By Luis De Jesus
06 Oct 2024, 21:02 PM EDT
El Salvador’s prisons have been a controversial issue during Nayib Bukele’s government. Figures such as Michelle Bachelet, former president of Chile and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, have harshly criticized the country’s prison system because they believe that some irregularities are committed with inmates.
These negative messages have been rejected by the Salvadoran president, who recalled that Bachelet visited El Salvador in 2015 during the government of Salvador Sánchez Cerén.
At that time, Bachelet was serving her second term as president of Chile and “was full of praise for the government of that time.”
https://x.com/nayibbukele/status/1842593272033952094
However, reports from the authorities indicated that this government was the most violent in the recent era.
Additionally, El Salvador reached a homicide rate of 106.3 per 100,000 inhabitants.
“It is interesting to realize that these ‘human rights’ organizations actually only exist to defend the rights of criminals,” Bukele said in his post on X.
In the message, several supported the Salvadoran president for the work he has done.
“Countries that want true peace and democracy should leave the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. Not even the United States recognizes them because it accepts that they are an entity controlled by the specific interests of their financiers. El Salvador and Argentina should take the step, these people have never defended human rights and only defend the rights of criminals,” wrote one user.
Another opinion on the subject was: “We are doing very well, President Bukele, we refer to the incontrovertible facts. And if as a bonus we add the statements of this lady (Bachelet), then we are doing very, very well.”
Bukele defends his policies
The president has defended himself on several occasions against the criticism he receives on the grounds that he violates the human rights of some prisoners.
During his mandate, 82,000 detainees linked, according to official records, to gangs have been registered.
Despite all the accusations, Nayib Bukele assures that a good part of the world looks to El Salvador to look for references to the prison model that they have imposed with the intention of lowering the rates.
Keep reading:
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• El Salvador has recorded 700 non-consecutive days without homicides since 2019
• Nayib Bukele and Elon Musk met in Texas: what did they talk about?