El Salvador has arrested 3,319 minors and sentenced almost 600 as part of anti-gang crackdown

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — A rights report released Tuesday says the government of El Salvador has arrested 3,319 underage suspects and sentenced 579 to prison terms during the harsh 2 1/2 year-old crackdown on street gangs.

The report by Human Rights Watch says the minors have often been held in “inhumane conditions,” and sometimes in the same facilities with adults. The reports said authorities have done little to ensure food, health care and family contact, or protect them from beatings or sexual assault in prison.

Of the 3,319 detained, a total of 841 minors remained in custody as of January, the report said.

Of the those convicted, the report claims authorities in many cases coerced the minors into “making false confessions to crimes through a combination of abusive plea deals and sometimes mistreatment or torture.”

And the underage suspects have often been convicted of offenses like “unlawful association,” which the report says “have overbroad definitions and harsh maximum sentences ranging from 10 to 20 years,” adding “these convictions were often based on uncorroborated and contradictory statements by police.”

Earlier this month, the human rights organization Cristosal said at least 261 people have died in prisons in El Salvador during the crackdown on street gangs.

Under a state of emergency originally declared in 2022 and still in effect, President Nayib Bukele’s government has rounded up 81,110 suspected gang members in sweeps that rights groups say are often arbitrary, based on a person’s appearance or where they live. The government has had to release about 7,000 people because of a lack of evidence.

The group said in a report that, as of April 15, 88 of the 261 deaths “may have been the result of a criminal act,” though it did not specify what those acts may have been.

Bukele’s administration has made a point of publishing videos of inmates clad only in underwear being frog-marched down stairways by guards.

While the government is accused of committing mass human rights abuses in the crackdown, Bukele remains highly popular in El Salvador because homicide rates sharply dropped following the detentions. The Central American nation went from being one of the most dangerous countries in the world to having the lowest homicide rate in the region.

Bukele rode that popularity into reelection in February, despite the country’s constitution prohibiting second terms for presidents.