El Salvador minister says 75% of gang members arrested

Three-quarters of El Salvador’s gang members have been arrested since President Nayib Bukele declared war on them two years ago, his security minister said Tuesday.

The number of detainees now stands at 79,184 and authorities are working to locate the remainder, estimated at around 25,000, Gustavo Villatoro said.

Not all of them are in El Salvador, however, as many have fled, he added.

“With the record of arrests that we have, in general terms, we can say that we’re at around 75 percent … and that we have 25 percent left,” Villatoro told the television network TCS.

Bukele launched a war on gangs in March 2022, with a state of emergency suspending the need for arrest warrants, among other civil liberties.

Human rights organisations have criticised Bukele’s methods, which Amnesty International last week described as “disproportionate.”

Bukele, who was reelected in February for another five-year term, has promised to continue the war “until we eradicate the little that still remains of the gangs.”