Are gang criminals not human too?

When asked what justice means to people, most of us would imagine a situation involving a judge and a jury trying their best to ‘be fair’ on a certain punishment, but justice means much more than this in a political context. It involves making sure that policies create the least amount of harm possible and help bring utility and pleasure to people’s lives.

But in El Salvador, this definition of justice is being put to the test, due to the dire need to control gang violence. With 2,398 homicides in El Salvador in 2019 (Statista 2023) mostly due to gang violence, this issue needed to be addressed.

In 2022, Nayib Bukele’s administration (Nuevas Ideas, the ruling political party of El Salvador), launched a state of emergency in the country to arrest members of gangs and accomplices associated with gang violence. Whilst this has been extremely effective (In 2023 there were only 154 homicides (Statista 2023), most family related), this state of emergency leaves the people of El Salvador with limited human rights; freedom of movement, expression, association and a right to defence have been suspended. Police also need less information to arrest suspected gang members than ever before with these new policies in place (Amnesty International 2024).

Whilst the streets are much cleaner, and most of the innocent population if El Salvador can now happily walk through the streets at night without being worried for their health and livelihood, the number of arrests has still been staggering. As of May 2023, the arrest toll stood at 66,000 (Grant. W, 2023).

Truthfully, whilst the government of El Salvador insists that innocent people are being set free in their thousands, it is difficult to not believe that at least some of these people, if innocent, are not being treated with true justice.

The harsh prison conditions set in El Salvador since Bukele’s presidency make this injustice difficult to critique. Inside one of El Salvador’s deadliest prisons, named Cecot, the only furniture are metal bunks, an open toilet and a large jug for drinking water. The men housed in this prison stay in their cells for all but 30 minutes a day. Food is stacked outside the cells at set mealtimes. There is no access to the outside world here, meaning no access to family letters or gifts from home. If prisoners cause an inconvenience against other prisoners and staff, even worse punishment awaits; they are sent to a silent and dark room (Culver. D et al, 2024). This is the kind of room that we would believe to breed insanity in the UK.

Some may believe that these harsh sentences are too much even for guilty gang members in El Salvador, however others would likely argue that this is the price that they must pay for the atrocities they have committed. The problem with Bukele’s crackdown is that it includes gang leaders in the same band as mere affiliates of gang crime, that often are likely to not have a choice in their involvement. From a utilitarian perspective, this equal punishment for two different crimes does not show true justice for some of these prisoners.

And justice for the innocent people of El Salvador is still not fully achieved. They have had to suffer through decades of gang violence, likely with family members killed or emigrated for a safer life to the U.S. And whilst their streets are now clean, they have a lack of human rights, and a few of these members have likely been carried wrongly through a prison system designed to break down even the most brutal murderers. When these murderers are released from prison, if they ever are, what more will these innocent people have to suffer through?

Justice is difficult to achieve in politics. This article is not stating that what Bukele has done is wrong; only that no matter what choice we take on issues as politicians, we will likely always miss out on true justice. This is simply because this concept is almost impossible in practice; there are too many people that one policy needs to appease with different views and subjective opinions on the world. For many, Bukele’s policies have saved El Salvador, making it a quieter and safer place for residents. This is why he was re-elected earlier this year. However, the question arises of what is next for El Salvador’s criminalisation policies, prisons, and a switch to a non-emergency state.

Bibliography

Clarke, David Culver, Abel Alvarado, Evelio Contreras, Rachel. ‘“We Did Bad Things”’. CNN, 6 Nov. 2024, https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/06/americas/el-salvador-inside-cecot-prison/index.html.

Accessed 17 Nov. 2024

‘El Salvador Gangs: Mass Arrests Bring Calm but at What Price?’ BBC News, 18 May 2023. www.bbc.co.uk, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-65596471.

Accessed 18 Nov. 2024

‘Human Rights in El Salvador’. Amnesty International, https://www.amnesty.org/en/location/americas/central-america-and-the-caribbean/el-salvador/report-el-salvador/.

Accessed 18 Nov. 2024.

‘Number of Homicides in El Salvador 2023’. Statista, https://www.statista.com/statistics/696144/number-of-homicides-in-el-salvador/.

Accessed 21 Nov. 2024.