The legislative Assembly, in total control of the Nuevas Ideas ruling party, approved on Tuesday the 22nd extension of the emergency regime, which maintains suspended rights related to the period of detention, defense and intervention in telecommunications, without having had at least one in-depth discussion. on the matter.
In its request, Nayib Bukele’s government indicated that the measure, in force since March 27, 2022, has allowed the capture of more than 75,100 alleged gang members, but did not explain why after almost two years of applying the measure, at least 20 thousand gang members are still free, according to what was stated by the Minister of Security, Gustavo Villatoro.
The suspension of guarantees allows the maximum detention period to be extended from 72 hours to 15 days; does not immediately inform a suspect of the rights and reasons for detention and does not guarantee legal assistance. In addition, it allows telecommunications to be intercepted without a court order.
According to the Executive, the regime is necessary because “there are still” gang members and their leaders “at large” and that suspending the measure would be a “setback.”
For her part, opposition legislator Claudia Ortiz attacked the measure: “The emergency regime is not a security policy but the suspension of the fundamental rights of Salvadorans,” she pointed out.
“Both things are true, gang members have been captured, and innocent people have been captured and they are not given justice, the latter should not be happening,” he stated in the plenary session, but in El Salvador “there is no peace,” but rather a “tense calm,” he said.
The new extension will be valid until February 10, a period that includes the presidential and legislative elections that will be held on February 4. The government has assured that it will maintain the measure until there are no gang members on the streets.
Violence in El Salvador has decreased considerably since 2016 and not since Bukele’s arrival to the presidency (2019), the year in which the Institute of Legal Medicine reported 5,280 intentional deaths. The year 2023 — described by the government as the safest in the country’s history — closed with 194 homicides, according to reports from the National Civil Police. The official figure was 154, since it does not include murders of alleged gang members or forced disappearances, falsifying the figures.
During the emergency regime, the Cristosal association reported until January 9, 3,695 alleged victims of arbitrary detentions and other human rights violations. Meanwhile, the Humanitarian Legal Aid organization documented 220 people detained dead in prisons until December 30, 2023.
According to the most recent government evaluation survey by the José Simeón Cañas Central American University (UCA), published in May 2023, 97.7% of the interviewed population considered that crime has decreased under the current government; Of that vast majority, 68.7% attributed it to the emergency regime or the capture of gang members.