The Bukele government appointed Andrés Guzmán of Colombia to the position of Human Rights Commissioner. Just as criticism of his security policies is mounting, the president of El Salvador appointed the lawyer to handle the case.
The President of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, appointed Colombian lawyer Andrés Guzmán to the post of Presidential Commissioner for Human Rights and Freedom of Expression. According to a statement from the Presidency, “With this appointment, the government of El Salvador will continue to reaffirm its commitment to the Human Rights of the population.”
Guzmán has worked as a university professor in several countries, including Spain, Peru and Colombia. Additionally, this lawyer has a focus on the law of new technologies and has experience as delegate defender of freedom of expression and rights in virtual environments for the Ombudsman’s Office of his native Colombia.
His appointment comes at a difficult time for the president of El Salvador. Warrantless arrests in El Salvador under Bukele’s exceptional regime against violent gangs have been a matter of concern to humanitarian organizations for the past 14 months.
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In fact, the president’s crusade began in March of last year when he allowed widespread arrests of suspected gang members, apparently taking away their ability to control territory as they had done for several years. Bukele affirmed that this control returned to the population a sense of security.
According to polls, nine out of ten Salvadorans support the gangs’ fight, but human rights groups and the Catholic Church have criticized Bukele’s tactics. In response to a homicidal escalation that claimed the lives of 87 people from March 25 to 27 of that year, the emergency regime was proclaimed for the first time by Parliament on March 27, 2022, at the request of Bukele.
Since then, the government estimates that 69,000 suspected gang members have been detained, although 5,000 have reportedly been released after it was determined that they had no affiliation with these gangs.