When the state arrests first and explains later, children become neglected and isolated.
The state of exception in El Salvador, was initially enacted in March of 2022 to address gang-related violence. This was President Bukele’s reaction to El Salvador’s deadliest weekend, where 87 people were murdered in a wave of attacks from the MS-13 and Barrio 18 gangs. The state of exception is a legal framework that allows the government to suspend certain Constitutional rights in extraordinary circumstances. These rights include freedom of assembly, the right to legal defence and protection from arbitrary detention. Due to this, more than 86,000 individuals have been arbitrarily detained, according to the International Federation for Human Rights. Since its implementation, the state of exception has been extended over 44 times, and El Salvador’s Congress voted in August 2025 to extend detention until 2027. What does this decision mean for children?
As reported by the human rights NGO Cristosal, about 62,000 children under the age of 15 are suffering from parental abandonment because of the state of exception detention policies. This causes young children to be left behind without proper care, in situations of poverty, and stigmatized by their communities. These children fall through the cracks; most left alone, but all forever scarred.
According to Human Rights Watch, El Salvador’s Legislative Assembly has approved measures that will result in children being transferred to the country’s adult prison system. Why might this be? On Feb. 13, 2025, President Bukele signed a law that ordered the transfer of children detained for “organized crime” or “unlawful association” into adult prisons run by the General Directorate of Penal Centers. Why adult prisons? Juvenile centers became increasingly overcrowded because thousands of children were being detained. To put this into context, over 3,300 children as young as 12 have been pushed into adult penitentiaries.
Children and their families have been the victims of gang threats and violence, sometimes resulting in children joining these gangs. To address this, the government should focus on dismantling the gangs and strictly addressing the issue with youth recruitment instead of enacting policies that result in children being abused. The system should protect children, not criminalize them.
Although the government claims to be detaining children based on relation or involvement with organized crime, many are arrested solely based on their appearance and neighborhood. “Children from vulnerable communities in El Salvador are bearing the brunt of the government’s indiscriminate security policies, suffering egregious human rights violations” said Juanita Goebertus, The Americas’ director at Human Rights Watch. These detentions were reported to take place in their homes, on the street, or at school.
Several of these children face scarce food and water supplies, severe overcrowding, torture and violence. Specifically, children are beaten by security forces with belts, fists and batons, and in some cases are suffocated or burned. Conditions in the detention shelters include lack of mattresses and hygiene products. Due to changes to the Juvenile Criminal Law in 2022, prison sentences for 12- to 15-year-olds are now up to 10 years, compared to the previous system, which prioritized non-custodial educational and restorative measures instead of long prison sentences for children (Human Rights Watch).
Do these children have a voice? Under El Salvadoran law, detained children are required to be transferred to administrative shelters and brought before a judge within 72-hours. However, under the state of exception the government has extended this limit to 15 days, and children are unable to communicate with their families.
The treatment of children during arrests and in detention centers violate rights under the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Child, which include the right to liberty and protection from arbitrary detention; protection from torture and inhumane treatment; and the right to family contact.
Some El Salvadorans support the policy, mainly because Bukele’s hard-line approach has resulted in visible crime stat changes. According to the U.S. Congress, the government of El Salvador claims that it reduced the homicide rate to 1.9 homicides per 100,000 people in 2024, down from 53.1 per 100,000 people in 2018, before Bukele took office. Although this may be true, children are still bearing the cost of the state of exception detention policies. Are we exchanging children for security? Is the temporary perceived security worth not securing the future of El Salvador?
