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The culture of El Salvador has had it ups and downs, although deemed as one of the most peaceful countries in central America, there is still so much work needed to be done in order for our culture to grow and leave the trauma of past behind. This is an article explaining these ups and downs, as well as opinions on Bukele's ideals of a safer country.

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Recently, there has been a lot of current historical events that have made their mark since having a new president, Nayib Bukele. Although a lot of controversies through his presidency, some think dictatorship.

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Who is El Salvador President Nayib Bukele?

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here is a video on one of Bukele's greatest successions. He is grasped the attention of other countries but building this prison that is nestled in the mountains of El Salvador. Although, this is cleaning up the streets of El Salvador, it is not the best for the environment, there is still yet talk of building another. These prisons take up a lot of land and resources that leave Salvadorians questioning if these maximum security prisons are the best idea.

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'Worst of the worst': Go inside El Salvador’s fortress prison for gang members

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This has been my community since I was born. Raised by an immigrant father, I was always surrounded by my Salvadorian roots. Once my father's side of the family immigrated to the California bay, I had never been shown nothing else but our Salvadorian roots.

As I got older I realized how strong and community focused they are. I was being raised in that manner, making sure I was helping my community from afar. When family members would go back, we made sure as a community to supply money, clothing, and toys that were needed to the pueblo.

I found that even in the simplest forms, no matter how far our community was going from each other, all salvadorenos as a whole were all the same kind hearted people that wanted to chase the same big dreams.

I plan on going soon to help my community grow and prosper, as their roots and ways of living has allowed me too. Rejoicing that cycle of giving and helpfulness.

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Since the war in 1979, there has still been major differences in inequality in El Salvador. It pushed a lot of Salvadorians to migrate to other places, the war even impacted my grandpa who had to move to Tijuana, Mexico until he could pass the boarder. Before Bukele, a rise of gangs reshaped society and globalization, everything had to be passed by these dominant gangs which really impacted society. You couldn't go any place without gangmembers passing by and bringing in and taking out goods. This also caused an urban divide from rural areas.

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Economically, El Salvador has not been the best. Not many resources nor funds to keep up these resources. Many loans and partnerships have been given to El Salvador to help Bukele's economic agenda. Once given the name of #1 most dangerous country in the world has now transformed into a country that has actually allowed civilians to sell and keep money for themselves. A lot would have to be given to gangs if they even wanted to make some money, but now with mass imprisonments, civilians are able to live freely and sell freely in order to make ends meet, this has also allowed El Salvadors economy to slightly improve. The video above gives a better understanding as to how much these popular gangs affected economy.

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President Nayib Bukele’s 3-Step Plan to Save El Salvador’s Economy

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According to this article, a lawyer and expert in labor law, explains the improvements when it comes to the health and safety of Salvadorian, especially in the work place. Safety yet again has improved a lot that what is was before 2019. The other reflections bring that to light to state how dangerous the gang activity was and how much it has improved since 2019.

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Members of World Law Group (WLG) are independent and autonomous firms not affiliated with the joint practice of law. Each member firm is solely responsible for its work product and staff and provides professional services to its clients individually.

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Meet Marisol from El Salvador - A day in her life

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Educational challenges in El Salvador: ensuring the right to education amid capricious times – Broken Chalk

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Due to funding, violence before 2019, many children were dropping out of schools, not obtaining any sort of education, only what their parents would teach them to obtain a lifestyle. But since the peak of violence in 2016, many teachers, unions, and students have protested and spoken up about the need of better educational systems all throughout El Salvador. Funding is another big factor that seems to not be moving any time soon, because of funding many schools have closed, limiting education as well. El Salvador does not have the best education system whats so ever but they do have a large group of people that fight for the future of a more available and open accessed towards education

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When it comes to religion, there has been a rise in religious interest, but also major shift from Catholicism towards evangelicalism, its main reason being the controversies that many have speculated towards Catholicism. A certain archbishop created comments that were pointed towards politics, this made many people convert to other forms of religion due to lack of interest in the lives and health of the people.

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In El Salvador, Catholic bishops and President Bukele are at odds over mining

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The Catholic Church in El Salvador finds its voice in opposition to lifting of prohibition on mining.

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There has been a lot of different opinions when it comes to social movements. Lot of backlash when it comes to it, especially when it diverts to the humans rights to those incarcerated in Bukele's massive high security prison. Many images and documentaries have spread showing what goes on in this prison which has caused civilians to divide, some speaking up, questioning the human rights to these murder's but then the other half declaring that it is what is deserved. A lot of inequality in El Salvador has be decreased as well because of certain social movements in more lower income areas.

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Authorities declared a state of emergency resulting in massive human rights violations, weakening of the rule of law, as well as a continuous and serious deterioration in access to public information. Attacks against human rights defenders and journalists remained entrenched. Authorities failed to pass a law guaranteeing the rights of victims of crimes under international law committed during the armed conflict (1980-1992). The absolute prohibition of abortion remained in force.

Background

In March, following a proposal by President Bukele, the Legislative Assembly decreed and then extended a state of emergency for nine months, which remained in effect at the end of the year, and amended numerous laws, in response to a spike in homicides allegedly committed by gangs.

In September, the president announced his intention to seek re-election, despite criticisms from experts and organizations that the constitution prohibits consecutive re-election.

Arbitrary detentions and unfair trials

Most of the more than 60,000 arrests made during the state of emergency were allegedly arbitrary because they did not comply with legal requirements, namely that an arrest warrant must be issued or the person caught red-handed committing a crime. Some of the arrests were based solely on individuals having tattoos or a prior criminal record or the fact that they were living in an area controlled by a gang.

Thousands of people were indiscriminately prosecuted, most of whom were denied contact with their legal representatives, access to the case file, information on the reasons for their detention or the right to be heard at the indictment hearing. According to local organizations and lawyers, hearings, which were rushed, sometimes dealt with hundreds of defendants at a time.

At the end of the year, President Bukele announced the imposition of a military siege on some areas and cities as a complementary measure to the state of emergency. In December alone, the military and police encircled three of the most populous and poorest cities, arresting hundreds of people on suspicion of being gang members. The Legislative Assembly approved criminal and procedural amendments contrary to international law. These included holding hearings and issuing sentences without the accused being present and withholding the identity of the judges, as well as abolishing maximum periods of pretrial detention.

According to local organizations, as of August, 89% of the habeas corpus writs filed in defence of people detained during the state of emergency had not been resolved.

Both the minister of security and the chairman of the ruling party announced their intention to extend the state of emergency throughout 2023.

Right to life and security of the person

During the state of emergency, El Salvador had the highest rate of people deprived of liberty of any country in the world, with 1,927 people imprisoned per 100,000 inhabitants. By the end of the year, there were more than 94,000 people detained in the country, despite the fact that the holding capacity of the country's prisons, as of February 2021, was 30,864, according to official data obtained by local organizations.

Extreme overcrowding resulted in violations of the right to life and physical integrity and caused serious sanitation problems and shortages of food and basic hygiene supplies, seriously affecting the health of detainees.

Cases were documented where prisoners were ill-treated by prison guards, as well as cases of torture by gang members, including beatings, lynchings and constant threats, which prison officials did not attempt to prevent.

At least 90 men were reported to have died in state custody as of November. Civil society organizations reported that numerous death certificates documented signs of torture. In a large number of cases, organizations reported that the authorities did not officially inform the families of the deaths. There was no publicly available evidence that these events were being diligently investigated.

Freedom of expression

At the beginning of 2022, the organizations Access Now, CitizenLab and Amnesty International confirmed that the mobile phones of several journalists and members of civil society organizations had been infected with Pegasus spyware. At the end of the year, there was no information that this was being diligently investigated.

In February, the Legislative Assembly approved amendments to the criminal law allowing the use of "digital undercover agents", which would permit police to implement "necessary" digital undercover operations. The Association of Journalists of El Salvador (APES) warned that vagueness and inconsistencies in the law risked leading to the legalization of abusive surveillance.

In April, the Penal Code was modified to provide for prison sentences of between 10 and 15 years for those who generate "anxiety" or "panic" by reporting on gangs, in an attempt to silence the press. APES registered 125 attacks against journalists and reported that 11 had fled the country during 2022 in a context of threats on social media and public accusations by government figures.

National organizations highlighted the deterioration of access to public information and transparency.

Human rights defenders

During the state of emergency, the president adopted a confrontational public discourse that stigmatized and attacked human rights defenders, international organizations and the independent media.

In the first half of 2022, 61 attacks were recorded against human rights defenders, according to the human rights organization Mesa por el Derecho a Defender Derechos.

Sexual and reproductive rights

A total ban on abortion remained in force. At least two women remained imprisoned and six faced legal proceedings on charges relating to obstetric emergencies. In July, a young woman was sentenced to 50 years in prison for an obstetric emergency, the first time the maximum prison term had been applied.

Right to truth, justice and reparation

The authorities continued to fail to adopt adequate legislation to fully guarantee the rights of victims of crimes under international law committed during the armed conflict (1980-1992).

There was little progress in investigating and bringing to justice those suspected of criminal responsibility for the crimes committed during the armed conflict.

"El Salvador: President Bukele engulfs the country in a human rights crisis after three years in government", 2 June

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Authorities declared a state of emergency resulting in massive human rights violations, weakening of the rule of law, as well as a continuous and serious deterioration in access to public information. Attacks against human rights defenders and journalists remained entrenched.

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During my time reflecting, I realized, Education, healthy and safety, and economy are the social influences have affect my community the most. Education has been limited due to funding and violence. As well as lack of access. But the lack of funding is all because of how the economy is being prioritized into other areas. The economy is rising in El Salvador but is sacrificing cuts in hospitals and education to put it towards more prisons and paying legal officials to go find these said gang members. As well as how the economy is going lack of funding in hospitals is being cut but the safety of civilians is rising sufficiently. Because of this rise less people are going to hospitals for gang related violence. When it comes to every piece of social influence everything is connecting, creating a bigger picture than what we truly realize. Everything affects each other in positive and negative ways.