Human rights organizations in El Salvador presented 50 habeas corpus before the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) on Wednesday, October 4. Families resort to this resource to request the release of people who would have been arbitrarily detained during the emergency regime for being alleged “gang members.” There are more than 4,000 procedures of this type that have entered the Court since President Nayib Bukele decreed it in March 2022.
Silence is the rule in the emergency regime in El Salvador. And the relatives of those detained are left without options to demand justice for their loved ones.
Ivania Cruz, part of the Committee of Relatives of Political Prisoners of El Salvador (COFAPPES), accompanied a group of relatives, as they do every month, to present 50 Habeas Corpus this Thursday. Together with the Movement of Victims of the Regime (MOVIR), there are more than 250 appeals that have entered the Supreme Court of Justice of the Central American nation in the last year and a half. Of this number, they have only received 11 responses: 10 negative and one favorable due to the critical state of health of a detainee.
“We regret the lack of response from all the institutions that have to do with the emergency regime,” Cruz said.
For families, Habeas Corpus is their last resort in a State that, they say, controls everything. “The Attorney General’s Office does not respond, the Human Rights Attorney’s Office does not resolve anything and the deadlines in cases of emergency regime are increasingly postponed,” Cruz claimed.
The request is that they review, case by case, the documentation of the detainees (who request the appeal) and access a substitute measure to prison.
Due to the number of irregularities in these procedures, the two organizations have scheduled, each month, to present this type of appeal. They do so despite the fact that, they claim, all institutions are intervened by the Salvadoran Government. In total, there are more than 4,000 Habeas Corpus that have been presented since March 2022, when the emergency regime began to take effect, of which, 3,500 have not been resolved, according to several organizations.
#ATTENTION
Today, Wednesday, October 4, 2023, we present more habeas corpus appeals, due to negligence in the judicial processes that affect people arbitrarily captured. pic.twitter.com/LEYIa2EC25— Movement of Victims of the Regime, El Salvador (@MOVIRSV) October 4, 2023
State Policy
El Salvador has been under an emergency regime for 557 days. On September 12, the National Congress, with a pro-government majority, approved the eighteenth extension for this measure to continue.
Legislative Decree No. 333, of March 27, 2022, in which the regime was established for the first time, came after the murder of 87 people on the weekend of March 25 to 27, 2022. An investigation by the Salvadoran media ‘El Faro’ explained that the massacre occurred because the Bukele Government broke the pact it had with the gangs.
A pact that, according to the media, Bukele practiced from the beginning of his Government to reduce the levels of violence. And before that he maintained it during his term as mayor of the capital San Salvador.
Human rights violations
Several human rights organizations have reported countless rights violations within the framework of the emergency regime.
Amnesty International published a report outlining some findings on these violations. “The subjection to mistreatment and torture, flagrant violations of due process, forced disappearances and the death of at least 132 people in the custody of the State, who at the time of their death had not been declared guilty of any crime.”
The Cristosal organization did the same. “There is evidence of dozens of people detained under the emergency regime who have died due to torture or very serious injuries inflicted while they were in State custody. Asphyxiation, breaks, numerous bruises, lacerations and even perforations in the corpses have been documented by the Institute of Legal Medicine itself or through photographs.”
Even her own Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), in March 2023, one year after the measure, asked the State to restore the full validity of the suspended rights and guarantees. “The IACHR urges the State to respect human rights in the adoption of measures for the prevention, control and response to crime,” he said in a statement.
The reports are extensive and the data grows as the regime remains in force.
In addition, more than 72,000 people have been arrested since March 2022, according to official figures. Of this number, more than 7,000 have been released due to lack of evidence to establish that they are gang members.
Bukele defends the “war against gangs” and seeks re-election
“The decisions we made were correct. We are no longer the death capital of the world and we achieved it in record time. Today we are a model of security and no one can doubt it.” This is how President Nayib Bukele began his intervention before the last UN General Assembly last month. This has been his speech with the emergency regime in force; a speech that has permeated a large part of the Salvadoran population.
The president registers an approval rating of over 80%. Local and international studies place it as one of the best rated in the region. His popularity is attributed to fighting gangs, a policy that presidential candidates and leaders in other countries have tried to emulate.
With these figures, Bukele intends to remain in office, after a controversial registration of his presidential candidacy. This is because the Constitution does not allow a second term, but the Supreme Court enabled it.
Last Tuesday the electoral campaign officially began to elect a new president in February 2024. In addition to Bukele, Joel Sánchez, from the right-wing ARENA party, is also in the race; Manuel Flores, from the leftist FMLN party; Luis Parada, from the Nuestro Tiempo party; José Renderos, from Fuerza Solidaria; and Marina Murillo, from the Salvadoran Patriotic Front.
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