Bukele considers early release for thousands of gang-linked prisoners in El Salvador
El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele has announced plans to consider early and conditional release for thousands of prisoners who collaborated with criminal gangs, potentially benefiting a significant proportion of the country's prison population.
Speaking in San Salvador, Bukele said the government was assessing cases to distinguish between individuals directly involved in violent crimes and those who assisted gangs under pressure or coercion.
“There are many people who have indeed committed crimes, but those crimes were of collaborating with the gangs,” Bukele said, arguing that gang involvement had once been widespread in Salvadoran society.
The president estimated that around 50 per cent of prisoners who collaborated with gangs could qualify for early release, depending on the extent of their involvement.
Bukele also expressed his intention to eventually lift the state of exception, which has remained in force since March 2022, but warned that criminal organisations could regroup if security restrictions were removed too soon.
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“The state of exception is like chemotherapy,” he said, defending the continued use of extraordinary security measures.
The emergency powers, introduced during the government's crackdown on gangs, have allowed arrests without some ordinary procedural safeguards, drawing criticism from human rights organisations.
According to a 2025 report by the Human Rights Institute of the Central American University, El Salvador had approximately 118,369 people in detention, equivalent to 1,963 prisoners per 100,000 inhabitants.
This story is written and edited by the Global South World team, you can contact us here.
