The complaints from human rights organizations are based on two testimonies from people detained during the government of President Bukele in El Salvador.
The two claim they were tortured, watched people die in their cell, spent months in overcrowded jails with little food, and never received legal representation.
The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, has been waging a war against gangs at the same time that national and international human rights organizations denounce a pattern of abuses. Deaths in custody, extreme overcrowding, torture, arbitrary arrests, even of children, and a total lack of communication with lawyers or relatives.
According to the Justice Ministry database, at least 32 people died in custody without any explanation during the first five months of 2022 alone, from March to August. Another count by the Salvadoran group Cristosal, this time until the end of October, brought the number of deaths to 80, the majority in the Mariona and Izalco prisons.