San Salvador — El Salvador’s legislative assembly voted overwhelmingly Thursday to extend President Nayib Bukele’s emergency powers for a fourth consecutive year, granting security forces blanket authority to suspend constitutional rights in gang-controlled neighborhoods as the country’s homicide rate fell to its lowest recorded level — 1.9 per 100,000 — even as human rights organizations documented a surge in arbitrary detentions and prison overcrowding.
The 67-to-4 vote came after Bukele addressed the assembly in a rare personal appearance, declaring that “the state of exception is not a tool of repression — it is the shield that saved El Salvador from becoming a failed state.” The extension, which suspends the right to legal counsel and allows warrantless arrests for another 12 months, has been renewed every year since March 2022 when Bukele first declared a gang crackdown following a wave of 87 homicides in a single weekend.
What the Data Shows
Government figures paint a striking picture: homicides dropped from 1,147 in 2021 to just 120 in 2025, making El Salvador statistically the safest country in Latin America. The national police attribute the decline to the detention of over 82,000 suspected gang members, many held without formal charges in facilities designed for a fraction of that population. Tourism revenue tripled between 2022 and 2025, and foreign direct investment reached a record $2.1 billion last year.
But a report released Wednesday by Cristosal, the country’s leading human rights organization, told a different story. Researchers documented 3,400 complaints of arbitrary detention in 2025 alone, 268 cases of torture inside detention centers, and at least 189 deaths in custody — a 40 percent increase over 2024. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has formally requested that El Salvador allow an independent inspection of its prison system, a request the government has repeatedly denied.
Political Calculus
Bukele’s Nuevas Ideas party controls 58 of the legislature’s 60 seats, giving him carte blanche to extend the emergency regime indefinitely. Opposition deputies who voted against the extension denounced it as a permanent suspension of civil liberties. “We are trading freedom for security, and today we have neither,” said deputy Claudia Ortiz of the Vamos party, one of the four lawmakers who voted no. A poll released by the University of Central America this week showed 78 percent of Salvadorans support the emergency measures — a figure that has barely budged in four years.
The United States has been quietly supportive. A senior State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Washington views the security gains as “real and significant” even as it raises concerns about due process. The Trump administration has deported thousands of Salvadoran gang members back to the country under the emergency framework, treating Bukele’s crackdown as a regional security asset.
What Comes Next
Civil society groups have filed a constitutional challenge before the Supreme Court, but the court — stacked with Bukele appointees since the 2021 judicial purge — is widely expected to dismiss it. The Organization of American States has scheduled a hearing on El Salvador’s human rights record for later this month, though Bukele’s government has signaled it will not cooperate. Meanwhile, the government announced plans to build three new mega-prisons to house the growing detainee population, each designed to hold 40,000 inmates.
Written by Diego Vargas, Latin America Correspondent
Written by Diego Vargas