“Why are they taking him?” Pedro Castellón shouted when he saw a group of police arresting his brother Rafael López Castellón, 53, in Loma de la Cruz, a town in eastern El Salvador.
It was April 8 and the Central American country had been in an exceptional regime for a week whose purpose was to persecute gang members and besiege controlled communities.
The police cells in San Salvador were overwhelmed and at least 600 Salvadorans were detained every day. Rafael was one of them until he died in State custody two months after his capture.
“I told the policemen that if they took him away they would be responsible if he died in prison and what they told me was ‘you are going to bring him dead,'” Pedro Castellón told the police. voice of america.
Pedro was hit all at once: the capture and death of his brother. At first he looked for information in as many places as he could: in the Human Rights Ombudsman’s Office, in the Prosecutor’s Office, in the La Esperanza prison in San Salvador and in the same police that had taken him away. They all told him the same thing: “We have no information.”
Until on May 31, he went to the Mariona prison and found him. “They told me ‘yes, here it is. He’s in sector two and he’s fine.’” Visitors are not allowed in an exceptional regime, but he remembers that he left her a mat and a package of hygiene items.
After a week, Pedro went to process his brother’s criminal record.
“This document cannot be given to you because your brother appears to be deceased,” were the words that, according to Pedro, the public employee used when denying him proof of his brother’s criminal record.
“So many questions about my brother and I only came here to realize what had happened,” replied Pedro.
In the system it appears to me that he died on June 1, they concluded.
Rafael had died just a few days after the prison guard told him that everything was fine. By the time Pedro and his family learned of his death, Rafael’s body lay in a grave where people not recognized by his relatives are buried. In a common grave.
“To recognize him they showed me some photos. He was very emaciated and it seemed strange to me, because I had taken him to prestobarbas and he was all bearded, all emaciated, “added Pedro.
Rafael died on June 1 at the Zacamil hospital in San Salvador, according to the report of the Institute of Legal Medicine (IML) the death was due to cardiomyopathy (difficulty in pumping blood).
At least 80 deaths
Some human rights organizations and local media are the ones who account for the prisoners who died during the emergency regime in El Salvador. The government has not yet released an official figure.
The Cristosal organization speaks of 80 deaths of people held in Salvadoran prisons, a fact that the legal head of the organization, Zaira Navas, describes as “critical.”
“At least none of the people who have died had been convicted or it had been established that they were a gang member and had committed a criminal act. That is to say, they have died in State custody without it having been established that being deprived of liberty had a just cause, ”he explained to the VOA.
Although the Salvadoran State has already been denounced by three organizations before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), the explanations do not arrive.
To talk about those who died in the emergency regime, Cristosal relies on the cases he documents out loud, the local media and some documents to which he has access. The organization concludes that there is a lack of minimum guarantees in Salvadoran prisons.
“There is a lack of medical attention, lack of assistance and guarantee of the right to health and probably the responsibility of state authorities in mistreatment, beatings, torture, injuries and violence in some of the cases that have been identified,” added Navas.
A death in state custody implies a violation of all fundamental rights, all conventions and treaties signed by El Salvador and the Constitution itself, said Alejandro Díaz Gómez, a member of the legal department of the Tutela Legal organization.
“There is a State duty to guarantee all the rights that are established in these treaties and conventions. (…) Unfortunately, many officials used a populist harangue saying that they are going to exterminate people or that they are not going to give them food, ”he explained to the VOA.
The Human Rights Institute (IDHUCA) in El Salvador detailed in a report that the Human Rights Ombudsman (PDDH) identified 306 cases of torture and other cruel treatment between March 27 and July 7. The figure has not been updated.
Government: deaths are due to health problems
The director of Penal Centers, Osiris Luna, said in a television program on channel 21 in El Salvador that no death has been confirmed inside the penal centers that is not linked to health issues.
“There are people who are dying in prisons because they suffer from up to four morbidities and refuse to receive their chemotherapy treatments,” he said.
Likewise, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele added in a live broadcast on October 17 that those captured “have had their rights respected.”
“Compared to what other countries do to terrorists we are saints, other countries are firing missiles at terrorists. We still put them in prisons, we don’t put them in Guantanamo. We process them, we take them to the Prosecutor’s Office, the Prosecutor’s Office takes them to court, ”he assured.
The United Nations, in a report published on October 14, expressed concern about the human rights situation in El Salvador.
He asked the State of El Salvador to guarantee that the emergency regime, extended for the seventh time, is used in accordance with the principles of necessity and proportionality, among others.
Until October 16, 55,000 people had been captured in the emergency regime.
Connect with the Voice of America! Subscribe to our channel Youtube and turn on notifications, or follow us on social media: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
