El Salvador president says 8,000 innocents freed in ‘war’ on gangs

El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele speaks during a joint press conference with Costa Rica’s President Rodrigo Chaves at the “Jorge Arturo Montero Castro” penitentiary center in Alajuela, Costa Rica, on November 12, 2024. Agence France-Presse

SAN JOSÉ, Costa Rica — El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele acknowledged on Tuesday that 8,000 innocent people were arrested and later released during his crackdown on street gangs, accusing activists of inventing a much higher figure of 30,000.

“No police anywhere in the world are perfect,” Bukele said during a visit to Costa Rica.

“In El Salvador, as in Costa Rica, France, Germany, England, the United States, innocent people are arrested. This happens everywhere,” he said.

READ: Inside El Salvador’s mega-prison holding 12,000 alleged gangsters

“We have already freed 8,000 people. And we are going to free 100 percent of the innocent people,” Bukele added.

The rights group Socorro Juridico Humanitario estimates that almost a third of the 83,000 Salvadorans who have been detained under a state of emergency — which allows arrests without a court order — are innocent.

The crackdown on street gangs has led to a sharp fall in homicides and is praised by many Salvadorans, although rights groups have criticized Bukele’s methods as ignoring people’s basic rights.

READ: El Salvador leader defends gang crackdown at UN: ‘It was the right thing’

Bukele advised Costa Rica to tighten its prison system, calling it too “permissive,” after visiting a jail with his counterpart Rodrigo Chaves.