The information was released by the head of the Public Ministry, Rodolfo Delgado. The official also reported that his country’s Congress is studying extension number 15 to the state of emergency. Non-governmental organizations estimate more than 5,000 alleged human rights violations since the implementation of said measure.
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The Attorney General of the Republic (FGR) of El Salvador archived 142 cases referring to the number of deaths in the country’s prisons. The justification outlined by the judicial body was based on the fact that the deaths did not constitute a crime by State Security agents. The news was announced by Rodolfo Delgado, head of the Public Ministry.
According to Delgado, the deceased were detained during the state of emergency that has been in force for more than a year in the country. In addition, he explained that all cases were “technically” investigated with the help of Legal Medicine, which helped to scientifically define the cause of each death.
Among the reasons are “pre-existing diseases” or other conditions for which treatment was provided in a timely manner by the authorities. This, in short, dictates that the deaths were from natural causes, said the head of the Public Ministry.
“There are no crimes to prosecute,” he reiterated. “Therefore, those files are on file.”
Rodolfo Delgado denies NGO report
“It is not correct,” said Rodolfo Delgado when asked about the report which treated the deaths of at least 153 people while in the custody of law enforcement officers in the past year. The document, written by the humanitarian NGO Cristosal, also revealed that, in most of these cases, the people allegedly murdered were young.
Specifically, the NGO document highlights the identification of patterns of torture, degrading, cruel and inhuman treatment. According to Cristosal, in the alleged cases lacerations, bruises, injuries with sharp objects, hanging and strangulation were found, among other probative features.
#ResearchinHR | The report on the first year of the Cristosal emergency regime presents the first verified list of people who died in state custody and documents torture practices inside prisons.
➡️You can read it here:… pic.twitter.com/jAV55wyRNB— Christosal (@Christosal) May 29, 2023
“They allude to some type of doctor who provided these data,” highlighted the head of the Public Ministry. “They have been collected by different sources without a scientific way of ordering these data and have even taken into account, to try to magnify some of these numbers, statistics of deaths that occurred within the prison system before the regime came into force.” Exceptional, he concluded.
On the other hand, Delgado announced that Congress is studying extension number 15 of the state of emergency. The Salvadoran Legislature has a large pro-government majority.
According to the EFE news agency, multiple humanitarian organizations have denounced that, during this process of “war against gangs”, more than 5,000 “direct victims” of alleged human rights violations have been registered.
with EFE
