With opinions for and against, El Salvador begins its fourth month with a State of Exception on Monday, a measure requested by the government of President Nayib Bukele to strengthen police operations to prosecute homicidal violence attributed to gang structures.
The measure that suspends freedom of assembly, inviolability of correspondence and telecommunications and extends the term of provisional detention to 15 days, enjoys the support of the majority of the population, including the industrial and commercial sectors, as expressed in the executive director of the Salvadoran Association of Industrialists, ASI, Jorge Arriaza.
“We have been able to see that there is greater tranquility, a greater possibility of being safer, progress has been made in this important fight that the government has undertaken,” Arriaza said.
During the validity of the State of Exception, human rights organizations have denounced irregularities such as the arrests, which they consider arbitrary, of people who, they argue, have no ties to the gangs, says José Ruiz, a representative of the grassroots church communities.
“Society cannot be transformed, if we close our ears and eyes to what is happening, then that is an important step in the accompaniment, trying to listen to them and there we are going to convince ourselves where the truth lies,” Ruiz points out.
The security authorities affirm that the conditions of the Exception Regime have facilitated the capture of more than 47,000 gang members and trust that the judicial investigations will resolve the cases of those who prove they have no ties to gang structures.
IACHR expresses concern
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) expressed concern after hearing in June the complaints from Salvadoran and international organizations about the abuses they register within the framework of an exceptional regime.
These complaints were presented by a dozen humanitarian organizations in a public hearing in the framework of the 184 Period of Sessions of the IACHR and which was marked by the absence of representation from the Salvadoran State.
El Salvador has been under an emergency regime since the end of March after a wave of violence that claimed the lives of 87 people in three days and put the government’s security plan in check.
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