The Legislative Assembly of El Salvador extends the emergency regime for the fourth time
People demand the release of family members who claim to be innocent, who were arrested during the state of emergency decreed by the Salvadoran government to combat the criminal groups that terrorize the country, during a march from the Salvador del Mundo square to the presidential house, in San Salvador on July 19, 2022. (Photo by MARVIN RECINOS/AFP via Getty Images)
The deputies of the Legislative Assembly of El Salvador approved with 67 of 84 possible votes that the emergency regime continue for 30 days, at the request of the Executive Power.
This is the fourth extension of the state of exception that the deputies have approved since it began to be in force at the end of last March, in response to an upsurge in violence that left 62 murders in a single day.
“The exceptional regime must be in force until the last gang member is captured,” said Guillermo Gallegos, deputy of the Great Alliance for National Unity, Gana, an ally of the ruling Nuevas Ideas party.
This measure suspends constitutional guarantees, including freedom of association, the right to defense and extends provisional detention from 72 hours to 15 days. The regime also allows the authorities to intervene in telecommunications without the need to be authorized by a judge.
The opposition, once again, did not cast their votes. “Here nobody is against crime, what we disagree on is the abuses,” said deputy Marleni Funes, from the Farabundo Martà National Liberation Front, during the plenary session.
According to the security authorities, the regime has allowed them to detain more than 46,000 people. Given this increase, the government has begun construction work on a mega-prison that will have several levels of walls and 37 watchtowers, something that President Nayib Bukele said in June will make “an escape impossible.”
March to denounce arbitrary arrests
The extension of the emergency regime came only hours after groups of relatives and friends of detainees marched to the Presidential Palace to request their release, because they consider that they are being imprisoned unfairly.
Dressed in white and with posters in hand, the relatives of the detainees asked President Bukele and the Attorney General’s Office that the investigations be fair. “We defend innocent people and not criminals,” said Norma Hernández. Her daughter is in prison and has not been able to see her since April. “I don’t know anything about my daughter, like she was buried in a coffin already, I feel desperate,” Hernandez told CNN.
In June, an Amnesty International report revealed that the emergency regime violates human rights and unsuccessfully called for an end to this measure.
The Minister of Justice rejected this Tuesday that the security strategy will be changed.
“We do not need any international organization that comes to speak in favor of the gang members, President Nayib Bukele already mentioned it, if they want them so much then take them away, we give them to 2×1,” Minister Gustavo Villatoro said at a press conference.
The Salvadoran authorities maintain that the emergency regime could be extended for a longer time.