By Human Rights Watch 

  Police and soldiers in El Salvador arrested Carolina González (pseudonym), a 17-year-old student from a rural town in Sonsonate state, on July 1, 2022, without showing her a warrant. Security forces accused Carolina of collaborating with gangs. She recalls they held her with adult women, for seven days, at a police station, where an officer tried to coerce her into identifying a gang member, whom she did not know, in exchange for being released. Two weeks later, the police transferred Carolina to a juvenile detention center where she was held in a small, unsanitary cell with 25 other girls. Months later, a judge pressured Carolina and seven other children to jointly plead guilty to collaborating with the MS-13 gang, which she denies doing. Carolina and three other girls recall the judge saying that if one of them refused the plea deal, they would all serve sentences that were twice as long. They pleaded guilty and were sentenced to a year in prison. “We did not have an option,” Carolina said, “we all wanted to see our moms.” Carolina is one of roughly 3,000 children who have been arrested in what witnesses often describe as indiscriminate sweeps since, in March 2022, President Nayib Bukele declared a state of emergency as part of a “war on gangs.” She is also one of 1,000 children who have been convicted during the state of emergency, primarily on charges of gang membership. Security forces have subjected many of these children to a range of serious human rights violations during their arrest, in detention, and even after release. This report, based on interviews with more than 90 people, documents these human rights violations against children who security forces have accused of being connected to gangs. Human Rights Watch visited, in September and December 2023, San Salvador, Sonsonate, and Cuscatlán states and interviewed victims of abuse, their relatives and lawyers, witnesses, judges, police officers, security experts, teachers, former government officials, journalists and civil society members. We also requested information from several government offices and reviewed relevant case files, as well as medical, educational, and criminal records.

  Since March 2022, El Salvador has been under a “state of emergency” to fight heinous gang violence. The police and military report having arrested 80,000 people, including over 3,000 children. Homicides and extortions have significantly decreased, but security forces have committed widespread human rights violations. “Your Child Does Not Exist Here” documents human rights abuses against children, including arbitrary detention, torture and other forms of ill-treatment, and due process violations. Some have been held in detention alongside unrelated adults. Dozens have been convicted through unfair trials, often based on broad charges. Juvenile detention facilities have been overcrowded and unsanitary. The abuses have happened in a context of dramatic deterioration of the rule of law and government attacks on civil society and independent media. Many of the children arrested lived in low-income communities with constant gang violence. Social exclusion, and lack of opportunities left them vulnerable to both gang recruitment and stigmatization by security forces. The report urges the government to prioritize prosecution of those most responsible for gang violence and promptly release those detained without evidence, particularly children. It also provides recommendations for implementing a rights-respecting security policy that protects children from gang violence and abuses. The international community should urge the Salvadoran government to respect and protect children’s rights. Foreign governments and international financial institutions should suspend loans to entities involved in human rights violations. They should promote effective and rights-respecting security policies that ensure that Salvadorans are not forced to choose between gang violence and abuses by security forces.  

New York: HRW, 2024. 112p.