Mental well being burdens
Ramirez is amongst the advocates who say children are struggling under the uncertainty and widespread detentions happening in El Salvador.
In 2025, El Salvador had the highest incarceration fee in the world, with roughly 1.7 % of its inhabitants in jail — roughly twice the fee of the subsequent highest nation, Cuba.
According to human rights organisations similar to MOVIR, El Salvador’s youth are amongst the most significantly impacted by the downstream results of mass incarceration, particularly when their caregivers are imprisoned.
“There is a very grave situation with children,” stated Ramirez. “There are many children who have been left without their parents, so those who used to provide for their basic needs are not there any more.”
As a consequence, specialists say the affected children are experiencing psychological points.
“Anxiety issues in these children have increased,” stated a psychologist with Azul Originario, a nonprofit youth organisation primarily based in San Salvador.
The psychologist typically works with children whose parents have been kidnapped. She requested to stay nameless for worry of reprisals, as NGO staff and important voices have been intimidated, surveilled and, in some instances, arrested under El Salvador’s state of exception.
![Rosalina González, 59, mother of Jonathan and Mario, who were detained under the state of exception on February 19, 2025, during ademonstration on March 8 2026 in San Salvador, El Salvador [Euan Wallace/ Al Jazeera]](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/DSC00090-3-1774485050.jpg?w=770&quality=80)
“Sometimes they don’t want to do any physical activity or any studying,” she stated.
“They don’t want to spend time with other children or go outside. They’re afraid of authorities, because some of them experienced the authorities taking their parents away.”
At a current demonstration close to San Salvador’s Cuscatlan Park, a number of households echoed these observations.
Among them was Fatima Gomez, 47, whose grownup son was arrested in 2022. He left behind two daughters, ages 10 and three.
With their mom working full-time, Gomez has been taking good care of the children. But she has seen the eldest daughter appears traumatised.
“When she sees soldiers and police, she starts crying and runs inside,” Gomez stated of the 10-year-old. “She says they are going to take all of us, too.”
Gomez had gathered with a crowd of women and men to demand the launch of their family members.
Clutched in Gomez’s palms is a blue printed poster, emblazoned together with her son’s face and a single phrase: “innocent”.
It flutters in a rush of wind from the passing visitors.
