United Nations, May 22 – Experts from the United Nations Organization (UN) reiterated this Monday their concern about the new extension of the state of emergency in El Salvador, which has lasted more than a year, and urged that the measure be lifted .
“(The experts) called for the state of emergency to be lifted immediately and for the government to review the new and broad powers it introduced to deal with the gang problem in the country,” the agency reported in a statement.
They also urged the Salvadoran authorities to ensure that people are not detained “on mere suspicion of gang membership or association without sufficient legal authorization, that detainees enjoy all the fundamental safeguards required by international human rights law and that they are guaranteed due process,” the text adds.
“A state of emergency was declared after a series of gang-related homicides. Despite its obligation to protect citizens from such heinous acts, the government cannot trample on the right to a fair trial in the name of public safety,” the experts said, the note said.
Exception regime
According to official figures, as of September last year, 58,000 people had been detained under the new measures, including at least 1,600 minors.
Six months later, in March 2023, it was reported that “more than 67,000” people had been detained.
“The information received indicates that many of these detentions are arbitrary and some constitute short-term enforced disappearances,” says the UN.
Experts expressed concern that the government is relying on the concept of “permanent flagrante delicto” to influence warrantless arrests of suspected gang members.
According to reports, the agency alerts, the initial hearings, in which judges review the legality of a detention and decide on the charges and preventive detention, are held in groups of up to 500 people.
“Mass hearings and trials – often held virtually – undermine the exercise of the right to defense and the presumption of innocence of detainees,” the experts noted.
In turn, they warned that “the excessive use of preventive detention, the prohibition of alternative measures, trials in absentia and the possibility of using practices such as ‘faceless judges’ and reference witnesses undermine the guarantees of due process.”
According to the UN, thousands of families have been seriously affected financially by having to incur additional expenses to defend their loved ones and ensure their well-being, health and safety, they said.
“These measures threaten to criminalize people who happen to live in the most impoverished areas and who have themselves been targeted by gangs in the past,” the experts concluded.
The Salvadoran parliament approved last week by a large majority the fourteenth extension of the state of emergency, decreed on March 27 of last year in the midst of a wave of gang violence that caused the death of 87 people that weekend.
With the measure, the rights of defense are suspended, article 12 second paragraph of the constitution; the detention period of 72 hours, article 13, second paragraph; and the inviolability of correspondence, article 24.