Degradation as salvation: reflections on El Salvador’s punitive prison model

Authors

  • Lutz Oette SOAS

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7146/torture.v34i1.144071

Keywords:

prison overcrowding, ill-treatment, minimum standards, torturous environments, offsetting., discriminatory torture, public opinion, new model

Abstract

Letter to the editor.

References

Agamben, G. (2005) State of Exception. Chicago, University of Chicago Press.

Agrupación Ciudana por la Despenalización del Aborto, Asociación Azul Originario (AZO), Centro de Derechos Reproductivos, CRISTOSAL, Fair Trials International, Fundación para el Debido Proceso (DPLF, por sus siglas inglés), Instituto de Derechos Humanos de la UCA (Idhuca), Mujeres Libres, Organización Mundial Contra la Tortura (OMCT), Servicio Social Pasionista (SSPAS). (2022). Informe de Organizaciones de Derechos Humanos de la Sociedad Civil al Comité Contra La Tortura de las Naciones Unidas. Retrieved from https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=INT%2FCAT%2FCSS%2FSLV%2F50554&Lang=en

Al Jazeera. (27 February 2023). Photos: Inside El Salvador’s new ‘mega prison’ for gang members. Al Jazeera. Retrieved from https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2023/2/27/photos-inside-el-salvadors-new-mega-prison-for-gangster

Alston, P. (2017). The Populist Challenge to Human Rights. 9(1) Journal of Human Rights Practice, 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1093/hux007

Amnesty International. (2023). Behind the veil of popularity: Repression and regression of human rights in El Salvador. Retrieved from https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/amr29/7423/2023/en/

Asamblea Legislativa. (27 March 2022). Pleno legislativo aprueba régimen de excepción para frenar ola de violencia.

Asamblea Legislativo. (27 March 2022). Decree No 333.

BBC Mundo. (14 July 2023). El Salvador’s secretive mega-jail. BBC Mundo. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-81749d7c-d0a0-48d0-bb11-eaab6f1e6556

Beauchamp, Z. (8 April 2023). Meet the MAGA movement’s new favorite autocrat. Vox. Retrieved from https://www.vox.com/2023/4/8/23653324/nayib-bukele-trump-american-right-crime

Brundage, F. (2020). Civilizing Torture: An American Tradition. Harvard: Harvard University Press.

Centenera, M. (12 March 2024). Cuatro asesinatos al azar y terror narco en las calles: Milei endurce su política de seguridad en Rosario. El Pais. Retrieved from https://elpais.com/argentina/2024-03-12/cuatro-asesinatos-al-azar-y-terror-narco-en-las-calles-milei-endurece-su-politica-de-seguridad-en-rosario.html

Corman, L. (2022). Trauma as a Möbius strip: PTSD, animal research, and the Oak Ridge prisoner experiments. In Montford, K.S. & Taylor, C. (Eds.), Building Abolition: Decarceration and Social Justice (pp. 269-285). London and New York: Routledge.

Guillén, B. (4 October 2023). Honduras, the country where the Bukele method failed. El Pais. Retrieved from https://english.elpais.com/international/2023-10-03/honduras-the-country-where-the-bukele-method-failed.html

Human Rights Watch and Cristosal. (2022). “We Can Arrest Anyone We Want” Widespread Human Rights Violations Under El Salvador’s “State of Emergency”. Retrieved from https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/media_2022/12/elsalvador1222web.pdf

Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. (2015). Towards the Closure of Guantanamo Bay. OAS/Ser.L/V/II.Doc. 20/15.

Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. (2021). Situation of human rights in El Salvador. OEA/Ser.L/V/II.Doc. 278.

Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. (2022). Follow-up of recommendations issued by the IACHR in its Country or Thematic Reports, El Salvador, Annual Report, Chapter V.

International Crisis Group. (2022). A Remedy for El Salvador’s Prison Fever. Retrieved from https://www.crisisgroup.org/latin-america-caribbean/central-america/el-salvador/96-remedy-el-salvadors-prison-fever

Judge Power-Forde. (2013). Concurring Opinion, Vinter and Others v United Kingdom, European Court of Human Rights, Application nos 66069/09 130/10 3896/1.

La 40: arte y justicia. (2024). ‘Mega Prison’ Dearq 38, 106. https://doi.org/10.18389/dearq38.2024.09.

Mavronicola, N. (2021). Torture, Inhumanity and Degradation under Article 3 of the ECHR: Absolute Rights and Absolute Wrongs. Oxford, New York and Dublin: Hart Publishing.

Morbiato, C. (1 December 2023). Detainees in El Salvador’s gang crackdown cite abuse during months in jail. Independent. Retrieved from https://www.independent.co.uk/news/pedro-ap-el-salvador-mexico-city-nayib-bukele-b2456601.html

Oette, L. (2024, forthcoming). The Transformation of the Prohibition of Torture in International Law. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. (22 May 2023). El Salvador: Extended state of emergency undermines right to fair trial, UN experts say. Retrieved from https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/05/el-salvador-extended-state-emergency-undermines-right-fair-trial-un-experts

Paúl, F. (26 February 2024). 4 cambios que muestran cómo se ha transformado el crimen organizado en América Latina. BBC El Mundo. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/mundo/articles/cjmd4v847ewo

Pérez-Sales, P. (2017). Psychological Torture. London and New York: Routledge.

Quesada, J.D. (7 February 2024). Inside Nayib Bukele’s Alcatraz: ‘It is impossible to escape. These psychopaths are going to spend their whole lives behind bars here’. El Pais. Retrieved from https://english.elpais.com/international/2024-02-07/inside-nayib-bukeles-alcatraz-it-is-impossible-to-escape-these-psychopaths-are-going-to-spend-their-whole-lives-behind-bars-here.html.

Renteria, N. & Kinosian, S. (4 February 2024). El Salvador's Bukele re-elected as president in landslide win. Reuters. Retrieved from https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/el-salvador-president-bukele-poised-another-landslide-voters-head-polls-2024-02-04/

Rocker, S. (2023). La mega cárcel de Bukele: una oportunidad para preguntarse por la prisión y su ideología. Revista Hektabombe. Retrieved from https://www.revistahekatombe.com.co/la-mega-carcel-de-bukele-una-oportunidad-para-preguntarse-por-la-prision-y-su-ideologia/

Rosen, J.D. (2021). Corruption, Crime, and Gangs in Central America: Understanding the Root. Small Wall Journals El Centro. Retrieved from https://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/corruption-crime-and-gangs-central-america-understanding-root-causes

Rosen, J.D., Cutrona, S. & Lindquist, K. (2023). Gangs, violence, and fear: punitive Darwinism in El Salvador. Criminal Law and Social Change. 79(2), 175–194. doi: 10.1007/s10611-022-10040-3

Sánchez-Ancochea, D. (2021). The Costs of Inequality in Latin America: Lessons and Warnings for the Rest of the World. London: IB Tauris.

Serrano, G. (7 February 2024). Photos: A tour of Nayib Bukele’s mega-prison. El Pais. Retrieved from https://english.elpais.com/international/2024-02-07/photos-a-tour-of-nayib-bukeles-mega-prison.html.

Steyn, J. (2004). Guantanamo Bay: The Legal Black Hole. International and Comparative Law Quarterly, 53(1), 1-15.

SRT. (2005). Report of the Special Rapporteur on the question of torture, Manfred Nowak. UN Doc E/CN.4/2006/6.

SRT. (2020). Torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or Punishment: Report of the Special Rapporteur. UN doc A/HRC/43/49.

Timmermann, J. (14 November 2023). Noah Bullock: “El estado de excepción instaló un gulag tropical en El Salvador”. ĉenital. Retrieved from https://cenital.com/noah-bullock-el-estado-de-excepcion-instalo-un-gulag-tropical-en-el-salvador/

Timmerman, J. (15 January 2024). Ecuador is copying El Salvador’s war on gangs – but it will only add to the spiral of violence. Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/jan/15/ecuador-el-salvador-war-gangs-spiral-violence-latin-america-organised-crime

United Nations (2021). United Nations System Common Position on Incarceration.

United Nations Committee against Torture (2022). Concluding observations on the third periodic report of El Salvador. UN doc CAT/C/SLV/CO/3.

United Nations Development Programme (2021). Regional Human Development Report: Trapped: High Inequality and Low Growth in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Ventas, L. (15 February 2024). Coming face to face with inmates in El Salvador’s mega jail. BBC. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-68244963

Volpi, J. (12 March 2024). Una epidemia de violencia. El Pais. Retrieved from https://elpais.com/opinion/2024-03-12/una-epidemia-de-violencia.html

Waldron, J. (2010) Torture, Terror, and Trade-Offs: Philosophy for the White House. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Webster, E. (2018). Dignity, Degrading Treatment and Torture in Human Rights Law: The Ends of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights: London and New York: Routledge.

Zach, G. (2019) Article 1: Definition of Torture. In Nowak, N., Birk, M. & Molina, G. (Eds) The United Nations Convention against Torture and its Optional Protocol (pp. 23-71). 2nd edn. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Downloads

Published

2024-05-28 — Updated on 2024-05-28

How to Cite

Oette, L. (2024). Degradation as salvation: reflections on El Salvador’s punitive prison model. Torture Journal, 34(1), 143–147. https://doi.org/10.7146/torture.v34i1.144071