Inmates in ElSalvador tortured/strangled-hellish conditions in Bukele's prisons (2023)
english.elpais.com69 points by nobody9999 8 hours ago
69 points by nobody9999 8 hours ago
From 2021 to 2024, the homicide rate in El Salvador decreased by 10 times [1]. Sure, torture is terrible in El Salvador's prison, as it is in Guantánamo's "prison", but public safety is the number one priority for any government, without safety any other achievement for a country is impossible.
Why would you trust these statistics?
I am very skeptical. The state said that they have solved the gang problem by putting “gangsters” in prisons like this (frequently, without due process as we have seen).
I think it’s far more likely that the state in El Salvador is structured like a gang, and the level of violence is the same as it ever was.
>Why would you trust these statistics?
Because i would think the Associated press makes a more or less professional job:
https://apnews.com/article/el-salvador-homicides-gangs-bukel...
And the approval rating:
~91%
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1264586/approval-salvado...
But maybe you have better data to counter that?
> Sure, torture is terrible
Yep, a Government should never do what Criminals/Terrorist do, for example the death sentence, let prisoner being raped by others(unofficial-torture), official-torture in Guantanamo or targeted killings, the US that is.
This is lying with data, giving Bukele credit for sociological factors that predate his administration:
Year Rate Total
2015 106.3 6,656
2016 84.1 5,269
2017 83.0 3,962
2018 53.1 3,346
2019 38.0 2,398 [Bukele’s inauguration]
2020 21.2 1,341
2021 18.1 1,147
2022 7.8 495 [start of gang crackdown]
2023 2.4 154
2024 1.9 114
There is a reason he is the most popular politician. He has over a 90% approval rating. People don't care about the violation of rights of gang members when the alternative is having their family murdered and raped.
This is a deeply anti-American, authoritarian sentiment.
"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." ~ Benjamin Franklin
>This is a deeply anti-American, authoritarian sentiment. "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." ~ Benjamin Franklin
Are you talking about Guantanamo or El Salvador? Because in El Salvador civilians had neither Liberty (not wander the street without fear) nor Safety (been shot).
Also i don't know why El Salvador should use the US or Franklin as a template.
However the US still has the Patriot Act, attacked Iraq and gained no Liberty nor Safety out of it.
To quote you
>public safety is the number one priority for any government
You blanket-declared that any/all governments have it as their number one priority, with no nuance I might add.
Additionally, are you somehow completely unaware that the American government is sending people to that country's worst prison, and that the current president has said he wishes to send American citizens there? This is why American values are at all being referenced here.
Nobody thus far in this conversation has been defending gitmo, the patriot act, or the illegal and unjust invasion of Iraq -- and personally I'm against all three. Yet you're creating false equivalencies, ascribing strawman views to others, and mostly avoiding any nuance to such matters as if the country's underlying corruption and dysfunction which enabled such lawless conditions is any better (which it might genuinely be, but such points ought be evidenced and argued, not declared).
Instead you've transformed it into something approximating: "now el salvador is safe and everyone is happy, there was no need for liberty or human dignity to be respected then or now."
Therein you make yourself out to argue in poor faith.
Can you explain this quote, because it feels to me like it’s the exact opposite of what standard government practice would dictate?
Everyone in a country with government gives up part of their natural liberties in order to form said government and create a civilized (safer) society. That’s the philosophy of government.
Perhaps there is something to be argued here about “essential” liberty, or “little temporary” safety, but the core idea seems nonsensical, especially in the context of a person not deserving essential properties of life because of a bad choice.
Pre-Bukele, El Salvador had a breakdown in civil society. Focusing just on homicide, it peaked at 106.3 homicides per 100k in 2015. For context, the "crime wave" America experienced in the 90s peaked at 9.82.
The April 24-27 2020 murder spree by gangs killed 77 people in a country of 6.3 million. Again, scaled to America's population, that's killing 4.1k people.
How would you compare torture to civil war AKA mass murder?
I would reject the comparison as a false dichotomy. The world's political systems can't just be bimodal distribution of ineffectual neolibs and self-styled 'strong man' autocracts.
I didn't ask to choose one or the other, therefore there's no dichotomy, therefore there's no false dichotomy.
I don't understand the question either. "Compare" in what way? Both torture and civil war are bad, but they're not similar or analogous.
How would you compare child abuse to famine?
You know that Trump administration is paying millions of dollars to imprison some hundred persons there without due process, right? And is looking into expanding this right now:
https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/trump-wants-deport-so...
Arresting every man in the country would plummet public safety issues in the US.
I propose we do this.
Handy that's outside US and not their responsibility. Remember that Auschwitz was also outside Germany.
A certain somebody also loved their tariffs.
He also loved dogs and was a vegan, but it is completely off topic.
Dogs and dietary habits are not on the roadmap to complete dictatorship so they’re irrelevant.
Completely destroying the local economy, severing ties with other countries, and irrational isolationism are, in fact, on the roadmap to complete dictatorship.
It is a concentration camp, not a prison.
N.B: From 2023. Title was already too long to add the date.
Original title:
Inmates in El Salvador tortured and strangled: A report denounces hellish conditions in Bukele’s prisons
It's difficult to feel any compassion for offenders associated with gangs and violence.
Without fair trial there is no proof they are associated with gangs and violence. Thousands of innocents are jailed in there.
https://www.rfi.fr/es/programas/noticias-de-am%C3%A9rica/202...
>no proof they are associated with gangs and violence
Look at the picture in your linked article, who are you trying to confuse?
>Thousands of innocents are jailed in there.
Maybe, maybe not. But definitely better than ~10000 killed in the meantime, the statistics speak for themselves.
I work with plenty of people covered in tattoos that aren't criminals nor gang members. Also most people I would rather the guilty go free than an innocent be punished. Thats why we have a justice system where you are guaranteed legal representation and are innocent untilled proven guilty in a court of law before a jury of your peers. As such none of these men are guilty and we have violated their rights sending them there. If you skip the trial you have just allowed whoever is in power to imprison anyone they want without cause on their accusations only.
>I work with plenty of people covered in tattoos that aren't criminals nor gang members.
And when they have MS13 tattoos like exactly in that picture? Still no connection to a Gang?
And yes i know Popeye was NOT a Criminal.
> And when they have MS13 tattoos like exactly in that picture? Still no connection to a Gang?
"Pledge your allegiance to our gang and get a tattoo or we'll murder your family."
Is that the connection you're looking for?
>>"Pledge your allegiance to our gang and get a tattoo or we'll murder your family."
>Is that the connection you're looking for?
That's what Hitler, Mao and Stalin said, and now you have three choices....
You mean just like the criminals didn't feel compassion for their victims? Oh, but these guys are guilty those victims of criminals were innocent i hear u say.
Not everyone in those prisons are guilty. Collateral damage i hear u say. The price of safety?
"The iron hand crush'd the Tyrant's head And became a Tyrant in his stead." -Willian Blake
Apparently, Blackstone's Formulation[0] doesn't resonate with some folks.
Nor does Niemoller's plaintive cry[1]. It kind of makes you wonder what sort of world those folks want to live in since they don't seem to be living in the real world.
And if the consequences for everyone weren't so dire, it might be instructive for those folks to end up with the pointy end of the stick for which they're advocating.
And more's the pity.
> Apparently, Blackstone's Formulation[0] doesn't resonate with some folks.
We have some truly Authoritarian, anti-American forces in American politics today. The "tough on crime" crowd doesn't agree with that formulation, especially if the right people suffer.