First modification:
The official majority of the Legislative Assembly of El Salvador and its coalition approved the extension of the emergency regime this Friday night. The decision had already been taken previously by the Council of Ministers. The exceptional regime, approved since the end of March this year, has left more than 50,000 detainees as a balance.
With 67 votes in favor of the 84 in total that make up the Legislative Assembly of El Salvador, the emergency regime that has been in force in the country since the end of March was extended for the seventh consecutive time.
In a press conference prior to the vote, the Security Minister, Gustavo Villatoro, reported that the decision had been made hours before by the Council of Ministers. Villatoro also praised the results that the Government announces regarding the development of the measure: more than 50,000 suspected gang members arrested, the seizure of some 1,500 weapons and a figure of 1,024,000 dollars.
“Although it is true that it is a decision of the Council of Ministers, it is leveraged precisely by the need of the millions of Salvadorans who have witnessed all the positive results that have been obtained,” he said.
The Bukele administration has at least 214 days without homicides, most of them within the state of emergency, according to the Security Minister. Media outlets such as EFE highlight that the Government includes various days in which deaths of gang members in shooting confrontations with the police are reported.
The origin of the measure
Last March, 80 murders were reported in a weekend in the Central American nation, attributed to gangs. This was the reason why the executive decided to implement the suspension of constitutional rights.
The imposition of the measure was given for 30 days, the maximum period established by the Magna Carta, being extended for the first time on April 25 of this year until this last authorization. It can be extended if the causes of the first implementation persist.
The Constitution of the Republic of El Salvador establishes this measure in article 29 in order to respond to extreme circumstances such as war, invasion of territory, rebellion, sedition, catastrophe, epidemic or other general calamity, or serious disturbances of public order.
The fact broke a drop in criminal cases that had been exhibiting “the Salvadoran president, blamed on an alleged pact between the country’s leadership and the gangs, according to reports by the local media El Faro and the EFE agency.
Amnesty International, on the state of emergency
Amnesty International (AI) he saw from the beginning of the application of the measure a “serious” threat to the human rights of Salvadorans. The organization noted the “complaints of arbitrary arrests and highlighted its concern regarding ill-treatment of detainees.”
More recently, AI Americas Press Officer Duncan Tucker ratified the role of the gangs in worsening the security of Salvadorans, a possible reason why the war against them proposed by President Bukele would have such a high level of popularity.
However, it claims to the strategy that “public security should not be achieved at the cost of massive human rights violations.”
According to Tucker, “President Bukele’s security strategy is also not as innovative or sustainable as he has led people to believe.” The journalist likens the state of exception to the “iron fist” repressive campaigns of previous governments, in 2003 and 2004, which led to an initial decrease in homicides followed by a sharp increase from 2004 to 2006.”
More than 6,000 complaints have been filed against the authorities for violating human rights under this regime.
With EFE and local media
