El Salvador: They were accused of being gang members, but were arrested for being lesbians.
In May 2023, a lesbian couple was detained without evidence. Only one was released. At least 62 violations against the LGBT population have been reported during the Bukele regime.
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ESPÍRITU SANTO ISLAND, El Salvador . Following an anonymous complaint, Sandra Hernández and her partner, Eidi Claros, were arrested for allegedly belonging to a gang. Hernández says her coworkers reported them to the authorities. She says they found it offensive to see a lesbian couple making progress in a coastal community in the Central American country.
The couple was arrested one night in April 2023 following an anonymous complaint. They were then sent to prison under El Salvador's State of Emergency, in effect since March 27, 2022. Neither of them belongs to the Salvadoran gangs.
Hernández was released a month later on alternative measures to detention because she was about to undergo surgery to remove her uterus. Her partner, however, remains in custody. Sandra has no information about his condition.
Arrested for being lesbians
Hernández and Claros met in prison in 2017. One was serving a sentence for criminal activity and the other for smuggling drugs into prisons. After completing their sentences and being released from prison, the women settled in 2018 on Espíritu Santo Island, 107 kilometers southeast of the capital, San Salvador, Hernández's hometown.
They started from scratch to build their house, made mostly of coconut stalks. Sandra also bought a motorcycle and modified it into a wagon for transporting cargo and people. She also requested permission from the directors of the cooperative that manages the island for Eidi to set up her coffee and sweet bread stand on the dock.
“There's a lot of discrimination from men; machismo prevails here. A man can have two or three women and feel more like a man. But seeing a woman with another woman and the two of them getting along and rising through the ranks—that doesn't seem right to them,” Sandra told Presentes .
He reported that his colleagues, who also work in the cart transport industry, harassed Eidi at his job and made sexual advances toward him.
She claimed they were "envious" of her relationship and the success she had achieved with clients for transportation. Some of her colleagues asked the board of directors to revoke Eidi's permit, simply because she wasn't from the community. "There can't be a woman with another woman here," lamented Hernández, 43.
How was the arrest?
On the night of April 28, 2023, a group of soldiers arrived at the couple's home to take Sandra away, due to her prison record. She had already served her sentence. As Eidi interrogated them, the soldiers detained her as well, insulting her for being a lesbian, according to the Network of Women Human Rights Defenders .
El Salvador has been under a state of emergency for two years , suspending constitutional guarantees , to combat violent gangs. Implemented since March 27, 2022, state security forces have arrested more than 78,000 suspected gang members.
However, these criminal structures do not allow members of the LGBTI population among their members.
Human rights organizations reported that hundreds of people were detained after being reported through anonymous calls or complaints made for personal reasons.
Two years after the state of emergency began, Amnesty International noted that "the suspension of rights that, according to international standards, must be guaranteed under all circumstances, such as the right to a fair trial, the principle of legality in criminal matters, and the prohibition of torture and discrimination, are actions that cannot be justified under any circumstances or context."
Fear of authorities
Since Sandra Hernández was released from prison, she has redoubled her efforts to earn money. She must cover her own expenses and pay child support for her partner, Eidi Claros, who is in prison.
Hernández must find $150 a month to pay for a food package delivered to her partner in prison. She must also allocate an additional $50 for transportation to get to the prison, on the other side of the country. She must also raise another amount to travel from her place of residence to another department to sign in court every two weeks.
Residents of the island have not reported any gang incidents in the past. However, 25 people have been arbitrarily detained under similar conditions. Only eight have been released.
Humanitarian Legal Aid and the Center for Exchange and Solidarity (CIS) , an organization that has been working to develop Salvadoran communities since 1993, are preparing a lawsuit against the state of El Salvador in the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) for the cases on the island.
Residents report that all those detained were captured because police and soldiers had to meet daily arrest quotas and because of anonymous complaints that authorities failed to investigate.
A place without gangs
About 350 families live on the impoverished island, more than 1,300 people, most of whom work in coconut farming, fishing, and extracting shellfish from the mangroves.
"It's a very beautiful place, everything is peaceful, there's no danger. Everything is peaceful here. Tourists like it when they come because it's a very quiet area," Salvador Panameño, a 59-year-old resident, told Presentes .
For this reason, the community is shocked by the operations and arrests. They report fearing the presence of soldiers and police patrolling the area, as they could be detained for any reason.
On March 11, Verónica Delgado, a Salvadoran activist searching for her missing daughter in the country, was arrested. She was detained by police allegedly for illicit activities after a police officer deemed her a "suspect."
Despite having a release order, the member of the Search Block for Missing Persons in El Salvador was released on April 3, at the end of the Easter holidays.
The Humanitarian Legal Aid Service, which provides legal assistance to victims of the state of emergency, estimates that, for two years, some 26,000 people have been prosecuted without evidence. Furthermore, up to 148% of them are being held in overcrowded prisons.
They also note that 240 people have died in state custody: 238 adults and 2 minors. More than 5,775 people have had their human rights violated.
Arrests and discrimination
The organization Amate reports 62 violations against LGBTI+ populations within the framework of the state of emergency, 39 of which are arbitrary detentions, primarily affecting trans women and gay men.
When questioned about all the arbitrary arrests, Nayib Bukele said there were no “perfect police forces” anywhere.
“Has our police made mistakes? Of course. That's why our judicial system has released innocent people and will continue to release all those wrongfully arrested,” Bukele said at a press conference on the day he won reelection on February 4.
“Unfortunately, the Salvadoran State's tendency to minimize, conceal, delegitimize, and deny the allegations from various actors, both national and international, regarding the serious violations documented in El Salvador suggests that during President Bukele's second term, the crisis observed in recent years could worsen,” Amnesty International in a statement.
The war on gangs has led to a 68.8% reduction in homicides in 2023, according to official statistics. Authorities report that 154 murders were committed last year, compared to 495 the previous year.
Although Eidi remains detained, Sandra sets up the coffee stand she used to run on the pier every day, hoping her partner will return to the island.
“"I get home, I look at her photos, I look at her things. In that solitude, I have no one to talk to, and I'd like to think this is a dream and that it will pass, but we'll see when it ends, because we only ask God for strength to get through this, because it's not easy," he said.
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