The Episcopal Conference of El Salvador (CEDES) has published a letter directed at President Nayib Bukele’s government.
The letter makes recommendations about a variety of themes such as education, healthcare, violence, the prison system, and the environment. It also requests that the government repeal the state of emergency which has been in place since March 2022, after gangs killed 87 people over one weekend.
CEDES comprises the country’s bishops and forms part of the Latin American Episcopal Conference as well as the Central Episcopal Secretariat of Central America.
The letter addresses the treatment to which migrants are subjected in El Salvador, asking the government “not to collaborate in the struggle of the great colonizing countries against migrants.” It has rejected claims that migrants are “delinquents or criminals,” instead describing them as “people seeking better opportunities in life.” The bishops have urged the government to “promote a policy in favor of migrants” and to adopt open borders.
On March 15, the U.S. government sent 238 Venezuelans from the U.S. to El Salvador, where they were detained incommunicado in Cecot, a “terrorism confinement center.” Homeland Security records have since revealed that more than half of the deportees had not been convicted of any crimes in the U.S., despite President Donald Trump’s claims that “rapists,” savages,” “monsters,” and “the worst of the worst” were among them.
CEDES has urged the government not to treat the country “as if it were a mass international prison,” and to “think carefully about what you are doing.” The bishops have also criticized the persecution of human rights defenders, stating: “If there are some [human rights defenders] who are imprisoned for no other reason than defending human rights, their cases should be examined and they should be immediately released.”
The bishops also stated that environmentalists should not be facing “persecution and imprisonment.”
Although El Salvador has seen its homicide rates drop to a record low since the introduction of the state of emergency, human rights group Amnesty International has condemned Bukele’s government for overseeing a prison system “where torture, extreme overcrowding, and the deaths in custody of more than 300 people have already been documented.”
The bishops have requested the end to the current state of emergency, under which Amnesty says “grave human rights violations” have taken place. The charity says that the state of emergency has led to “increased militarization” particularly in poorer communities.
While the bishops recognized that it had previously been necessary for the country to adopt a state of emergency “to curb violence,” it now believes that this is “no longer necessary.”
CEDE also emphasized that Salvadorans should not only be following the law “for fear of consequences,” but rather “because it is good for them, as well as for their family, society, and the nation.” The bishops claimed: “Doing good out of fear is coercion and doing it out of obligation is repression.”
The letter concluded by asking the government “to listen to the people in their requests and needs,” to “encourage dialogue,” and to “use a language that is proactive, respectful, and inclusive.”
Featured image credit:
Image: Cecot detention center
Photographer: La Prensa Gráfica via YouTube, Wikimedia Commons
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aerial_view_of_CECOT.png
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en
