Amnesty International (Author): “The State of the World's Human Rights; El Salvador 2025”, Document #2139283

Background

In January, the Legislative Assembly – controlled by the ruling party – ratified the amendment of Article 248 of the Constitution, drastically reducing space for debate and civic engagement in decisions of public interest. In July, a reform was introduced to allow indefinite presidential re-election, modifying substantive elements of the country’s political and electoral system and further weakening institutional checks and balances. These measures, adopted without civil society scrutiny, consolidated the executive’s power and eroded the rule of law.

Arbitrary detention and unfair trials

The state of emergency was extended for the entire year and continued to provide grounds for thousands of arbitrary detentions. Local and international organizations reported that more than 90,000 individuals remained deprived of their liberty without sufficient evidence. Many of the detentions were the result of pressure on the police to meet daily arrest quotas and were based on false or uncorroborated evidence, anonymous complaints or discriminatory profiling.

In February, criminal and prison reforms were approved authorizing the transfer of adolescents convicted of organized crime offences to adult prison facilities and removing prison benefits. These changes established disproportionate and punitive prison treatment for children and adolescents, in contravention of international instruments.¹

In August, upon expiry of Legislative Decree 803, which contained transitional provisions regarding deadlines and prosecution of those detained under the state of emergency, the Legislative Assembly amended eight articles of the Law against Organized Crime. These amendments extended pretrial detention to a maximum of two years, constituting a disproportionate restriction on the right to personal liberty, and allowed the Public Prosecutor’s Office to group multiple defendants in a single case under the criterion of belonging to “gang cells”, opening the door to mass trials without individual determination of criminal responsibility. The provisions affected basic procedural guarantees, including the right to a defence and the right to be tried within a reasonable time, in violation of El Salvador’s international human rights obligations.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) again called on El Salvador to end the suspension of rights and the restriction of guarantees under the state of emergency and to comply with its obligation to uphold judicial guarantees for all detainees.

Inhumane detention conditions

Extreme overcrowding in prisons continued and detainees lacked access to basic services. According to data from international bodies, the country had the highest incarceration rate in the world, with approximately 1,650 per 100,000 inhabitants deprived of their liberty. This was more than double the rate of the second country on the list.

The government maintained a policy of systematic incommunicado detention. Thousands of persons deprived of their liberty had no contact with family members or lawyers, and no official information on their whereabouts or health status was provided. This practice, widely condemned, left families in distress and enabled abuse and corruption in prisons.

Torture and other ill-treatment

Deaths in custody totalled approximately 470 since the beginning of the state of emergency, with causes linked to torture, unjustified denial of adequate and timely medical care, and unsanitary detention conditions. None of the deaths were investigated in a timely, comprehensive and independent manner. In the absence of effective national accountability mechanisms, several local organizations reported the situation to international human rights bodies, alleging a pattern of structural impunity.

The World Organisation against Torture ranked El Salvador as very high risk of torture and other ill-treatment, with documented systematic practices of beatings, sexual humiliation, sleep deprivation and collective punishment. The authorities failed to properly record cases and conduct independent investigations, in breach of international standards such as the Manual on the Effective Investigation and Documentation of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (the Istanbul Protocol).

Enforced disappearances

In mid-March, the USA transferred 252 Venezuelan and 36 Salvadoran nationals, who it had expelled illegally, to El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Centre (CECOT). Upon their arrival in El Salvador, these individuals were detained, held incommunicado, and denied access to defence or contact with their family members, who lacked information about their whereabouts. The detainees were outside the protection of the law, in a situation that could constitute enforced disappearance under international standards. All Venezuelan nationals were reportedly returned to their country of origin in July, where several publicly reported having been victims of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment in El Salvador.² In September, media outlets reported that at least three of the expelled Salvadorans remained missing, with the authorities providing no information about their fate or whereabouts. In addition, the IACHR granted precautionary measures in October to a Salvadoran man deported from the USA and allegedly detained in CECOT, in a situation also described as enforced disappearance. The IACHR urged El Salvador to employ all necessary efforts to immediately establish his fate and whereabouts.

Economic, social and cultural rights

In the first half of the year, 44 public schools were closed and there were 25,000 fewer enrolments in public education centres. According to organizations working in the education sector, school dropout rates had increased, particularly in rural areas, due to migration, the state of emergency and lack of infrastructure, in a context of scarce resources and loss of placements. Furthermore, the Multipurpose Household Survey reported an increase in extreme poverty for the third consecutive year, reaching 9.6%.

Mega-projects and urban planning resulted in forced evictions that directly affected low-income communities. Local organizations reported in June that nearly 11,000 peasant families were affected by evictions linked to tourism, urban and mining projects, resulting in loss of lands, food insecurity and internal displacement.

Between January and April, local media reported the eviction of more than 1,400 informal vendors and the removal of more than 1,000 vendor stalls in the historic centre of the capital, San Salvador, measures that significantly affected the subsistence of thousands of families in urban areas.

Repression of dissent

The government intensified measures to restrict civic space and the work of civil society organizations, journalists and organized communities. It responded to expressions of social discontent with arbitrary detentions, criminalization of social protest, unlawful use of military force and laws to unduly restrict the work of those supporting victims of abuse.

In May, the authorities arbitrarily detained 16 transport operators, accusing them of a number of crimes, including breach of duty and refusal of aid, without legal basis, according to some media outlets. One of the drivers died in state custody a few days later. That same month, a peaceful protest by more than 300 families from the El Bosque community in the face of an impending eviction was suppressed, with improper deployment of the Military Police and the arbitrary detention of human rights defenders and community leaders.³

The Legislative Assembly passed the Foreign Agents Law, which required organizations receiving international funding to register as “foreign agents”, imposed a 30% tax on such funds, and granted the executive powers to cancel the status of legal entities and apply fines. The broad and vague definition of “foreign agent” enabled the law to be applied arbitrarily and created an environment of uncertainty and self-censorship. Human rights organizations alleged that the law was not intended to guarantee transparency but rather to institutionalize the persecution of independent civil society.⁴

Human rights defenders

Selective criminalization of defenders and dissenting voices intensified through misuse of the criminal justice system.

In February, Fidel Zavala, spokesperson for the Human and Community Rights Defence Unit, was arrested and in April transferred to Mariona prison, in what civil society organizations described as an act of retaliation and a risk to his personal integrity.⁵

In May, lawyer Ruth López, head of the Anti-Corruption and Justice Unit of the NGO Cristosal, environmental defender Alejandro Henríquez, and community and religious leader José Ángel Pérez were arrested, arbitrarily charged and subjected to incommunicado detention and inhumane prison conditions.

In June, constitutional lawyer Enrique Anaya was detained in circumstances described as an enforced disappearance. During the first 48 hours, he was taken to different detention centres with no official record of his transfers and held in incommunicado detention without access to a lawyer. In September, the IACHR granted precautionary measures in his favour.

These cases reflected a systematic pattern of persecution marked by official stigmatization, undue secrecy in legal proceedings, removal of limits on pretrial detention and lack of judicial guarantees. In July, Amnesty International declared Ruth López, Alejandro Henríquez and José Ángel Pérez prisoners of conscience, concluding that they had been arrested and deprived of their liberty solely for defending human rights.⁶ The latter two were released on 17 December.

Sexual and reproductive rights

The absolute ban on abortion remained in place, criminalizing women suffering from obstetric emergencies and violating their sexual and reproductive rights. By the end of 2025, at least six women were facing criminal prosecution for this reason.

The State of the World's Human Rights; El Salvador 2025