First modification:
The Salvadoran president condemned the murder of the three policemen “while they were doing patrol tasks” and blamed the ‘Sureños’ faction of the Barrio 18 gang for this attack. El Salvador has been under the emergency regime since last March in order to curb violence and the escalation of homicides in the country. Since then, there have been more than 43,000 arrests, some of them “arbitrary”, according to complaints.
The Salvadoran president, Nayib Bukele, assured that the death of the three policemen “is not going to remain like this” and that those responsible, who according to him are members of a faction of the Barrio 18 gang, “are going to pay dearly for the murder of these three heroes,” he said.
Among the deceased are the head of the 911 emergency system section and two policemen, a man and a woman. They lost their lives “in a confrontation with gang members” in the La Realidad neighborhood, in Santa Ana, the second largest city in the country, about 60 kilometers west of San Salvador.
The two men and a woman leave family and children “in the orphanage,” Bukele said.
For the president, this attack shows “that the gangs are still there with force to attack.” However, he assured that “the gang members are fools, because we are not going to go back.” On the contrary, the president announced: “We are going to intensify this war against the gangs.”
The authorities arrested one of the attackers, who is injured and allegedly belongs to the “Sureños” faction of the Barrio 18 gang.
Meanwhile, the president announced that the presence of the security forces will be increased in the area of the attack and in other places where the gangs still have a presence.
“Now they are going to really see what it means to unleash the force of the State against these criminals,” said Bukele, who added that he will not give his arm to twist so that human rights organizations and “countries that are enemies of our people complain” “.
These are the first deaths of police officers reported in a confrontation with gang members since the country decreed the emergency regime.
Exception regime in El Salvador
Since the end of March, El Salvador has been under an exceptional regime that allows arrests without a court order and legitimizes the suspension of constitutional rights.
This order was approved in Congress, at the request of the Bukele Executive, after an escalation of 87 murders committed between March 25 and 27.
According to an investigation by the Salvadoran media outlet ‘El Faro’, this escalation of violence occurred after the alleged rupture of a pact between the Government and the gangs. Neither Bukele nor the authorities have responded to this accusation so far.
The emergency regime, extended until the end of July, has been considered “unsustainable” by the charge d’affaires of the United States embassy in San Salvador, Patrick Ventrell.
This, because this policy “has already left tens of thousands of detainees and numerous complaints of human rights violations, arbitrary arrests and deaths of detainees as well,” said Ventrell.
Organizations such as Amnesty International and the NGO ‘Human Rights Watch’ have called on the Salvadoran government to respect human rights.
Bukele: “Gangs are like cancer with metastases”
But for Bukele, “the gangs are like a cancer with metastases” and the exceptional regime and the “war against the gangs” is chemotherapy.
If the exceptional measures are suspended, “the gang phenomenon will grow again, it will be greater than the 100% it was and worst of all, it will be resistant to chemotherapy,” said the head of state From El Salvador.
However, he agrees with Ventrell on the fact that the state of emergency “cannot last forever”.
During this period, there have been more than 43,000 arrests.
Human rights organizations have registered more than 3,000 complaints of abuses, mainly due to “arbitrary arrests.” In addition, reports from independent organizations and the press suggest that at least 52 people detained and in state custody have died.
The gangs with the greatest presence in El Salvador are Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and Barrio 18.
Before the state of exception, some 16,000 of its members were imprisoned. A figure that has risen 59,086 in the last three months. This represents 84% of the 70,000 gang members officially considered to exist in the country.
Meanwhile, the Prosecutor’s Office of the Central American country sentenced last Monday a group of 94 gang members of the Mara Salvatrucha to sentences of up to 1,090 years in prison. This, for his participation in various crimes, including the murder of two policemen.
With EFE and AFP
#Salvador #Bukele #intensify #war #gangs #murder #policemen