Salvadoran Congress approves thirty-third extension of the emergency regime

Although less than a week ago the Salvadoran president, Nayib Bukele left open the possibility of relaxing the emergency regime, in force since March 27, 2022, Congress approved on Thursday the thirteenth extension of this measure taken with the argument of combating the fearsome gangs that have terrorized for more than three decades Central American country.

The Security Cabinet of the Bukele government requested the new extension because it assures that there is still a remnant of more than 8,000 gang members pending capture, the majority who participated in violent initiation ceremonies, since to join the gangs, they used to be required to murder a person.

“This entire parallel criminal state that we face is completely destroyed, but obviously there are remnants,” who must be captured, “to bring them to justice,” said Security Minister Gustavo Villatoro on Tuesday, in a meeting with journalists.

The gangs that operated in 90% of the territory for more than three decades, administered their own justice in these territories and collected almost two billion dollars in extortion.

The state of emergency will govern for another 30 days throughout the national territory, given the last approval with the votes of 57 of the 60 deputies of Congress, controlled by Bukele’s party. The three opposition legislators again denied their votes for approval: the two deputies from the right-wing Nationalist Republican Alliance (Arena) abstained and the deputy from the VAMOS party voted against.

Bukele said on Sunday, when inaugurating an important road network in the east of the country, that “we will probably soon be able to relax the measures, I don’t think there is a need to tighten them, rather I think they will be able to relax.”

Days later, however, the Minister of Security said that the possible changes are still being studied.

The state of emergency suspends fundamental rights such as being informed of the reasons for detention or having access to a lawyer. In addition, security forces can intervene in telecommunications without a court order and detention without a court hearing is prolonged from 72 hours to 15 days.

As part of the strategy to combat gangs, Congress also approved reforms to the Penal Code to make belonging to a gang a crime, which carries penalties of 20 to 40 years in prison. Ringleaders can receive sentences of up to 60 years.

Since the measure came into effect, authorities say they have captured 83,600 people accused of belonging to gangs or having ties to these criminal groups. Bukele says 8,000 innocent people have been freed.

In 2015, El Salvador was considered one of the most violent countries in the world with a rate of 106 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants.

In 2023, the country closed with 214 homicides, including 38 deaths of alleged gang members in alleged confrontations with police or military. So far in 2024, El Salvador has recorded 142 homicides, which include 24 homicides added to the ‘About finding out death’ category and another 5 of alleged criminals who died in alleged confrontations with the police or armed forces.

Organizations that ensure respect for human rights have registered more than 6,000 complaints made by victims under the emergency regime. They say they have documented that 340 adults and four babies children of people deprived of liberty have died.

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