The human rights organization, Socorro Jurídico Humanitario, denounced this April 19 a possible outbreak of diseases inside the prisons of El Salvador.
“We have information that there are many sick people in prisons, and the habeas corpus in the Constitutional Chamber sleeps the sleep of the just. “We have identified deceased people whose habeas have been answered 'inadmissible' after many days of the person's death,” he pointed the organization in a publication.
Habeas corpus processes serve to restore freedom to citizens detained illegally or arbitrarily. At the beginning of 2024, the organization accused the Supreme Court of Justice of not providing progress on 1,750 habeas corpus.
The local media The printing press public In March of this year, some 18,756 people detained in El Salvador have at least one serious illness, and 4,987 have milder illnesses. The diseases with the highest cases are tuberculosis, hypertension, diabetes and HIV.
Other organizations such as Cristosal and the Human Rights Institute of the José Simeón Cañas Central American University have denounced precarious conditions inside the prisons, derived from overcrowding.
According to a civil society report, El Salvador has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world, with the 2.5% of its adult population in prison.
The Voice of America made a request for comment to the press department of the government of El Salvador to expand information about a possible outbreak of diseases in prisons, but at the time of writing this report there was no response.
The emergency regime, which has been extended 24 times, resulted in the mass arrest of some 79,000 Salvadorans accused of belonging to gangs. At least 240 people have died since then in state custody.
However, Nayib Bukele's government continues to defend the heavy-handed policy in the application of the law, rejecting criticism from organizations inside and outside the country, and relying on the high level of acceptance of its management.
“When is the emergency regime going to end? When we have brought the last of these terrorists to justice,” Security Minister Gustavo Villatoro told local media.
The government has also maintained its position on social networks, where they defend and argue the measure.
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