SÃO PAULO, Brazil – In a pastoral letter released on May 29, the bishops of El Salvador criticized a number of the government’s policies regarding education, healthcare, economy, and human rights, in an unprecedented attack on President Nayib Bukele’s administration.

The document, titled A hopeful voice cries out in the desert, acknowledges there has been progress in some of those fields, but points out that more and more people have been dissatisfied with the way the affairs are conducted in the Central American country.

Since he took office in 2019, Bukele has kept enormously high approval rates among Salvadorans, always above 80 and at times 90 percent. But things have been changing lately.

An economic crisis that has been impacting large segments of the working class and deficiencies in the educational system and in public healthcare have been transforming the way parts of the electorate see Bukele. Even his public security policy, that involves the mass imprisonment of alleged gang members, has been under criticism lately.

While recent surveys showed he maintains a solid approval rate of 85 percent, which corresponded to 91 percent last year, the perception that the country is moving in the right direction fell from 87 percent to 73 percent. The share of people dissatisfied with Bukele’s government grew from 6.9 to 10.8 percent.

Maybe that’s why the episcopate decided to talk now. The bishops recognized that the country – once dominated by large criminal gangs like Mara Salvatrucha – has been safer since Bukele launched his zero-tolerance-on-crime approach, but they argued that long-lasting peace cannot be achieved that way.

True peace requires more than repression, the letter read. People need to have access to educational opportunities and technical training and to arts, sports, and entertainment. Poverty, which is at the nucleus of violence, must be combated, they said.

The episcopate also mentioned the 85,000 suspected gang members arrested by Bukele’s administration over the past years. The government acknowledges that 10 percent of them may have been mistakenly accused and arrested.

The bishops argued that each case must be objectively revised, and the innocent must be released. They also said El Salvador shouldn’t be transformed into an international prison, alluding to the fact that Bukele accepted to receive a number of immigrants and refugees that have been deported from the United States.

The letter also mentioned the educational and public healthcare systems. The bishops acknowledged Bukele’s government’s efforts to improve the schools’ and hospitals’ infrastructure, but criticized the centralization of the educational system and the inequality in the access to medical attention.

The document criticized the devastation of nature in El Salvador and last year’s approval of a law that legalized mining again in the country. The bishops also mentioned the current economic crisis, worsened with thousands of people fired over the past couple of weeks.

The episcopate concluded the letter by saying that its goal is not to confront the government nor to respond to ideological interests, but to be the voice of the voiceless.

“And that’s exactly what the bishops did. They responded to the popular outcry that’s beginning to be heard in El Salvador,” said human rights activist Henri Fino.

He told Crux that Bukele managed to receive support from most citizens over the past years due to his tough policies against criminal gangs. As a matter of fact, people feel safer on the streets today and thank the president for this.

“But many people have friends or relatives in penal facilities with no conviction sentences. That situation must be solved,” Fino added. Over the past years, Bukele has been governing in a state of emergency, declared more than 30 times since its initial implementation.

“The government could argue that the declaration of a state of emergency was needed at the beginning. But not anymore. If on the streets violence went down, the legal system has been more and more violent,” Spanish-born Jesuit Father José Maria Tojeira told Crux.

For the Church, the mass incarceration of people who had not even stood trial is “unacceptable”, Tojeira said.

Henri Fino said that over the past couple of weeks some demonstrations have been occurring in El Salvador, something that announces “the beginning of a rupture between the masses and Bukele.”

“With a serious economic crisis, people are noticing that they have been eating less, that their children go to deteriorated schools, that the hospitals don’t have medicines. And many Salvadorans have an imprisoned person in their families,” Fino said.

Tojeira recalled that months ago the Church made an effort to gather thousands of signatures against the approval of metal mining in the country. The government never responded.

“About 150,000 people signed the document. The government totally ignored the bishops. I think that case contributed to the current stance of the episcopate,” Tojeira added.

Over the past few years, Bukele has closed about 80 percent of the nongovernmental organizations in the country, especially those devoted to human rights, said Fino. His administration has been persecuting journalists and activists.

“But the people are beginning to understand that his promises were false. The true face of a dictator is gradually appearing,” Fino told Crux.