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San Salvador (AFP) – The prosecutor of El Salvador, Rodolfo Delgado, assured this Friday that the gangs have accumulated 46,000 prisoners in the framework of the “war” that President Nayib Bukele declared 110 days ago.
In 908 requests before the courts, “charges have been filed against 41,106 people for belonging to these criminal organizations (gangs),” Delgado told state-run channel 10 television.
The Prosecutor’s Office still has to present to the court the requirement against 5,000 more detainees “for a total of 46,000 people that in some way the initial proceedings indicate that they are associated with gangs,” said Delgado.
“Right now what is being observed is a withdrawal of gang members from their comfort zones (…), from the areas where they were executing their criminal actions,” he added.
“They do not resist or do not have the capacity to resist the attacks” of the police and the army, who have moved to rural areas where they hide to capture them.
Due to the armed clashes, which have left four security forces dead, Delgado instructed that “no police or military personnel be prosecuted” because “their actions are fully justified by law.”
In some areas, the gangs “intimidated” the population, and “in imposing their rules they intended (…) to replace the State to some extent”
International organizations call to respect human rights
In response to an escalation of 87 murders committed between March 25 and 27, Congress, at the request of Bukele, decreed on March 27 an emergency regime that has been extended until the end of July and that allows arrests without a court order.
Organizations such as Amnesty International and ‘Human Rights Watch’ have called on the Salvadoran government to respect human rights.
The MS-13 and Barrio 18 gangs are the ones that commit the most crimes in El Salvador. Until before the government onslaught, some 16,000 of its members were imprisoned.
With the arrests made in 110 days of the emergency regime, 62,000 gang members would be behind bars, 88.5% of the 70,000 that, presumably, would make up these groups.
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