Prison deaths mount in El Salvador’s gang crackdown

By CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN
Associated Press

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — On March 26, El Salvador’s street gangs had killed 62 people across the country, igniting a nationwide furor. President Nayib Bukele and his allies in congress launched a war against the gangs and suspended constitutional rights. Nearly seven months later, this “state of exception” is still widely popular. But gangsters are not the only ones caught up in a dragnet that has been haphazard, with fatal consequences. The arrests of more than 55,000 people have swamped an already overwhelmed criminal justice system. Defendants arrested on the thinnest of suspicions are dying in prison before any authority looks closely at their cases.