador, José Luis Escobar, asked that, after the Government announced mass trials to prosecute the thousands of detainees during the state of emergency, the presumption of innocence be taken into account. “What we will always ask for is that, whether the trial is in a group or individually, innocence is favored. We fight as much as possible so that the innocent get out soon,” Escobar said.

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