Systemic Human Rights Abuses in El Salvador: Overview and Historical Context
Overview of the human rights situation in El Salvador
El Salvador is located along the Pacific Coast in Central America. It, along with Honduras, Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua, won their independence from Spain in 1821. They formed the United Provinces of Central America and functioned as a sovereign body for 18 years before separating in 1839. The split has been followed by decades of military-led violence and bloody civil wars. Today, the Central American countries are still fighting for their peace in the worst economic conditions.
The human rights situation in El Salvador has been a cause for concern for decades, with reports of widespread human rights abuses. As a “State of Emergency” is ongoing in the country, the measures taken by the government are questionable. In March 2022, a state of emergency was declared which was supposed to be only a month long but has continued since. Between 2022-2023, over 63,000 people had been detained, including children. There have been reports of overcrowding in detention cells, poorly supported investigations, and inaccurate profiling of detainees. Within detention centers, the government is allegedly keeping detainees in prolonged solitary confinement and have not been providing medication to patients with chronic illnesses. The severity of the conditions has led to 90 deaths in detention centers, after which, information sharing with media has been limited. According to OHCHR, El Salvador’s human rights institution has received about 8,000 complaints of prisoner rights violations. The government has set no barometer to differentiate between gang members and law-abiding citizens which has resulted in thousands of unlawful detentions across the country. These “gang purges” have also resulted in violence against women and children, including sexual harassment on a wide scale.
However, these abuses are not just a present-day matter. They have been ongoing for a few decades, the human rights abuses started intensifying after the end of the civil war in El Salvador in 1992. El Salvador faced a civil war between the years 1979 and 1992, which claimed approximately 75,000 lives. In the face of abuse stood prominent left-wing rebels from the group Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN), and human rights campaigner Archbishop Oscar Romero, who was assassinated in 1980. This event triggered a decade of political violence, and violations of human rights. It only came to a halt after the UN intervention in 1990, which resulted in the formation of United Nations Observer Mission in El Salvador (ONUSAL). ONUSAL facilitated formal peace accords in 1992, after which the country had democratic elections in 1994. Up until 2000, El Salvador had been one of the significant success stories in terms of development and reforms among the developing countries. However, it did not last too long. Government-backed human rights abuses dispensed by the military have been fed into the system through wide socio-economic gaps in the country.
Purpose and scope of the report series
This report's goal is to present a comprehensive examination of El Salvador's ongoing violations of human rights. It aims to highlight the numerous human rights difficulties that citizens in the nation experience, look into the underlying causes and motivating elements, and evaluate how the government is handling these problems. The report will concentrate on important issues relating to human rights, such as violence and discrimination against women, extrajudicial murders by law enforcement and security personnel, care given to inmates and detainees, and freedom of speech and the press. It will also dig into the contentious government policies in El Salvador, like the "mano dura" strategy and the "Territorial Control Plan," and how they affect human rights. The study will look at the historical background of El Salvador's human rights violations, assess the current situation, and take into account the global response to these issues. Although the report will make an effort to give a thorough analysis, it is crucial to understand that it has some limits. The report aims to increase awareness, foster conversation, and support ongoing efforts to address El Salvador's human rights challenges rather than offering a conclusive answer.
II. Historical Context
Overview of the civil war and its legacy
Often known as Salvadoran Civil War, it lasted 12 years, during which approximately 75,000 people died at the hands of the government. These 12 years were marked by three major massacres: assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero in 1980 which was one of the major reasons behind conflict escalation, the rape and murder of four American churchwomen which came as a shock to the international community, and lastly, the massacre of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper, and her teenage daughter in 1989 which pushed the international community for intervention.
However, the roots of this conflict can be traced back to the Spanish conquest for one resource, and one resource only- land. El Salvador, like its neighboring countries in Central America, had been organized into a plantation which consisted of luxury commodities such as cocoa and coffee. After the Spanish, the Salvadorans of European ancestry claimed ownership which were less than 5%. The 95% indigenous population were reduced to peasant status. These “Fourteen Families”, as they were called, had generational ownership of resourceful lands throughout dictatorships. This uneven distribution of wealth and land had seeped through generations. The civil war was a bigger reflection of the 5% vs. the 95%. In 1932, a revolt led by labor leader Agustin Farabundo Marti against the dictatorship of the Fourteen Families led to a massive civilian massacre by the military, called “matanza”, which ended up killing 30,000 civilians. The left-wing labor utilized guerrilla warfare, while, the right-wing consisted of sophisticated military.
In October 1979, dictator Carlos Humberto Romero was ousted and replaced by the Revolutionary Government Junta (JRG) which was also led by officers. In a few months, right-wing groups revolted against the government. JRG’s main opponent was an army officer, Roberto D’Aubuisson “Blowtorch Bob”, who was the mastermind behind the assassination of Archbishop Romero. When he was arrested, right-wing groups caused violence and destruction across the country that ended up leading to his release. He eventually founded the Nationalist Republican Alliance Party (ARENA) which was responsible for wide-scale massacre during the civil war.
Some significant consequences of the ouster included an end to military monopoly which lasted 50 years. This also resulted in the changing relationship between the military and the elites. For the elites, the dependance on the military came to a halt, and their partnership with ARENA began. Although the JRG may have been seen as light at the end of the tunnel for civilians, it collapsed three months after it came to power as the civilian members of the party resigned as they were incapable of controlling the military. By the time of the murder of Archbishop Romero and the America nuns, FMLN had grown vastly, taking guerilla groups under their wing. Some of the groups included the Popular Forces of Liberation (FPL), Salvadoran Communist Party (PCES), People’s Revolutionary Army (ERP), Armed Forces of National resistance (FARN), Revolutionary Party of Central American Workers (PRTC) to name a few. These groups mostly included students, teachers, farmers, urban workers, and trade unionists.
An important turning point in the array of events during the civil war was the role of the United States in exacerbating violence in the country where previous US administrations had showed no interest. The US gave a $4 billion aid and assumed responsibility of training the country’s military. The US also provided advanced arsenals, such as helicopters, and offered political backing. Since FMLN’s leader, Farabundo Marti was a communist intellectual who ordered the revolt against the elite, was seen as an extension of communism in the region, the US government viewed this as a threat to their Containment Policy to curb communism from spreading. When Marti was executed along with his fellow party members, he was viewed as a symbol of social justice and resistance worldwide. For years to come, FMLN was used as an excuse by the Salvadoran armed forces to kill civilians. After ARENA came into force, the US government opted to stick to the middle ground with no right wing or left-wing parties, a policy that was short-lived as once FMLN started taking control of small towns in 1981, the US sent in military aid through “presidential discretionary funds”. This aid was, nevertheless, not approved by the US congress but directly by Reagan’s administration. According to Human Rights watch, the Jesuit massacre was also done by US-trained Atlacatl Battali. Although after the Jesuit Massacre US aid was cut in half, it was reinstated by President G.H.W Bush under the ambit of security. As more aid was pumped into fueling the Salvadoran Civil War, the Salvadoran military and economy were increasingly becoming dependent on the US.
For the third time since 1948, a new constitution was drafted, and a constituent assembly was formed in 1982. Duarte was elected as President; however, he was later removed on charges of corruption. In 1989, FMLN launched a major offensive, including in San Salvador, the capital city. This was followed by arbitrary aerial bombing by the Salvadoran Air Force. The then Salvadoran President Cristiani lost faith in the military capability to defeat FMLN and committed to reaching an agreement. UN negotiated peace in 1990 in Mexico City, called the Chapultepec Peace Accords. This led to the disarmament and dissolution of guerilla units, and the formation of new civilian police force PNC. A human rights commission was established to investigate the human rights abuses of the Salvadoran Armed Forces and the FMLN during the civil war. FMLN eventually became a political party. The latter part of the 1990s was marked with natural disasters and failure of subsequent governments to deliver justice to the citizens.
Human rights abuses during the civil war
According to a report, over 70,000 were killed of which 40,000 were group assassinations. According to a cross-check analysis of the war crimes committed by the official Army, 8,000 people had mysteriously disappeared. The number of people who left the country ranged between 600,000 and 1.5 million, while the number of internally displaced persons made up about 510,000 people. The report also mentions $4 billion worth of damage to property. One example of massacre at the hands of the El Salvador Army is that of El Mozote and other northeastern towns. In a span of 3 days, 1,000 civilians were killed, homes, fields, livestock, and humans were burned. Within the Salvadoran military, the Naval fleet took least participation in violence, however, they had allegedly forced their way into the fishing industry through corruption and had major stocks in export firms. On the contrary, the Army and the Airforce played a huge role in corruption and violence during the civil war. They had forcible recruitment policies in place which pushed teenagers into joining guerrilla forces instead. There are documented incidents of physical and psychological torture, rape, and illegal detention. Much of these illegal killings, detention and disappearances of “delinquent terrorists” recorded by the El Salvador government can now be found in the Yellow Book or Libro Amarillo — a secret military intelligence document dating from the civil war period. However, under El Salvador’s “amnesty law”, prosecutions of wartime crimes against humanity were blocked. This law was eventually, in a pivotal move, declared unconstitutional in 2016.