A group of international jurists on Tuesday submitted a report to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) accusing Salvadoran authorities of committing crimes against humanity during the country’s state of exception.
The complaint alleges systematic practices of torture, murder and forced disappearance carried out under the emergency measures the government introduced four years ago in March. The jurists state there are "reasonable grounds" to believe the acts meet the definition of crimes against humanity under Article 7 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
According to the report, the alleged abuses form part of a state policy that is "known and even promoted by the highest levels of President Nayib Bukele’s government." The filing links the reported violations to the structures and operations associated with the state of exception.
The Salvadoran government first enacted the state of exception on March 27, 2022. The measure was presented at the time as a response to a surge in gang-related violence that produced 87 deaths in a single weekend. Under the decree, authorities have detained more than 90,000 people.
The report states that roughly 500 detainees have died while in state custody. At the same time, government figures cited in the filing indicate that homicides have fallen by more than 90% since President Bukele assumed office.
Salvadoran Public Defender General Rene Escobar rejected the claims in the report, saying the government rejects any policy of "forced disappearance, torture, sexual violence, or arbitrary executions."
The complaint to the IACHR frames the alleged abuses as systematic and connected to official policy, while official statements provided in response emphasize the government’s denial of such a policy. The report and the government’s rebuttal present competing accounts of the state of affairs under the state of exception.
Details in the filing cite both quantitative data and qualitative allegations: the number of detentions and deaths in custody are provided alongside claims about the nature and organization of the alleged abuses. The document points to the role of senior levels of government in either knowing about or promoting the practices it describes.
Information in the report and the government’s public statements highlights divergent narratives: one asserting serious human-rights violations and the other categorically denying any sanctioned abuses. The filing with the IACHR places these contested claims before an international human-rights mechanism.