The government of Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele asked Congress on Tuesday toextend the state of exception again that suspends constitutional rights while strong-arm policies against gangs are applied. If this extension is approved, the temporary measures would be in force for at least one year from when they were approved in March of last year.
The authorities hold the maras or gangs responsible for most of the crimes registered in recent years in the Central American country and attribute an improvement in the figures on levels of violence to their heavy-handed policy, strongly criticized for human rights violations.
“The historical results obtained in terms of security confirm that we are on the right path, transforming the country,” said the Minister of Justice and Security, Gustavo Villatoro, when presenting the request for an extension for another 30 days. “We have closed January as the least violent month,” he presumed, reiterating the official statement on the drop in violent deaths.
Villatoro warned that the emergency regime will not end until the last gang member is captured.
Human rights organizations have denounced repeated violations and human rights abuses, within the framework of the state of emergency in El Salvador that suspends freedom of association, the right of a person to be duly informed of their rights and the reasons for their detention, as well as the right to count with the assistance of a lawyer.
In addition, it extends the term of preventive detention from 72 hours to 15 days and allows the authorities to intervene the correspondence and cell phones of those they consider suspicious.
The official explained that they have captured more than 64,000 people accused of being gang members or collaborators. Of these, 57,000 have provisional detention ordered by a judge and more than 3,745 people have been released because a true link to these criminal structures could not be established.
Human rights entities have insisted on denouncing repeated irregularities, including arbitrary arrests, violations of due process and even the death of some people in state custody. In the first ten months of the state of emergency, seven human rights organizations say they have received 5,564 complaints of “abuse of power” by the authorities and most refer to arbitrary arrests.
The Legislative Assembly, with a broad pro-government majority, approved the state of emergency for the first time on March 27, 2022, one day after 62 homicides were registered in a single day, a level of crime that had not been seen in El Salvador in a long time.
According to the Constitution, the exception regime must be approved for 30 days and can be extended as long as the causes that originated it exist.
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