In brief
Families of detainees held under President Nayib Bukele’s four‑year‑old state‑of‑exception gathered in March on the steps of San Salvador’s Metropolitan Cathedral, offering flowers to remember 454 reported prison‑dead and demanding answers about those still held incommunicado. The protest, timed with the Day of the Dead, highlighted widespread lack of communication between families and authorities and called for justice for all inmates. Organisers cited human rights reports and urged authorities to provide clearer information on detainee whereabouts and conditions.
On Saturday, October 31, relatives of people detained in El Salvador’s state of exception gathered in the city’s Metropolitan Cathedral, leaving yellow and red flowers on tombs to honor 454 inmates reported dead in custody and demanding fair trials for those still held incommunicado, said Reuters.
Hundreds of protestors, many of whom had no recent contact with their jailed relatives, assembled on the cathedral steps, waving banners and photographs of the missing. They held a rally on the Day of the Dead, a traditional holiday observed on November 1 and 2 across Latin America, to mourn those who died behind bars and to call for transparent information from authorities.
The protest was framed by the state‑of‑exception imposed by President Nayib Bukele four years ago, which has led security forces to detain more than 90,000 people. Human‑rights organization Cristostal has documented 454 deaths in El Salvadorian prisons among those held under the policy, generating widespread outrage among families who fear their loved ones could become another statistic.
Among the gathered was 61‑year‑old Natalia Funes, a farmer from Puerto El Triunfo in the eastern province of Usulutan, who had been searching for answers about her son, Oscar Orlando Rodriguez, who was arrested in July 2022 and has stayed incommunicado since. “We are here in memory of all the innocent people who have died under the state of exception,” said Liliana Urias, 44, spokeswoman for the Mothers for Freedom movement, who shared that several members of the movement had lost a son, a brother or the father of their children.
“We are here in memory of all the innocent people who have died under the state of exception.”
Urias reiterated the group’s demand for fair trials for the remaining detainees, noting the absence of regular contact and uncertainty over the status of many prisoners. The crowd, chanting and holding candles, knelt in prayer around the tomb of Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero, a saint, and nailed flowers to the stone steps, honoring those who lost their lives in the country’s penal institutions.
The event drew attention to reports of widespread lack of contact between families and authorities, and it joined a growing chorus of voices calling for accountability and reform in the wake of the state‑of‑exception’s broad reach. Human‑rights observers say that the day’s demonstrators “highlighted concerns about widespread lack of contact and possible deaths among those in state‑of‑exception custody.”
While the protest was driven by grief and demand for justice, it also emphasized the role of the Day of the Dead in giving families a platform to mourn and seek answers. Organisers urged Puerto El Triunfo, and other provinces, to support claims that families were repeatedly denied phone communication, mail, and visits during lockdowns on the basis of supposed safety concerns.
In the larger context, El Salvador has faced international criticism for the state‑of exception, with Amnesty International and other NGOs calling for a review of detentions. The protestors’ focus on the recent tally of 454 prison‑dead is meant to confront the National Revolutionary Police head Nínol de la Feliz Cruz and the Ministry of Interior with undeniable evidence of systemic failures.
As the cathedral rang with the somber choral of the live preaching that follows the gathering, the families left additional flowers at the archdiocese’s ambassador’s office, marking a call for administrative transparency and stricter adherence to due process for all detainees. The event concluded with a collective pledge to continue monitoring the whereabouts of 91,000 people still held under the state‑of‑exception, a demand that the government has yet to respond to publicly.
