Relatives ask for the release of detainees in El Salvador during a state of emergency

A group of people gathered this Tuesday near the Congress of El Salvador to demand the freedom of family members and the repeal of the exceptional regime in force since the end of March, which has allowed the arrest of almost 50,000 people, most of them accused of being part of or collaborate with gangs.

With banners and messages to President Nayib Bukele and the deputies, the protesters 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 forces blocked their way.

No incidents were recorded.

After 62 homicides were reported on March 26, a level of crime not seen in El Salvador in 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 extended for the last time on July 19 and the authorities have already announced that they will request a new extension, alleging that the circumstances that motivated its implementation persist.

“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 AP 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 her and their four-year-old daughter in the Sisiguayo canton of the municipality of Jiquilisco, in the department of Usulutan in the east of the country.

Along with Vega, they took one of his brothers. “What we ask the president is that they release him because he is nothing of what they accuse him of. He worked as a fisherman and did masonry things. They have taken innocent people, ”said his wife.

The woman said that her husband and brother-in-law are 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 under 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, including arbitrary arrests and violations of due process.

The Alliance for Peace movement, which recently set up a legal advice office, said it received 500 complaints of arbitrary arrests, while the Human Rights Ombudsman, Apolonio Tobar, informed journalists that the institution has 28 open files. to investigate the deaths of detainees during the emergency regime.

According to the Salvadoran 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 transportation companies, and kill those who refuse to pay, according to authorities.

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