In the community of the new Crusadilla, 100 km southeast of the capital, relatives of 11 minors are frightened since Congress, controlled with a comfortable majority by the ruling party, approved in February a reform promoted by the president, Nayib Bukele.
“How are the minors with the elderly?” Ramírez, 39, whose son is in a reformatory in Ahuachapán (west), told AFP.
“All are children and cannot be with adults, with criminals,” said Moisés Campos, 44, whose 15 -year -old son was arrested with 10 other boys from this community of the Jiquilisco district.
The 11 minors They were sentenced to five years of confinement and five more of freedom monitored for belonging to “illicit groups”or what is the same, to be part of a gang.
The authorities claim that The minors will have their pavilions, separated from the elderly. A promise that does not reassure parents. It also worries that in adult prisons there are no reintegration programs for these criminals.
“We do not believe in the rehabilitation of terrorists -Pandilleros -, regardless of age,” said the Minister of Justice and Security, Gustavo Villatoro.
In Salvadoran youth reformatory, inmates can follow their studies and are guarded by personnel of a specialized entity, not by prison guards.
“They are taking away your dreams”
Since the eleven were arrested on April 11, 2024, their parents have not been able to see them because visits in prisons and reformatory are suspended since 2022 by virtue of the exception regime that gives legal support to the Bukele’s “war” against gangs.
The Prosecutor’s Office charged minors for painting graffiti -all -ups to gang on walls from a school in this community where a thousand people lives. A court sentenced them to 10 years in prison, with a probation option by serving half of the penalty.
The relatives resorted to the conviction since “the Prosecutor’s Office could not present forceful evidence,” said Oscar García, a 52 -year -old retired sergeant, whose son turned 18 while he was imprisoned.
“I feel that my son is taking away his dreams of doing everything he wanted to do,” Ramírez said with a photo of the child in his hands.
What happened “has been a nightmare,” added this housewife that was recently a widow.
How many are?
The “war” against gangs drastically reduced homicides in that country, which went from 106 per 100 thousand inhabitants in 2015 to 1.9 in 2024, according to official figures.
But Bukele’s methods are criticized by human rights groups, which ensure that there are many innocent prisoners without the right to defense.
More than 86 thousand alleged gang members have been arrested within the framework of the war, although at least about 8 thousand were released after being declared innocent.
Human Rights Watch held in mid -2024 that the minor prisoners in El Salvador under the exception regime were more than 3 thousand.
However, the Human Rights Presidential Commissioner Andrés Guzmán, assured the AFP that they are less than 600 and that the authorities “are analyzing the details” to transfer them to adult prisons.
A few days ago, El Salvador received 261 Salvadoran and Venezuelan deported migrants from the United States, accused of belonging to gangs, who were locked in a maximum security prison through an agreement between Bukele and President Donald Trump.
“They will learn violent behaviors”
The UN considers that the reform of the youth criminal law is “an important setback”, since it “contravenes” the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Human rights groups also criticize her.
“What they are doing is condemning that (minors) acquire violent behaviors and habits, because in a jail where there are no uninhabitation programs, what they will go to learn are violent behaviors,” said lawyer Zaira Navas, of the Chrystosal NGO.
The parents of the 11 young people insisted on their innocence and claim that they were not arrested painting a graffiti, but taken from their homes by police and soldiers.
“I hope the authorities free my son because, he is innocent,” said Elizabeth Torres, 32, mother of Luis Adolfo, 16.