SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — Fabricio Chicas knows exactly what will happen. As soon as he hands in his ID, the employee on the other side of the counter will look at him with suspicion, asking why he carries a document that identifies him as female.
OAS panel urges El Salvador to restore suspended rights
April 12, 2023 GMTSAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — The Inter American Commission on Human Rights has called on El Salvador to restore all the rights suspended under an “emergency” anti-gang decree, which the government said Wednesday it wants to extend for yet another month.
El Salvador marks its first year under anti-gang crackdown
March 28, 2023 GMTSAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — The Central American nation of El Salvador marked a full year Monday under anti-gang emergency measures that were originally supposed to last only a month.
It was the the first anniversary of President Nayib Bukele’s request for special powers to pursue gangs last March 27, following a surge in gang violence in which 62 people were killed in a single day.
War on gangs forges new El Salvador. But the price is steep
March 22, 2023 GMTSOYAPANGO, El Salvador (AP) — For the family of 44-year-old Maritza Pacheco, opening a corner shop outside their home four months ago was a small miracle.
Pacheco had lived like many in El Salvador’s capital: in constant panic.
El Salvador’s congress extends anti-gang crackdown
March 17, 2023 GMTEl Salvador’s congress has voted to approve yet another extension of emergency rules allowing police to round up suspected members of street gangs.
The vote late Wednesday was widely expected, and marks the 12th such one-month extension granted to President Nayib Bukele since the measure was first approved on March 27, 2022.
El Salvador: 2,000 more to prison, vows will ‘never return’
March 15, 2023 GMTSAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — El Salvador’s government sent 2,000 more suspects to a huge new prison built especially for gang members Wednesday, and the the justice minister vowed that “they will never return” to the streets.
El Salvador extends special powers in fight against gangs
February 15, 2023 GMTSAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — El Salvador’s congress has approved President Nayib Bukele’s request to extend the period of special powers for another month, meaning the country will go at least a full year with some fundamental rights suspended in fight against gangs.
El Salvador bets safety on incarceration; unveils new prison
February 3, 2023 GMTTECOLUCA, El Salvador (AP) — When El Salvador began making mass arrests of people with suspected gang affiliations last year, President Nayib Bukele ordered the construction of what would be the largest prison in Latin America.
El Salvador says it paid maturing $800 million bond
January 24, 2023 GMTSAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — El Salvador has repaid one of two outstanding $800 million bonds, the country's treasury minister announced, pushing back worries the government could default amid its decision to make the volatile cryptocurrency bitcoin legal tender.
In El Salvador, a tough anti-gang crackdown proves popular
December 27, 2022 GMTSAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — Nine months into a state of emergency declared by President Nayib Bukele to fight street gangs, El Salvador has seen more than 1,000 documented human rights abuses and about 90 deaths of prisoners in custody.
El Salvador congress extends gang crackdown yet again
December 15, 2022 GMTSAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — The congress of El Salvador has voted to extend President Nayib Bukele’s emergency powers to crack down on gangs for yet another month.
The vote late Wednesday extends for the ninth time the measures, enacted after a surge in murders in March, and ensures they will last into 2023.
Guatemala turns over Salvadoran gang leader
December 9, 2022 GMTSAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — A Salvadoran gang leader who had escaped to neighboring Guatemala after El Salvador began a crackdown on gangs in March has been returned to his country by Guatemalan authorities.
El Salvador sends 10,000 police, soldiers to seal off town
December 3, 2022 GMTSAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — The government of El Salvador sent 10,000 soldiers and police to seal off a town on the outskirts of the nation’s capital Saturday to search for gang members.
The operation was one of the largest mobilizations yet in President Nayib Bukele’s nine-month-old crackdown on street gangs that long extorted money from businesses and ruled many neighborhoods of the capital, San Salvador.
El Salvador to repurchase more of its debt
November 30, 2022 GMTSAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — El Salvador’s government announced Tuesday that it will make a second buyback of its sovereign debt bonds maturing in 2023 and 2025 as it tries to calm market concerns that it could default on its debt.
El Salvador announces new anti-gang measures
November 24, 2022 GMTSAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — The president of El Salvador announced Wednesday he will seal off sections of cities to search for street gang members, the latest phase in an increasingly tough nine-month anti-crime crackdown.
El Salvador fights gangs by destroying members’ tombstones
November 3, 2022 GMTSANTA TECLA, El Salvador (AP) — El Salvador’s government took its efforts against the country’s powerful street gangs to another level by sending inmates into cemeteries to destroy the tombs of gang members at a time of year when families typically visit their loved ones’ graves.
Prison deaths mount in El Salvador’s gang crackdown
October 24, 2022 GMTSAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — Jesús Joya says his brother was “special” -- at 45, he was childlike, eager to please. He was as far from a gang member as anyone could be. And yet the last time he saw Henry, he was boarding a bus to prison.
In El Salvador, army surrounds town to root out gang
October 2, 2022 GMTSAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — More than 2,000 soldiers and police surrounded and closed off a town in El Salvador Sunday in order to search for street gang members accused in a killing.
The large-scale encirclement of the town of Comasagua is the latest example of heavy-handed tactics by the government to root out street gangs.
El Salvador president re-election bid draws strong reaction
September 16, 2022 GMTSAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — In the hours since El Salvador President Nayib Bukele announced he would seek re-election despite a constitutional ban, opinion quickly divided.
Those who want to give more time to the man who has arrested more than 50,000 people in the past six months for alleged gang connections voiced their support while a vocal minority who see it as one more unsurprising step toward authoritarianism rejected the move.
El Salvador extends state of exception; 50,000 arrested
August 17, 2022 GMTSAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — With 50,000 people locked up since late March for alleged gang ties, El Salvador’s congress has approved another month-long extension of the state of exception that suspends some fundamental rights in the name of combatting the country’s powerful gangs.
El Salvador extends state of exception in gang crackdown
July 20, 2022 GMTSAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — El Salvador’s congress has granted President Nayib Bukele another 30-day extension of the state of exception that has suspended fundamental rights since a surge in gang killings in late March.
El Salvador’s Bitcoin-boosting leader buys $1.5 million more
July 1, 2022 GMTSAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — El Salvador’s Bitcoin-boosting president was back at it again Thursday, doubling down on his country’s losing investment in the cryptocurrency by buying over $1.5 million more.
El Salvador extends special powers to combat gangs
June 22, 2022 GMTSAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — El Salvador’s congress voted Tuesday to extend for a third time the state of exception that has suspended some fundamental rights and led to the arrests of more than 41,000 people during the past three months.
Bitcoin-boosting Salvadoran leader asks for patience
June 19, 2022 GMTSAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — El Salvador’s Bitcoin-boosting president has asked people to be patient after the price of the cryptocurrency fell below $20,000 — less than half the price the government paid.
Bitcoin-boosting Salvadoran leader may have second thoughts
June 15, 2022 GMTSAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — El Salvador’s Bitcoin-boosting president may be having second thoughts about the crypto-currency, whose value has tanked in recent weeks.
According to the tracking site nayibtracker.com, El Salvador under President Nayib Bukele's administration has bought a total of about $105 million in Bitcoin, starting last September and paying an average of almost $46,000 per coin.
Salvadoran leader rebuffs Blinken effort to bolster summit
June 9, 2022 GMTLOS ANGELES (AP) — It was the sort of diplomatic rebuff a small country like El Salvador generally can rarely afford to make.
In the run-up to this week's Summit of Americas in Los Angeles, senior U.S.
A crackdown in El Salvador, and fears of arbitrary arrests
June 2, 2022 GMTLA LIMONERA, El Salvador (AP) — Esmeralda Domínguez was about 100 yards from home when soldiers and police blocked her on a small bridge. The authorities had waited there for hours. Dominguez, neighbors said, was the only person they stopped.
El Salvador extends anti-gang emergency for another month
May 26, 2022 GMTSAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — El Salvador’s congress granted a request Wednesday by President Nayib Bukele for a second extension of the country’s anti-gang emergency decree.
The vote extends for 30 more days the state of emergency that was originally issued for one month in late March and then extended in April for another month.
Mexican leader meets with Salvador president amid crackdown
May 7, 2022 GMTSAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador met with his Salvadoran counterpart, Nayib Bukele, on Friday but did not mention rights complaints about El Salvador's massive roundup of suspected street gang members.
Rights groups criticize El Salvador’s mass gang roundups
May 2, 2022 GMTSAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — Human rights groups on Monday criticized the massive arrests of suspected gang members in El Salvador..
The roundups, begun in late March after a spike in homicides, have resulted in the arrest of over 22,000 presumed gang members.
El Salvador extends state of emergency
April 25, 2022 GMTSAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — El Salvador’s congress voted Sunday to grant a request by President Nayib Bukele to extend an anti-gang emergency decree for another 30 days.
The measure was approved with 67 votes in the 84-seat congress, where Bukele's party holds a majority.
El Salvador president’s mass arrests ‘punitive populism’
April 14, 2022 GMTSANTA TECLA, El Salvador (AP) — A day after the bloodletting -- 62 gang killings that convulsed El Salvador -- the crackdown began.
Before dawn on Sunday, March 27, just hours after congress approved a state of emergency, heavily armed police and soldiers entered the packed, gang-controlled neighborhood of San Jose El Pino.
Union: El Salvador police pressured to meet arrest cuotas
April 12, 2022 GMTSAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — Some National Civilian Police commanders in El Salvador have been pressuring their officers to meet daily arrest quotas as part of the government’s crackdown on street gangs that have yielded more than 10,000 arrests, a police union said Tuesday.
El Salvador threatens prison for media sharing gang messages
April 6, 2022 GMTSAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — El Salvador’s congress, pushing further in the government's dramatic crackdown on gangs, has authorized prison sentences of 10 to 15 years for news media that reproduce or disseminate messages from the gangs, alarming press freedom groups.
El Salvador leader says he’ll cut all food for gang inmates
April 5, 2022 GMTSAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — El Salvador’s president threatened Tuesday to stop providing food for imprisoned gang members as he continued his crackdown following a wave of killings that led to a state of emergency and implementation of measures that have drawn international condemnation.
El Salvador hikes prison sentences for gang members
March 31, 2022 GMTSAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — El Salvador's Congress on Wednesday increased sentences for crimes committed by gang members, expanding on a state of emergency lawmakers granted last weekend as President Nayib Bukele pursues the country's powerful street gangs.
El Salvador forces encircle neighborhoods in gang crackdown
March 30, 2022 GMTSAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — Security forces intensified operations against El Salvador’s street gangs Tuesday with mass arrests, the cordoning off of neighborhoods and house-by-house searches under a state of emergency that has raised concerns among some organizations it could open the door to human rights abuses.
El Salvador grabs 1,000 gang suspects, cuts food for inmates
March 28, 2022 GMTSAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — The government of El Salvador said Monday it has arrested more than 1,000 gang suspects after a wave of killings over the weekend.
President Nayib Bukele ordered food for gang members held in Salvadoran prisons be reduced to two meals per day, seized inmates’ mattresses and posted a video of prisoners being frog-marched through corridors and down stairs.
El Salvador declares state of emergency amid killings
March 27, 2022 GMTSAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — El Salvador’s congress granted President Nayib Bukele's request to declare a state of emergency early Sunday amid a wave of gang-related killings over the weekend.
IMF urges El Salvador to drop Bitcoin as legal tender
January 25, 2022 GMTSAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — The International Monetary Fund wants El Salvador to drop the highly volatile cryptocurrency Bitcoin as legal tender and strictly regulate the electronic wallet the government has pushed adoption of across the country.
Report: Dozens of El Salvador journalists, activists hacked
January 14, 2022 GMTMEXICO CITY (AP) — Dozens of journalists and human rights defenders in El Salvador had their cellphones repeatedly hacked with sophisticated spyware over the past year and a half, an internet watchdog said Wednesday.
El Salvador nabs 4.1 tons of cocaine in 2 semi-submersibles
December 31, 2021 GMTSAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — El Salvador’s navy seized two semi-submersible boats carrying 4.1 metric tons of cocaine off the country's Pacific coast, the government said Friday.
President Nayib Bukele said the cocaine was worth almost $104 million.
El Salvador frees three women convicted of abortions
December 25, 2021 GMTSAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — President Nayib Bukele's government has freed three Salvadoran women who were sentenced to 30 years in prison under the nation's strict anti-abortion laws after suffering obstetric emergencies, according to abortion rights groups.
EXPLAINER: Gang negotiations sensitive topic in El Salvador
December 9, 2021 GMTMEXICO CITY (AP) — Allegations from the United States government that President Nayib Bukele’s administration negotiated with El Salvador's powerful street gangs touched a sensitive topic. Previous administrations in El Salvador both from the left and right have done so and paid a political price.
U.S. Treasury: El Salvador government negotiated with gangs
December 8, 2021 GMTMEXICO CITY (AP) — El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele's government secretly negotiated a truce with leaders of the country’s powerful street gangs, the U.S. Treasury charged Wednesday, contradicting Bukele's denials and raising tensions between the two nations.
Salvadoran military plane crashes in Pacific, 3 dead
December 3, 2021 GMTSAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — A Salvadoran military plane crashed into the Pacific on Thursday, killing all three people aboard, including the son of the defense minister.
The armed forces confirmed that the bodies of all three victims had been recovered.
Salvadoran journalists, activists report spyware alerts
November 25, 2021 GMTSAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — The Association of Salvadoran Journalists says some news outlets have reported receiving alerts Wednesday from Apple Inc. warning of “possible spying” on the part of the Salvadoran government.
US diplomat in El Salvador critical of government leaves job
November 22, 2021 GMTSAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — The United States’ top diplomat in El Salvador announced Monday that she is leaving the post, adding that the government of President Nayib Bukele “is showing no interest” in improving the bilateral relationship.
El Salvador to build cryptocurrency-fueled “Bitcoin City”
November 21, 2021 GMTLA LIBERTAD, El Salvador (AP) — In a rock concert-like atmosphere, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele announced that his government will build an oceanside “Bitcoin City” at the base of a volcano.
Bukele used a gathering of Bitcoin enthusiasts Saturday night to launch his latest idea, much as he used a an earlier Bitcoin conference in Miami to announce in a video message that El Salvador would be the first country to make the cryptocurrency legal tender,
‘Foreign’ agents pitch has El Salvador civil society on edge
November 17, 2021 GMTSAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — El Salvador President Nayib Bukele has pitched a proposed law requiring people and organizations who receive foreign funding to register as “foreign agents,” following the lead of countries like the United States.
El Salvador sends troops, police into streets amid killings
November 12, 2021 GMTSAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — Combined patrols of soldiers and police fanned out across El Salvador's capital Thursday after a spate of killings left about 30 people dead in two days.
El Salvador’s homicide rate had dropped sharply from the violent days of the mid-2010s, when 15 or 20 killings a day were routine in the Central American country of 6.5 million people.
Civic groups slam El Salvador’s bill on outside funding
November 10, 2021 GMTSAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — Civic groups and activists criticized Wednesday a proposal by President Nayib Bukele’s to ban foreign donations or funding for non-governmental organizations that supposedly carry out political activity in El Salvador.
Following protests, El Salvador restricts mass gatherings
October 21, 2021 GMTSAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — Following a series of protests against El Salvador's government, the legislature dominated by President Nayib Bukele’s party has banned mass gatherings to prevent the spread of COVID-19 — but exempted sporting and cultural events.
El Salvador congress upholds total abortion ban
October 20, 2021 GMTSAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — El Salvador’s congress voted yet again Wednesday to uphold the country’s total ban on abortions.
Women’s rights groups had petitioned congress to approve at least exceptions in the case of rape, risk to a woman’s health or life-threatening deformities.
El Salvador explores bitcoin mining powered by volcanoes
October 15, 2021 GMTBERLIN, El Salvador (AP) — At a geothermal power plant near El Salvador’s Tecapa volcano, 300 computers whir inside a trailer as they make complex mathematical calculations day and night verifying transactions for the cryptocurrency bitcoin.
Critics ask IMF to block financing for El Salvador
October 8, 2021 GMTSAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — El Salvador’s National Private Business Association and a Jesuit-run university called Friday for restoring ousted judges as a condition on any new loan from the International Monetary Fund for government of President Nayib Bukele.
El Salvador president says he’s world’s ‘coolest dictator’
September 21, 2021 GMTSAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — The top U.S. diplomat in El Salvador said Tuesday she sees “a decline in democracy” the country, where President Nayib Bukele changed his Twitter profile to read “the coolest dictator in the world.”