At the request of Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, Congress on Tuesday approved a fifth extension to the emergency regime to continue the fight against the maras or gangs, which are now persecuted in rural areas where they have sought refuge.
Authorities hold gangs responsible for most crimes in the Central American country.
“We have strongly impacted the terrorist structures, we are finishing the fourth extension and we have witnessed how salvadorans managed to enjoy the safest vacations in history,” said the Minister of Security, Gustavo Villatoro, when presenting the extension request by another 30 days.
He recognized that work needs to be done on the security issue and promised that they will do everything necessary “to guarantee the honest population that all these 50,000 terrorists and those who are missing do not go out on the streets again.”
The extension was approved with the votes of 66 of the 84 deputies of the unicameral Congress.
Earlier, a group of people gathered near the Congress to demand the release of their imprisoned relatives during the state of exception, in force since the end of March. With banners and messages to President Bukele and the deputies, they demanded the freedom of what they called “victims of the regime” and tried to enter the legislative chamber to present a list of demands, but police shock forces set up barricades with spikes and closed them down. step. No incidents were recorded.
After 62 homicides were reported on March 26, a level of crime that had not been seen in El Salvador for a long time, Congress approved a state of emergency that limits freedom of association, suspends a person’s right to be duly informed of their rights and reasons for arrest, as well as 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 seize the correspondence and cell phones of those they consider suspicious.
The regime was last extended on July 19 and came into effect two days later.
“My husband was taken out of the house and he is not a criminal… he has no criminal record, he is not stained and they took him away because they put the finger on him (they denounced) collaborating with the gangs,” she told Associated Press Virginia Guadalupe Solano López, 25 years old.
Her husband, José Alfredo Vega, 26, was arrested on the night of March 27 when he was resting at home with his wife and four-year-old daughter in the Sisiguayo canton of the municipality of Jiquilisco, in the department of Usulutan in the east of the country.
The woman said that her husband is in the Izalco prison, in the west of the country, and “we don’t know how they are. They haven’t let me see him and I’m desperate.”
So far in the emergency regime, the authorities have captured 49,629 people, most of them accused of being part of criminal structures or collaborating with gangs.
Meanwhile, human rights organizations denounced repeated irregularities, among them, Arbitrary detentions and violations of due process.
The Alliance for Peace movement, which recently set up a legal advice office, said it had received 500 complaints of arbitrary arrests, while the Human Rights Ombudsman, Apolonio Tobar, informed journalists that the institution has 28 open files for investigate the deaths of those deprived of liberty during the emergency regime.
Meanwhile, the Association of Salvadoran Bus Entrepreneurs (Aeas), recognized that the public transport sector has benefited enormously and “gang members’ extortions of transport have decreased by 95%. This is a breather.”
According to the constitution, the term of suspension of the constitutional guarantees will not exceed the period of 30 days. Once this period has elapsed, it may be extended for the same period and by means of a new decree, in the event that the circumstances that motivated it continue. Otherwise, suspended warranties will be fully reinstated.
In March, the Salvadoran Congress also approved some reforms to the Penal Code to make it a crime to be part of a gang, which can be punished with a sentence of 20 to 40 years in prison. The leaders, meanwhile, can receive sentences of 40 to 45 years.
In crimes related to organized crime, which includes gangs, 20 years in prison are applied to adolescents over 16 years of age and up to 10 years for those over 12.
The so-called maras or gangs, which have an estimated 70,000 members, have a presence in populous neighborhoods and communities in the country and are involved in drug trafficking and organized crime. They also extort merchants and transport companies and kill those who refuse to pay, according to authorities.
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