Film Screening & Discussion — El Salvador: A Carceral State of Terror
The Democracy Action Lab (DAL) and the Poverty, Violence, and Governance Lab (PovGov) at the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL) at Stanford University invite you to a screening and discussion of El Salvador: A Carceral State of Terror, a short video grounded in field research led by Dr. Beatriz Magaloni. The event will bring together scholars and practitioners to examine the consequences of El Salvador’s state of exception, its implications for democratic institutions and civil liberties, and the broader regional resonance of the so-called “Bukele model.”
The session will combine visual storytelling with expert analysis, fostering a conversation that bridges rigorous research with practitioner insights.
BACKGROUND
Nayib Bukele, President of El Salvador, is currently one of the most popular leaders in Latin America. Much of this support stems from the perception that his administration has successfully addressed the country’s most pressing issue: gang-related violence. To achieve this, Bukele implemented a state of exception, repeatedly extended, which allows military and police forces to detain individuals — primarily young men from low-income backgrounds — without judicial warrants. This security strategy has gained international attention and has become a reference point for political actors across the region. However, this apparent success carries significant costs.
Dr. Beatriz Magaloni, together with a research team from the Democracy Action Lab at Stanford University, conducted an in-depth field investigation into the consequences of the state of exception in El Salvador. The study includes fieldwork in both urban and rural areas, over one hundred hours of interviews, and qualitative analysis of testimonies and institutional dynamics.
KEY FINDINGS
The findings align with warnings from national and international human rights organizations, as well as leading media outlets. They point to severe human rights violations, including mass detention of innocent individuals without due process, the systematic use of torture in detention centers, and cases of enforced disappearance. Dr. Magaloni characterizes this system as a “carceral state of terror.” Additionally, the research highlights that the system has created economic incentives that disproportionately affect impoverished families, has become a tool to silence dissent and political opposition, and is contributing to significant democratic backsliding in the country.
SPEAKERS
Mr. Noah Bullock — Executive Director, Cristosal, a regional human rights organization working across El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras
Dr. Beatriz Magaloni — Graham H. Stuart Professor of International Relations, Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Director of PovGov, and Co-Director of DAL
Mr. Manuel Ortiz — Journalist, sociologist, and Audio Visual Consultant at the Democracy Action Lab
MODERATOR
- Dr. Alberto Díaz-Cayeros — Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Professor, by courtesy, of Political Science, and Co-Director of DAL
In-person event for Stanford affiliates only: William J. Perry Conference Room (Encina Hall, 2nd floor)
Livestream available to the public: via Zoom, if prompted for a password, use: 123456
Beatriz Magaloni
Dept. of Political Science
Encina Hall, Room 436
Stanford University,
Stanford, CA
Beatriz Magaloni Magaloni is the Graham Stuart Professor of International Relations at the Department of Political Science. Magaloni is also a Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute, where she holds affiliations with the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL) and the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC). She is also a Stanford’s King Center for Global Development faculty affiliate. Magaloni has taught at Stanford University for over two decades.
She leads the Poverty, Violence, and Governance Lab (Povgov). Founded by Magaloni in 2010, Povgov is one of Stanford University’s leading impact-driven knowledge production laboratories in the social sciences. Under her leadership, Povgov has innovated and advanced a host of cutting-edge research agendas to reduce violence and poverty and promote peace, security, and human rights.
Magaloni’s work has contributed to the study of authoritarian politics, poverty alleviation, indigenous governance, and, more recently, violence, crime, security institutions, and human rights. Her first book, Voting for Autocracy: Hegemonic Party Survival and its Demise in Mexico (Cambridge University Press, 2006) is widely recognized as a seminal study in the field of comparative politics. It received the 2007 Leon Epstein Award for the Best Book published in the previous two years in the area of political parties and organizations, as well as the Best Book Award from the American Political Science Association’s Comparative Democratization Section. Her second book The Politics of Poverty Relief: Strategies of Vote Buying and Social Policies in Mexico (with Alberto Diaz-Cayeros and Federico Estevez) (Cambridge University Press, 2016) explores how politics shapes poverty alleviation.
Magaloni’s work was published in leading journals, including the American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, Criminology & Public Policy, World Development, Comparative Political Studies, Annual Review of Political Science, Cambridge Journal of Evidence-Based Policing, Latin American Research Review, and others.
Magaloni received wide international acclaim for identifying innovative solutions for salient societal problems through impact-driven research. In 2023, she was named winner of the world-renowned Stockholm Prize in Criminology, considered an equivalent of the Nobel Prize in the field of criminology. The award recognized her extensive research on crime, policing, and human rights in Mexico and Brazil. Magaloni’s research production in this area was also recognized by the American Political Science Association, which named her recipient of the 2021 Heinz I. Eulau Award for the best article published in the American Political Science Review, the leading journal in the discipline.
She received her Ph.D. in political science from Duke University and holds a law degree from the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México.
