El Salvador’s State of Exception: Thousands of Innocents imprisoned
Published in SonntagsBlick, July 2025
Since 2022, President Nayib Bukele has waged a war on gangs – and filled the country’s prisons with more than 85,000 people. Many were arrested without charges, some on the basis of anonymous tips or a tattoo. Among them: Uber drivers, students, street vendors. This report follows the families left behind – mothers like Sandra, who hasn’t heard from her son in over two years, and teachers like Mario, who believed in Bukele until the regime came for his own children. They speak of lost sons, false accusations, and prison cells packed with 300 men. While murals cover the scars of the past and murder rates drop, thousands of innocent people remain locked away – their names unheard, their fates uncertain.
