More than 5,000 soldiers supported by some 500 police officers closed a municipality in northern El Salvador on Wednesday to persecute a group of gang members that authorities hold responsible. of the murder of an agent of the national police.
On his official Twitter account, President Nayib Bukele reported of the displacement of the uniformed men to the municipality of Nueva Concepción, “in search of those responsible for the homicide and the entire structure of gang members and collaborators who are still hiding in that place.”
“They will pay dearly for the murder of our hero,” added the president.
Bukele said that violent deaths such as that of the national police officer are proof of the need to continue with the emergency regime. effective from March 2022 to persecute the maras or gangs, which the authorities accuse of most of the crimes committed in the Central American country.
Soldier-backed police units took control of the access road to Nueva Concepción, located 74 kilometers north of San Salvador, where they searched people entering or leaving the area to identify and neutralize gang members.
Human rights organizations have denounced repeated violations and abuses by the security forces and in prisons inthe framework of the state of exceptionwhich suspends several constitutional rights such as that of a person to be duly informed of their rights and reasons for their detention, as well as to have 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.
According to official figures, more than 68,500 alleged gang members or collaborators have been captured since March of last year, of which more than 90% have provisional detention ordered by a judge, the majority for the crime of illegal grouping. Meanwhile, more than 5,000 detainees have been released because they could not be linked to these criminal structures.
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