The Misuse of Interpol’s Red Notice System in Latin America: El Salvador’s Surge in Notices

According to Red Notice Monitor, El Salvador now maintains over 800 active Interpol Red Notices.

Red Notices are not arrest warrants, but in practice, they often function like them. Detentions at border crossings, arrests during immigration checks, and prolonged detention can all follow from a notice, despite the fact that courts in many jurisdictions consider them insufficient grounds on their own.

Following El Salvador’s declaration of a state of emergency in March 2022, President Nayib Bukele’s government began using Red Notices to extend its anti-gang campaign beyond national borders. By 2025, El Salvador had issued more than 800 active Red Notices – a figure that is four times higher than Argentina’s total, the second highest in Latin America. This unprecedented reliance on the system represents more than just aggressive law enforcement; it reflects an attempt to export domestic emergency powers abroad.

The implications are serious. Since 2022, over 88,800 individuals have been detained under emergency powers in El Salvador, many without counsel or judicial review. In the United States and Europe, courts have rejected Salvadoran Red Notices as lacking evidentiary value, yet they continue to trigger detentions in practice. Charges such as “illicit association” are so broadly defined that they risk ensnaring individuals with little or no actual gang affiliation. For migrants and asylum seekers, the consequences are particularly grave, as Red Notices can lead to refoulement—the forced return of individuals to a country where they may face arbitrary detention.

Other governments in the region, such as Venezuela, have also been accused of politicising Red Notices. But the scale of El Salvador’s deployment stands apart. With more than 800 active notices, the country is attempting to internationalise its domestic emergency regime in a way that tests the limits of international cooperation. The effect is not simply the misuse of a legal tool; it is the erosion of due process guarantees that underpin international human rights law.

Reform is urgently needed. Greater transparency about which states are issuing Red Notices, stricter review of requests grounded in emergency powers, and stronger remedies for those unfairly targeted are all essential if Interpol is to preserve its legitimacy. Without meaningful safeguards, the very system designed to support international justice risks becoming an instrument of transnational repression.

Read the full analysis on Red Notice Monitor.

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Image: Yunming Wang via Unsplash