El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele has introduced a proposal that could lead to the conditional early release of as many as half of the people arrested under the country’s state of emergency. More than 90,000 people have been detained during the government’s four-and-a-half-year campaign against violent criminal gangs.
Announced Tuesday night, the plan would primarily target prisoners classified as gang collaborators. That broad designation may include people accused of serving as lookouts, as well as residents who paid extortion demands to criminal groups.
“Many people have committed crimes, without a doubt, but their offense was collaborating with gangs,” Bukele said. “They should be in prison, but we come from a country where gang collaboration was not unusual. If we detained everyone who had collaborated with gangs, we would have to arrest 20% of the population.”
The president did not explain how the review process would work in detail. He said authorities would examine individual cases and consider supervised early release, a step that could eventually apply to up to half of those detained under the emergency measures.
Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele has proposed the conditional early release of up to half of those arrested under the state of emergency. (Alex Peña/Getty Images)
El Salvador declared the state of emergency in March 2022, after more than 60 people were killed in a single day. Although the measure was initially intended to last just 30 days, lawmakers have renewed it repeatedly.
The crackdown has coincided with a sharp reduction in El Salvador’s reported homicide rate and has helped boost the country’s image as a tourist destination. At the same time, the emergency rules suspended or limited constitutional safeguards, including detainees’ rights to know why they were arrested, consult an attorney and receive visitors.
Bukele has consistently argued that the extraordinary measures were necessary to dismantle the rival gangs MS-13 and Barrio 18.
Human rights organizations have strongly opposed the policy, saying it has enabled mass arbitrary arrests. They have repeatedly called on the president to end the state of emergency.
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El Salvador’s state of emergency limited key constitutional protections, including detainees’ rights to be told the reason for their arrest, obtain legal representation and receive visits. (Alex Pena/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Rights groups say they have logged more than 6,000 complaints since the emergency began and recorded at least 575 deaths in government custody.
Critics say that releasing thousands of detainees, even under supervision, would not by itself undo the consequences of years of imprisonment.
“Those subjected to arbitrary detention deserve more than their freedom. They also deserve compensation for the damage caused by the Salvadoran state,” exiled Salvadoran attorney Bertha Deleón wrote on X, citing physical and psychological injuries, family hardship, lost employment or education and harm to their reputations.
Bukele has rejected the criticism from domestic and international rights advocates, arguing that they should instead stand with the victims of gang violence.
Human rights organizations say El Salvador’s state of emergency has resulted in widespread arbitrary arrests. (Salvadoran Government via Getty Images)
The president defended the continued use of the emergency powers while also saying he ultimately wants to bring the measure to an end.
According to government statistics, El Salvador’s homicide rate has plunged over the past decade, including throughout Bukele’s presidency. The rate fell from a 2015 peak of more than 100 killings per 100,000 residents—four years before Bukele took office—to 1.3 per 100,000 in 2025.
However, officials have adopted a narrower definition of homicide that does not include deaths caused by police, killings inside prisons or bodies discovered in unmarked graves.
