HomeNewsAnalysisWeekly InSight: US Finances El Salvador Police Implicated in Abuses
ANALYSIS

Weekly InSight: US Finances El Salvador Police Implicated in Abuses

BARRIO 18 / 1 JUN 2018 BY INSIGHT CRIME EN

In our May 31 Facebook Live session, InSight Crime Senior Investigator Héctor Silva Ávalos and Managing Editor Josefina Salomón analyzed a recent report that accused the United States of financing El Salvador police involved in human rights abuses, including extrajudicial killings.

The investigation, published by CNN, reported that the United States sent “significant US funding” to the Special Reaction Force (Fuerza Especializada de Reacción – FES) of El Salvador’s National Civil Police (Policia Nacional Civil – PNC), despite its alleged responsibility for the execution of 43 people suspected of belonging to gangs during the first six months of 2017.

At the beginning of 2018, the FES was replaced by another specialized police unit. However, according to the investigation, some FES members joined the new unit and continue to receive funding from the United States.

During their conversation, Salomón and Silva, who has investigated these reports, discussed the failed “iron fist” or zero-tolerance strategies utilized by Salvadoran authorities to mitigate the growing presence of gangs such as the MS13, as well as the United States’ history of ignoring reports of abuses.

They also talked about the possible impact of the next report that United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions Agnes Callamard will publish following a visit to El Salvador. During her recent visit to El Salvador, she strongly condemned abuses allegedly committed by security forces.

Watch the complete Facebook Live discussion in Spanish below:

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

CRIMINAL MIGRATION / 6 OCT 2022

El Salvador will hold off on extraditing a top MS13 gang leader to the United States to face terrorism charges.

AUC / 13 APR 2022

It was 7:00 at night. Carolina was lying in bed and turned on the TV just as a news reporter…

DISPLACEMENT / 4 JUL 2023

In this article, the Venezuela Organized Crime Observatory examines the policy intervention options for tackling the criminal exploitation of the…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in New Colombia Drug Policy Plan

15 SEP 2023

InSight Crime’s work on emerging coca cultivation in Honduras, Guatemala, and Venezuela was cited in the Colombian government’s…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Discusses Honduran Women's Prison Investigation

8 SEP 2023

Investigators Victoria Dittmar and María Fernanda Ramírez discussed InSight Crime’s recent investigation of a massacre in Honduras’ only women’s prison in a Twitter Spaces event on…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Trafficking Investigation Published in Leading Mexican Newspaper

1 SEP 2023

Leading Mexican media outlet El Universal featured our most recent investigation, “The Geography of Human Trafficking on the US-Mexico Border,” on the front page of its August 30…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Coverage of Ecuador Leads International Debate

25 AUG 2023

This week, Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime, was interviewed by La Sexta, a Spanish television channel, about the situation of extreme violence and insecurity in Ecuador…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Rights Watch Draws on InSight Crime's Haiti Coverage

18 AUG 2023

Non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch relied on InSight Crime's coverage this week, citing six articles and one of our criminal profiles in its latest report on the humanitarian…