On Monday, the organizations Humanitarian Legal Aid and Social Justice denounced before the Public Ministry deputies of the Salvadoran Congress and the Minister of Security, Gustavo Villatoro, for crimes against humanity that would have been committed during the exceptional regime approved in March 2022 to combat gangs.
The director of the Legal and Humanitarian Aid Service, Ingrid Escobar, said that those accused are Ernesto Castro, president of the Legislative Assembly; congressmen Suecy Callejas, Alexia Rivas, Elisa Rosales, Reynaldo Cardoza, Reinaldo Carballo, Rodrigo Ayala, José Serafín Orantes, former congressmen Guillermo Gallegos and Numan Salgado, and the Minister of Security, Gustavo Villatoro.
The complaint also names the director general of prisons, Osiris Luna, as well as several prosecutors, faceless judges, directors of prisons, and prosecutors, whom the complaint does not publicly identify because the information “is confidential.” They are all accused of the crimes of failure to fulfill duties, denial of assistance to prisoners, and arbitrary acts.
The accusation falls on the deputies who “have signed the extensions of the state of emergency.”
The Associated Press reached out to the presidential communications office for comment and was told “no comment.”
Attorney Ingrid Escobar, director of the Legal and Humanitarian Aid Agency, explained that the complaint is based on what special rapporteurs of the United Nations Organization recently said, “which establishes that El Salvador is violating international pacts, conventions and treaties of the universal system, and specifically the Rome Statute.”
Escobar pointed out that since the state of emergency came into effect, 27 extensions have been approved “illegally” and “more than 26,000 Salvadorans, who are innocent, have been sent to serve a sentence they should not have, but also to be tortured by beatings, strangulation or denial of medical treatment, which has already cost this country the lives of 305 adults and four babies, children of prisoners.”
Human Rights Watch recently released a 114-page report documenting 66 cases of minors who were victims of abuses such as arbitrary detention, torture, ill-treatment and police harassment.
He state of emergency in force Since March 27, 2022, fundamental rights such as the right to be informed of the reasons for one’s arrest or the right to have access to a lawyer have been suspended.
Under this regime, security forces can also intercept telecommunications without a court order and detention without a court hearing can be extended from 72 hours to 15 days.
As part of the strategy to combat gangsCongress also approved reforms to the Penal Code to make gang membership a crime, which carries sentences of 20 to 40 years in prison. Gang leaders can receive sentences of up to 60 years.
The reforms to the Penal Code also impose sentences of at least 10 years for those who have turned 12 and who, being gang members, are accused of illegal association. If they are between 16 and 18 years old, the sentence is 20 years in prison.
According to the Human Rights Watch report, since Congress approved the state of emergency, security forces have arrested more than 81,110 people, including 3,000 minors. More than 1,000 minors have been sentenced to prison terms ranging from two to 12 years, “often on charges defined in an excessively broad way, such as the crime of illicit association, and frequently on the basis of uncorroborated police testimony,” the report added.
In 2015, El Salvador was considered one of the most violent countries in the world and recorded 6,656 homicides, a rate of 106 violent deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, while in 2023, the country closed with 214 homicides, including 38 deaths of alleged gang members in alleged confrontations with police or military, according to government data.
So far in 2024, the police have recorded 76 homicides, including the deaths of three alleged gang members, also in alleged clashes with the police or the armed forces.
Nayib Bukele’s government has defended its heavy-handed policy despite questions about alleged human rights violations. The Ministry of Security reported that El Salvador has accumulated 665 days without homicides. “Thank God, we have the most successful and verifiable security plan in the world,” said President Bukele on the social network X.
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