El Salvador's Bukele announces plan to free up to half of prisoners jailed in gang crackdown

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele has unveiled a plan that could allow the conditional early release of up to half of those detained under a state of emergency that authorities used to arrest more than 90,000 people in the past four and a half years as part of an effort to curb violent criminal gang activity.

Bukele's plan to cut the prison population was announced on Tuesday night.

It would focus on freeing prisoners who were deemed gang collaborators, a broad term that can include various people, including gang lookouts and those who make extortion payments.

"There are many people who have indeed committed crimes, but their crime was collaborating with gangs," Bukele said.

"They deserve to be in jail, but we come from a country where collaborating with gangs wasn’t so unusual, and if we were to arrest everyone who collaborated with gangs, we would have to arrest 20% of the population." Without offering details, the president indicated that authorities plan to analyze cases to determine potential early release with monitoring, which could apply to half of the people detained during the state of emergency.

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION SAYS FEDERAL AUTHORITIES HAVE ARRESTED MORE THAN 10,000 SUSPECTED GANG MEMBERS The state of emergency was declared in March 2022 after a surge in violence left more than 60 people dead in a single day.

The measure was initially imposed for 30 days but has been repeatedly extended.

The emergency declaration has coincided with a dramatic decline in the country's homicide rate and helped make El Salvador a more appealing tourist destination while also suspending or restricting certain constitutional protections, including the right to be informed of the reasons for detention, the right to access legal counsel and the right to visitation.

El Salvador's president has maintained that the measure was needed to rein in rival gangs MS-13 and Barrio 18.

Human rights groups , meanwhile, have denounced the declared emergency, arguing that it has sparked widespread arbitrary arrests.

The groups have repeatedly demanded that Bukele scrap the measure.

NICOLAS MADURO AND WIFE CILIA FLORES FACE NEW CHARGE OF CONSPIRACY TO TORTURE AMERICANS Human rights organizations have recorded more than 6,000 complaints during the emergency declaration and documented the deaths of at least 575 people in government custody.

The potential release of thousands of prisoners, some argue, is not enough to repair the damage of their prolonged imprisonment.