Nayib Bukele's inmates could spend up to seven years in prison without trial

Nayib Bukele's inmates could spend up to seven years in prison without trial

Briefly

"On June 1, as he began his seventh year in office, Nayib Bukele issued a promise regarding the fate of the nearly 90,000 people imprisoned under the state of emergency: We are not going to release them now, nor ever, he said. Two and a half months later, in mid-August, the Legislative Assembly under his control approved a series of reforms to the Law Against Organized Crime that will help him make good on that threat."

"Among other things, the measure allows those arrested in his so-called war on gangs even those who are ultimately found innocent to remain in prison for up to seven years before a verdict is delivered. The amendment to eight articles of the law, hastily approved on August 15, was hailed by Attorney General Rodolfo Delgado as the largest procedural reform in El Salvador since the end of the last century."

"Delgado assured the members of the National Security Committee that these changes corrected the errors of a justice system that he described as overly protective of guarantees, and which, according to him, is responsible for turning the courts into a sort of revolving door that allowed judges to release detainees almost at the same rate as the police captured them."

"Some of this was true: before Bukele took control of the Salvadoran justice system, if the Prosecutor's Office couldn't prove a defendant's gang membership or specific involvement in a crime such as homicide or extortion, judges typically let them go relatively easily. But the Bukele administration has taken the system to the opposite extreme: now the official logic is that everyone is guilty until proven innocent."