San Salvador, Mar 14 (EFE).- Alejandro Muyshondt, former national security advisor to Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, died in state custody in early February. Muyshondt’s sister spoke, in an interview with EFE, about the circumstances of his arrest and subsequent death, raising questions about human rights violations in Salvadoran prisons.
“There’s a lot of innocent people being judged with this horrendous process. And it’s not fair. And maybe Alejandro is the famous one who you know about … but a lot is going on here, and he’s not the only one. It’s happening to a lot of families, and it’s destroying a lot of families,” Muyshondt’s sister, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals, told EFE.
According to figures presented on Feb. 24 by the NGO Socorro Jurídico Humanitario, some 235 inmates have died in El Salvador’s prisons during the country’s state of emergency, with 48% showing signs of violence and 30% dying due to lack of medical care.
Alejandro Muyshondt was arrested on Aug. 9, 2023, after a public confrontation with New Ideas Party congressman Erick García, whom he accused of having ties to drug trafficking.
Initially, Muyshondt was accused of revealing secrets and aiding the escape of former President Mauricio Funes (2009-2014).
In addition, his sister explained that he was then charged with extortion, a crime covered by the country’s state of emergency passed in 2022 to combat gang violence.
According to Insight Crime’s 2023 report on El Salvador, “the state of emergency has suspended constitutional rights to defense, meaning detainees can be held indefinitely on vague charges, without the need for an arrest warrant or evidence to back up criminal allegations.”
“Under the emergency laws, detainees also lose the right to a court hearing within 72 hours of arrest. Uncorroborated raw intelligence, rumors, and information sourced from social media profiles have formed the basis of arrests,” the document adds.
Alejandro’s sister recalls that when the family went to the prison to try to deliver clothes and toiletries for him, they were not allowed to see him or even leave the things with the officers, not even his medication for high blood pressure.
Later, in October, Alejandro’s mother, Patricia Álvarez, was informed that her son had suffered a stroke while in custody, that he was then transferred to a hospital, at some point a craniotomy was performed on him, and that he later suffered from meningitis.
By January he had supposedly recovered, however, he died in state custody on Feb. 7.
Patricia heard rumors of her son’s death on social media and had to personally confirm his death with the hospital before she was officially notified by authorities.
“There is a sea of doubt about how this person died. The body has several bruises, several signs that he was tortured in some way,” Lucrecia Landaverde, the family’s lawyer, told journalists the day after his death.
In addition, the paperwork and necessary certificates were filled with inconsistencies about the cause and even the place of death.
“What we went through as a family, having a body delivered to you in that state, the fear, the agony of not knowing how your loved one is, I don’t think that should happen to us or anyone else,” Muyshondt’s sister added.
In the certificate the family received, the cause of death was listed as pulmonary edema, a commonly listed cause of death among those who die in custody in El Salvador, according to local media and humanitarian organizations.
The medical records provided to the family also indicate numerous illnesses that Alejandro had suffered since August that do not match his medical history before his arrest, and that even vary from document to document.
According to Alejandro’s sister, the medical records state that “he died of bone metastasis,” while the forensic authorities had listed pulmonary edema.
“It is these discrepancies that we would like to know. We would like to clarify this situation,” she said, adding that Alejandro “died in state custody (…) an investigation should have been opened,” she said.
Alejandro’s sister told EFE that her mother’s health has deteriorated rapidly since the arrest due to the stress of the whole situation.
More than 75,000 people have been arrested in El Salvador since the state of emergency began.
According to the humanitarian organization Amnesty International, this measure has plunged the country into one of its “worst human rights crises” since the end of the civil war (1980-1992) and has led to state violence gradually replacing gangs. EFE
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