The Facts

• According to a Human Rights Watch report published Tuesday, over 60 children in El Salvador have been arbitrarily detained and abused in the two years since the government declared a state of emergency to combat criminal gangs.

• The report alleges that El Salvadorian police rounded up 3,319 children and teenagers between March 2022 and April 2024, when the emergency was introduced that suspended certain civil rights and allowed arrests without a warrant.

• The rights group claims children were detained in "countless indiscriminate raids" that mostly targeted low-income neighborhoods and teenagers with low socioeconomic status and "no apparent connection to gangs' abusive activity."