GENOCIDE  WATCH

El Salvador has experienced repeated violence since 1932, including a civil war that killed about 75,000 people and gang violence attributed to roughly 200,000 deaths by MS-13 and Barrio 18. In 2019, President Bukele's Territorial Control Plan reduced the homicide rate by 92% through mass detentions, though El Salvador now has the world's highest incarceration rate. Bukele has amended the constitution to allow indefinite re-election and maintained a state of exception, while the CECOT prison has been documented to involve arbitrary detention, torture, and overcrowding; the US now deports migrants to CECOT under an agreement with Bukele. Abortion remains banned and criminalized, same-sex marriage is illegal, and transgender citizens lack legal recognition or the ability to change their documents.