El Salvador president’s mass arrests ‘punitive populism’

By MARCOS ALEMÁN and CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN
Associated Press

SANTA TECLA, El Salvador (AP) — El Salvador’s security forces have arrested more than 10,000 suspected gang members in just over two weeks under rules that free them from having to explain an arrest or grant access to a lawyer. The crackdown from President Nayib Bukele’s government followed 62 killings by gangs on March 26. The highly publicized roundups are not the result of police investigations into the murders, but propel a tough-on-crime narrative that experts are calling “punitive populism.” Detainees can be held for 15 days without charges, one of the changes decried by international human rights groups and the United States government.