El Salvador Issues - 2024

Disputes - international

El Salvador-Honduras: International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled on the delimitation of "bolsones" (disputed areas) along the El Salvador-Honduras border in 1992 with final settlement by the parties in 2006 after an Organization of American States survey and a further ICJ ruling in 2003; the 1992 ICJ ruling advised a tripartite resolution to a maritime boundary in the Gulf of Fonseca with consideration of Honduran access to the Pacific; El Salvador continues to claim tiny Conejo Island, not mentioned in the ICJ ruling, off Honduras in the Gulf of Fonseca

Refugees and internally displaced persons

IDPs: 52,000 (2022)

Trafficking in persons

tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — El Salvador does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; El Salvador hired more police and prosecutors in specialized anti-trafficking units and provided awareness training for Salvadorans participating in temporary work programs abroad; however, the government did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts, compared with the previous year, to improve its anti-trafficking capacity; the government investigated, prosecuted, and convicted fewer traffickers; less than half of all victims received government services or referrals to care providers, and services provided were inadequate; the government arrested and detained thousands of suspected gang members, disabling criminal networks that fueled demand for sex and labor trafficking, but authorities arrested and detained children affiliated with gangs without screening for trafficking indicators; interagency coordination remained weak, government data was unreliable, and the national anti-trafficking council did not reconcile the data or publish a report on the government’s 2022 efforts; therefore, El Salvador remained on Tier 2 Watch list (2023)

trafficking profile: human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in El Salvador, and traffickers exploit victims from El Salvador abroad; adults and children are exploited in sex trafficking within the country; orphans, adolescent girls, and LGBTQI+ persons are at particular risk; sex trafficking reportedly occurs in the tourism industry; traffickers exploit victims within their own communities or homes, sometimes their own children or other family members; Salvadoran adults and children are exploited in forced labor in agriculture, domestic service, and begging; adults and children from neighboring countries—particularly Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua—are exploited in sex trafficking and forced labor in construction, domestic service, or the informal sector; traffickers recruit victims in regions of El Salvador with high levels of violence and capitalize on fear to coerce victims and their families through threats of violence; in 2022, territorial gang control decreased dramatically across El Salvador, following the arrests of thousands of suspected gang members under the government’s state of exception; reports indicate extortion and violence declined significantly, but no data is available on the state of exception’s impact on trafficking; prior to the state of exception, limited government presence in gang-controlled territory exacerbated trafficking risks among vulnerable groups; many families were displaced fleeing gang exploitation of children; transnational criminal organizations and gangs, including MS-13 and Barrio 18, recruited, abducted, trained, armed, and subjected children to forced labor—including assassinations, extortion, and drug trafficking; these groups subjected women and children, including LGBTQI+ children, to sex trafficking and forced labor in domestic service and child care; Salvadoran men, women, and children are exploited in sex trafficking and forced labor in Belize, Guatemala, Mexico, and the US; traffickers exploit some Salvadorans who irregularly migrate to the US in forced labor, criminal activity, and sex trafficking en route or upon arrival; traffickers exploit some victims from Asia, South America, or other Central American countries in sex and labor trafficking in El Salvador; reported corruption and complicity among some government officials may have obstructed anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts (2023)

Illicit drugs

a transit country for illicit drugs destined for the United States;  a major source of precursor or essential chemicals used in the production of illicit narcotics