Nayib Bukele’s administration in El Salvador has faced criticism from rights groups for allegedly falsifying Covid-19 figures in an effort to hide the true impact of the pandemic.
According to El Salvadoran newspaper La Prensa Gráfica, two-thirds of the country’s Covid-19 deaths were excluded from official statistics to create the illusion that the authoritarian government had the situation under control.
Internal documents from the Salvadoran health ministry indicate that the actual number of Covid-19 deaths is likely three times higher than the publicly reported figures.
The official government data, which is also shared by organizations such as the World Health Organization, states that 4,230 individuals in El Salvador have died from Covid-19 so far.
However, leaked documents reveal that the ministry recorded a total of 15,956 deaths related to Covid-19 between March 2020 and January 2023.
La Prensa Gráfica confirmed the underreporting of deaths by examining hospital records and analyzing the deadliest day of the pandemic. The leaked documents show that on October 1, 2021, there were 57 confirmed Covid deaths and 14 suspected deaths, while the health ministry tweeted that only 17 deaths occurred that day.
La Prensa Gráfica also found death certificates in which Covid-19 was listed as the cause of death, supporting the claim that deaths were excluded from the official record. In total, 3,226 confirmed Covid-19 deaths were underreported, and an additional 6,977 suspected Covid-19 deaths were not included in the public tally.
The president’s office did not respond to the Guardian’s request for comment.
This investigation is the latest example of President Nayib Bukele monopolizing information control in El Salvador since taking office in 2019.
While Bukele has received high approval ratings for his crackdown on gangs, critics argue that the millennial president, who is known for his support of Bitcoin, has gained support by employing online “trolls” and limiting freedom of expression.
El Salvador’s health ministry frequently reported the country’s daily Covid-19 death count, presenting it as a regional success story. Official figures indicate that El Salvador has recorded 668 Covid-19 deaths per million people, the lowest figure in Central America except for Nicaragua, which reported an even lower 245 deaths under dictator Daniel Ortega.
However, the data obtained by La Prensa Gráfica would give El Salvador one of the highest per capita death rates in Central America, surpassing countries like Guatemala and Honduras.
Salvadoran doctors had previously accused the government of censoring information to create the appearance of having the pandemic under control, while in reality, the public health system was collapsing.
Human rights groups warn that the government’s control over information and its disregard for constitutional norms are eroding democracy in El Salvador. President Bukele has deployed armed soldiers to congress, stacked the supreme court with his allies, and suspended the right to trial, resulting in innocent civilians from various countries being wrongfully targeted in his campaign against gangs.
In April, news outlet El Faro relocated to Costa Rica, citing Bukele’s crackdown on the media as the reason behind their departure.
Despite the unconstitutionality of running for a second term, Bukele’s New Ideas party announced in June that the 41-year-old president will seek re-election, a fact Bukele himself has acknowledged in TV interviews.