- President Nayib Bukele announced Tuesday a plan to grant conditional early release to roughly half of those imprisoned under El Salvador's ongoing state of exception — a potential reversal from his administration's previous insistence that no gang-linked prisoner would ever walk free.
- The announcement came the same day Bukele signed a $2.9 billion energy and water pact with Spanish utility Cox Group, which his office described as the largest private investment deal in Salvadoran history.
- El Salvador currently holds an estimated 118,000 detainees, giving it one of the highest per-capita incarceration rates on Earth, with multiple rights organizations documenting hundreds of deaths in custody and widespread due-process violations since the crackdown began.
Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele said Tuesday that his administration is evaluating a conditional early release program for roughly half of those currently held on charges of collaborating with criminal gangs — a sweeping proposal that would allow thousands to serve the remainder of their sentences under strict government supervision outside prison walls.
