El Salvador children tortured, imprisoned and convicted of crime in gang crackdown: report
- Over 1,000 children have been convicted of crime in El Salvador since March 2022, with some getting jail terms of 2 to 12 years: HRW report
More than 1,000 minors have been convicted of crimes under a state of emergency in force in El Salvador since March 2022, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Tuesday, denouncing indiscriminate arrests and even torture.
Children have received sentences ranging from two to 12 years in prison, “often on such overly broad charges as unlawful association, and frequently on the basis of uncorroborated police testimony,” the NGO said in a report.
“Through mistreatment including torture, some children have been coerced into confessing to being part of a gang or otherwise providing information about supposed gang affiliation,” it added.
HRW said authorities have taken few, if any steps to protect children from violence at the hands of fellow detainees, and dozens have been held without contact with their families for weeks or months, or allowed to see their lawyer for only a few minutes before a hearing.
Gang-busting President Nayib Bukele’s government has rounded up more than 80,000 presumed gangsters under a state of emergency that allows for arrests without a warrant.
