Reports of detention abuse rise

The number of people detained in the midst of the Exception Regime in El Salvador continues to increase while their relatives assure that they have been unjustifiably detained during police operations and seek support for justice to be done, because they affirm that the detainees have no ties to The gang.

Demonstrators carrying photos and posters protested Tuesday in front of the Congress building in San Salvador to demand the release of their relatives who were detained during the state of emergency approved by the government of President Nayib Bukele to curb gang violence.

Paul Morroy, one of the people who participated in a rally in front of the office of the Ombudsman for the Defense of Human Rights, Apolonio Tobar, said that they request that the investigations of the cases advance.

“At no time do we oppose the capture of citizens who have any relationship with organized crime in our country, but not in the detention of innocent Salvadorans,” he said.

In June, the Attorney for the Defense of Human Rights reported that it was investigating 1,931 complaints that include cases of arrests classified as “arbitrary” and that have preliminary legal qualifications subject to confirmation, but to date the entity has not presented the results.

The security officials defend the action protocols to carry out the captures, said the director of Penal Centers, Osiris Luna.

“Here we are not going to convict innocents, here we are going to win the war against gang structures. Those are the ones who are going to be imprisoned. No person who is innocent, who is not within these gang groups, is going to be in prison,” Luna said.

The Salvadoran government reported that it is advancing in the construction of a “Mega Prison” that it hopes will be ready in the coming months to confine gang members identified by the judicial authorities as “highly dangerous.”

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