El Salvador: NGOs ask to repeal the emergency regime due to alleged human rights violations

RRepresentatives of six human rights organizations demanded this Thursday the repeal of the emergency regime in El Salvador, for the thousands of complaints of alleged human rights violations and the more than 240 deaths that have been recorded in the country's prisons under the custody of State agents.

Between March 27, 2022, when the measure approved by the Legislative Assembly at the request of the Government of President Nayib Bukele to combat gangs began, to March 15 of this year, organizations registered 6,305 complaints of human rights violations with 16,289 incidents or damages.

The organizations register 6,305 complaints of human rights violations with 16,289 events or effects

The data was released this Thursday and is part of a report presented for the second year of the implementation of the exception measure, which today has become the only and main security measure of the Government.

The report has been prepared by Cristosal, the Passionist Social Service, the Human Rights Institute of the Central American University (Idhuca), the Salvadoran Network of Human Rights Defenders, the Amate organization and the Foundation for Studies for the Application of Rights (Fespad ).

The director of Idhuca, Gabriela Santos, pointed out that the emergency regime is “an unsustainable bubble that gives us this feeling of security for a time but that ultimately, due to its immediate and repressive nature, does not go any further.”

“Criminalization” of defenders and youth

Nataly Paz, from the Salvadoran Network of Women Defenders, expressed that the exception regime “can be used or is already being used” to “criminalize” the work of human rights activists, journalists and community leaders.

He pointed out that at least 34 cases of arrests of defenders from different sectors have been documented, including environmentalists, union members, community leaders and defenders of LGTBIQ+ rights.

“The seizure of community leadership is worrying because it entails a dismantling of the entire community organization,” he noted.

He added that of the documented cases, about 23 correspond to women human rights defenders.

Rina Monti, from Cristosal, pointed out that two years after the implementation of the measure “the criminalization of youth persists, which has been increasing.”

We see with great concern the criminalization of young people in particularly impoverished and stigmatized sectors, which makes them a favorite target for arrests.

“We see with great concern the criminalization of young people in particularly impoverished and stigmatized sectors, which makes them a favorite target for arrests,” he said.

Monti indicated that more than 50% of the detained people are young people between 19 and 30 years old, and warned about the increase in arrests of adolescents between 13 and 18 years old.

He noted that as organizations they have counted 203 complaints of arrests of adolescents.

According to official figures, they are 79,184 people who have been captured during the emergency regime, a measure that has been implemented for two years and that has been baptized by Bukele as “war against gangs.”

Prison overcrowding

According to NGOs, in the prisons of El Salvador there would be approximately 109,519 people deprived of libertybetween those detained before the implementation of the emergency regime and those captured under this measure.

From this data, the projection of the rate of people detained per 100,000 inhabitants of the organizations is 1,728, the “highest rate worldwide of people deprived of liberty,” said Verónica Reyna, of the Passionist Social Service.

He said that in percentage terms it means that at least 1.73% of the total population is detained and detailed that some 12,500 detainees are in the Terrorism Confinement Center (Cecot) and 97,019 in the other prisons in the country, which represents 335% of prison overcrowding.

EFE