UN Human Rights Office asks El Salvador to investigate deaths in prisons

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights expressed concern on Friday about the extension of the exception regime in El Salvador and asked the government of President Nayib Bukele to put an end to this measure and to investigate all deaths in prisons of people in state custody.

In a press release, the Office recognized the complex challenge faced in El Salvador in combating crime, as well as the serious suffering inflicted by gangs that have terrorized the population for decades.

However, he stated that “undermining the rule of law and the integrity of the legal system by limiting fair trial rights is not the answer.”

“We ask the authorities to lift the state of emergency and review the measures they have taken. We also call on them to immediately investigate all deaths in custody in accordance with international standards, that those responsible be punished and that justice be guaranteed to the victims,” ​​spokeswoman Marta Hurtado said.

The Associated Press asked the Presidential House for comments on what was expressed by the UN body but received no response.

But presenting his report to the nation on his fourth year in office On Thursday night, Bukele again rejected criticism from the international community and said that “El Salvador is a sovereign country.”

“We will not be accountable to the international community or bow down to countries that want to tell us how to solve our problems, when they cannot solve theirs,” he added.

The state of exception approved by Congress unicameral suspends various constitutional rights, including that of a person to be duly informed of their rights and the reasons for their arrest, as well as to have the assistance of a lawyer.

In addition, it extends detention from 72 hours to 15 days and allows the authorities to intervene in the correspondence and cell phones of those they consider suspicious.

The new statement by the UN Office came after the Salvadoran non-governmental organization Cristosal presented a report in which it documented that at least 153 people died in state custody during the emergency regime decreed by Congress on the 27th of March 2022 after gangs murdered 62 people across the country in a single day.

Until now, there is no official report of the people who died in prisons during the emergency regime.

Cristosal assured that the deaths of the detainees were the result of torture, serious and systematic injuries and that almost half of the deceased were victims of violent deaths. A part of these deaths were also caused by pathologies that show deliberate negligence in the provision of medical assistance, medicines and food, registering deaths due to malnutrition.

The organization mentioned the practices of torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment that have been inflicted in a general way on thousands of people detained during the validity of the emergency regime.

He added that civil society groups that work in favor of human rights and the media “continue to run risks in an environment of legal uncertainty, attacks and recurring discredit.”

These civil society organizations would have documented “182 alleged attacks against human rights defenders and journalists.”

Other organizations such as Amnesty International have denounced human rights violations in the application of the exception regime in El Salvador.

Official figures record more than 68,000 alleged gang members or collaborators captured under the emergency regime, of which more than 90% have provisional detention ordered by a judge. But more than 5,000 people have been released because they could not be linked to those criminal structures, according to authorities.

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