Relatives of people detained under El Salvador’s controversial state of exception gathered at the San Salvador metropolitan cathedral on Saturday to leave offerings for inmates who have died behind bars, demanding justice.
Participants arrived carrying yellow and red flowers, banners and photographs of jailed family members. Inside the capital’s cathedral, they knelt in prayer around the tomb of Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero, a saint, and placed flowers there.
On the cathedral steps, the group held a rally honoring the dead and remembering relatives still in custody. Many of those present have had no contact with their detained relatives since their arrest, and – in some cases – do not know whether their relatives are still alive.
Natalia Funes, 61, a farmer from Puerto El Triunfo in the eastern province of Usulutan, attended in hopes of seeking answers about her jailed son. Her son, Oscar Orlando Rodriguez, was arrested in July 2022 and has been held incommunicado since.
“I am a distraught mother, a mother who has never seen my son. I am a mother who has never seen their face or heard from them,” Funes said.
El Salvador’s state of exception, imposed by President Nayib Bukele four years ago, has allowed security forces to detain more than 90,000 people.
Cristosal, a prominent human rights organization, has documented 454 deaths in Salvadoran prisons among people detained under the state of exception.