Weekly Report - 19 March 2026 (WR-26-11)

El Salvador’s legislative assembly rushed through a constitutional reform on 17 March introducing life sentences for “murderers, rapists and terrorists” proposed by the government of President Nayib Bukele. In presenting the bill to legislators, Justice and Security Minister Gustavo Villatoro devoted the bulk of his speech to excoriating human rights organisations for criticising rights violations under the longstanding state of exception, which will have been in place for four years later this month. Days earlier Bukele reacted with indignation to a detailed report from a group of international jurists filed with the ‌Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) entitled ‘El Salvador at the Crossroads: Crimes against Humanity in the Framework of Public Security Policy’.