Media outlets in El Salvador reveal that President Bukele has not fulfilled his secret security plan

Alharaca and La Prensa Gráfica reveal in a joint investigation that the Government has not fulfilled its own plan and that the policy guidelines are far removed from the security actions implemented.

February 4, 2022

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador

In mid-2019, El Salvador registered a reduction in its daily homicide average: from days with more than 15 murders, it went to days when authorities reported none. This decrease coincided with the beginning of President Nayib Bukele's administration, which he attributed to the implementation of his Territorial Control Plan (PCT).

Two years after its implementation was announced, and despite constant media coverage of the Plan's success, the Salvadoran government has not published the document containing its main public security policy. The feminist digital media outlet Alharaca and La Prensa Gráfica, the country's largest-circulation print newspaper, obtained two copies of the document and verified its authenticity through several independent sources.

The media found that the government has not implemented the plan's content, and that the security policies being implemented are far removed from the guidelines set forth in the document. The actions of the police and the army, which the government regularly highlights in its communications, differ from—and sometimes contradict—this document, which the administration itself has presented to third parties as its official public security policy. This inconsistency between the plan and official actions calls into question the great successes that Bukele boasts about and attributes to the Plan, such as the decrease in homicides and the supposed 61% increase in women's safety during his term.

Measures such as the creation of a National System for Victim Assistance, described in the document, have not been implemented. The media also reviewed the plan from a gender perspective and found that proposals such as a campaign against gender-based violence have also not been put into practice.

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Security analysts consulted by both media outlets agree that the content of the Territorial Control Plan has many similarities with security policies promoted by previous governments, despite the fact that, publicly, the Executive maintains a constant disdain and disqualification towards the initiatives of previous administrations.

The PCT also distances itself from “past mistakes” such as negotiations with gangs, groups it says should be classified as “terrorists.” However, documents from the Attorney General's Office, revealed by other journalistic investigations, detail that members of the current government have held negotiations with gang leaders. These negotiations have also been questioned and are under investigation by the United States.

The Bukele administration has also been characterized by its all-out war against media outlets not aligned with the government. A recent investigation by Access Now, an organization at the University of Toronto, and validated by Amnesty International, revealed that the cell phones of some 30 journalists have been infected with the Pegasus spyware. This software is developed by the Israeli company NSO Group, which claims to work exclusively with governments.

Following the publication of the report, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), its Special Rapporteurship for Freedom of Expression (RELE), and the Regional Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights for Central America, the Dominican Republic, and the Caribbean (OHCHR) issued statements expressing their “concern regarding the new findings on the use of the Pegasus malicious software, employed for the purpose of illegal surveillance against journalists and civil society organizations in El Salvador, who investigate and report on matters of public interest; and urge the State to investigate the reported incidents effectively and impartially, and to ensure the protection of the victims' integrity.”

In the fight against corruption, the PCT's focus was on the International Commission against Impunity in El Salvador (CICIES), which was dismantled at the initiative of the Executive branch. Human rights, on the other hand, are included in the plan as the framework for the actions of state security forces. In practice, the Salvadoran state has accumulated warnings and rulings from the Inter-American Human Rights System.

The publications of Alharaca and La Prensa Gráfica include a detailed description of the plan's measures, and the context of what is being applied in El Salvador as security policies.

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