The government of President Nayib Bukele has respected human rights and has shown respect for the constitutional guarantees of the population during the implementation of the Territorial Control Plan (PCT) and the emergency regime.

From December 2 to 4, 2019, the government allowed the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to carry out an “in loco” visit to the country to verify the situation in areas such as public security, prisoners, women, and migrant people.

At that time, the Executive was already implementing the PCT to combat gangs, and the IACHR highlighted that among the phases of this plan, it contemplates “the search for the recovery of governability of the territories, prevention, and, very particularly, the reconstruction of the social fabric.”

Likewise, the IACHR said that it positively valued the “recognition by the state of citizen security as a priority” and recognized “the efforts of the state to develop a comprehensive citizen security policy with the participation of the different government agencies both to prevent and to prosecute crime.

Apart from the commission’s visit, the government allowed the then-human rights attorney, José Apolonio Tobar Serrano (elected by the political opposition in the 2018-2021 legislature), to visit the prisons last June to ensure that those deprived of liberty’s human rights were respected.The official did not report irregularities, although the report was not made public.

On October 15, President Bukele met with his Security Cabinet, and the new human rights attorney, Raquel Caballero de Guevara, participated in that meeting, whom he urged to guarantee respect for the rights of the honest population.

The pastor of the Friends of Central Israel Baptist Biblical Tabernacle, Toby Junior, said yesterday in an interview with “Diario El Salvador” that he is also in favor of guaranteeing respect for the human rights of “honest citizens.”

He said that by visiting prisons to preach, he and the rest of the pastors have seen respect for the rights of prisoners and vast improvements in the national prison system.