San Salvador.- The Legislative Assembly of El Salvador, dominated by the ruling party Nuevas Ideas (NI), ratified this Thursday a constitutional reform that enables life imprisonment for the crimes of homicide, rape and terrorist organizations (gangs), promoted by the Salvadoran president, Nayib Bukele.
The reform was ratified with 58 votes out of 60 deputies in this State body, all from the ruling party, Nuevas Ideas (NI), its allies and the opposition Nationalist Republican Alliance (Arena); only the minority opposition party VAMOS did not support the vote.
“Imprisonment for debt, infamous, proscriptive, and all kinds of torment are prohibited. Perpetual punishment will only be imposed on murderers, rapists, and terrorists,” says the reform to the second paragraph of article 27 of the Constitution, which will come into effect eight days after its publication in the Official Gazette.
This reform comes a week after the initiative was approved, supported by a reform to the Magna Carta that allows express changes in the same legislature.
In January 2025, the Legislative Assembly ratified a controversial reform that allows express changes to the Constitution within the same legislature; previously, constitutional amendments required the vote of two different legislatures.
The Bukele government’s proposal to allow life sentences came a few days before El Salvador marks four years under an exception regime that was approved on March 27, 2022, to combat gangs, accused of committing the majority of homicides in the country, which for years was considered one of the most violent in the world.
It is expected that this Thursday, in the same session of Congress that is taking place, a series of reforms to the Penal Code, Juvenile Criminal Law, Law Against Acts of Terrorism and Law for a Life Free of Violence Against Women will be approved to align them with the new wording of the Constitution.
Analysts also believe that it was in response to a report by international jurists who claim that there are elements to consider that crimes against humanity have been committed under this regime.
Under the exception regime, more than 91,650 people accused of being gang members or having ties to those groups have been imprisoned, and more than 500 detainees have died in the custody of state agents, which has raised alarms among human rights defenders.
