Analysis: Bukele to double Salvadoran Army, deploy to gang areas; critics ask why

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele is committed to doubling the number of military personnel, in an attempt to gain permanent control of territories that have for decades been dominated by gangs.

At the end of the first semester of 2021, El Salvador registered a 10.4% increase in homicides compared to the same period in 2020 in what could be perceived as a flaw in the Territorial Control Plan (PCT). According to preliminary police figures, 658 homicides were registered between January and June, 10.4% more than the 596 registered in the same period of 2020.

According to Bukele, his security plan has reduced the number of homicides by 60%, albeit not specifying the comparison period.

On July 21 Bukele launched the 4th phase of the PCT plan, which involves increasing the number of active military personnel from 20,000 to 40,000 over the next 5 years, thus surpassing his presidential term which expires in 2024.

According to the president, this will guarantee “having enough human capital to defeat the gangs in their territories.”

THE OLD ALLY

Zaira Navas, an attorney with the humanitarian organization Cristosal, said that “all governments have relied on the Armed Forces” for their security plans.

According to the Platform for Citizen Security, its deployment in citizen safety tasks began in 1993 after the end of the civil war (1980-1992).

Navas points out that the main difference between previous governments and Bukele’s is that in the past “the Armed Forces had a lesser presence and it was the Ministry of Security that headed the efforts.”

He added that nowadays “we see the Armed Forces with more media presence” and “with more support from the president.” “The Armed Forces are being presented as an alternative for territorial control, this is very dangerous because they are not prepared,” and “they have not received training in human rights.”

He stressed that in Salvadoran history the Army has been used “to support or guarantee authoritarianism, to stage coups d’état, to guarantee the permanence of presidents, to break democracy and to violate human rights.”

The vast majority of war crimes or crimes against humanity perpetrated during the armed conflict are attributed to the Army, such as the execution of some 1,000 unarmed civilians in El Mozote (1981) and hundreds of other massacres.

THE DISPLACED POLICE?

Verónica Reyna of NGO Passionist Social Service publicly challenges the strengthening of the Army and not of the National Police Force (PNC), as does Navas.

The PNC was created with the signing of the 1992 Peace Accords to replace the military-style police forces also linked to human rights abuses. “The government is once again committed to reinforcing the military character of public safety, when for 3 decades we have been insisting on strengthening the PNC,” she said.

She added that “military presence has never been scientifically related to a reduction in crime.” According to Reyna, this tactic is intended to “show muscle” and the capacity to react in “a territory that is not under state control.”

She cautioned that this greater role of the Armed Forces creates a “political alliance” between the Government and the Army, which “also allows it to establish certain conditions of advantage and even of military support in times that may be uncomfortable for the Government.”

“Public safety is being used as an excuse to increase the military’s budget” and “give more power to the institution,” she stressed.

GANG POWER DOES NOT WANE

A phenomenon seen as a legacy of the civil war and strengthened by the deportation of members from the United States, gangs have withstood the security plans implemented in the past four administrations. These have ranged from mass incarceration of gang members to direct armed conflict and negotiations.

President Bukele’s statement announcing the increase in military personnel also raises doubts about the number of active gang members. “There will be one man providing security per gang member,” he said. “This is how we are going to win this war with the gangs, with bold measures,” he said in his speech.

Bukele did not specify if he was referring to the 40,000 military personnel the army would have in 5 years, added to the PNC contingent of more than 22,000 operational members to meet the number of active gang members.

Past administrations have estimated the number of gang members at 60,000 and that approximately 10% of the population has some relationship with these structures.

THE ARMY HIDING FROM ITS PAST

In 2020, the Government launched an intense publicity campaign in the media emphasizing that the country had “new Armed Forces,” but the Army still has unfinished business with the victims of the civil war.

In a document sent to the Supreme Court in 2020, Defense Minister Rene Merino disassociated the institution from the search for justice for the El Mozote massacre.

In a letter to the Supreme Court’s Justices urging them to halt a judicial investigation into its archives, Merino argued that the Armed Forces “could hardly be considered to have a direct interest in the ultimate goal pursued by the investigation.”