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The University Observatory of Human Rights pointed out that during the state of exception that governs the Central American country, cases of torture were provoked against alleged gang members who were detained in the framework of the war against crime that Nayib Bukele declared last March. The report shows that at least 59 people died in police custody, most of them due to beatings. It also accounts for prison overcrowding of over 200%.
The battle that the Government of El Salvador launched against the gangs in recent months incurred in profound violations of human rights, indicated the University Observatory of Human Rights (OUDH) -belonging to the Central American University (UCA)- in a report called ‘ 100 days of exception regime in El Salvador’.
In this work, he reveals numerous cases of serious mistreatment during the time that the state of emergency imposed by the Nayib Bukele Administration last March after a wave of murders that left 87 victims has been in force.
The measure was extended four times by Congress and it is estimated that it will be extended for the fifth time until the end of September.
“In El Salvador there is torture. The complaints that have been received by the Human Rights Institute of the UCA attest to the existence of acts of torture,” said Danilo Flores, general coordinator of the OUDH.
Within the state of exception, basic constitutional guarantees were revoked, such as the time in which the security forces can detain a civilian without cause or notify the place where he is located.
The OUDH report reaffirms the accusation made by Amnesty International last June, where it pointed out that there were “massive violations of human rights” during this persecution of gang members that led to the arrest of innocent citizens.
The official figures given by Gustavo Villatoro -Minister of Justice and Security- ensure that more than 49,000 criminals were captured. However, the work of the OUDH shows that several were arbitrarily.
Dead prisoners in custody, in the sights of the OUDH
In addition, raising the tone, it highlights the death of those arrested who were in state custody, a figure that is around 59 cases. Natalia Ponce, a researcher at the Human Rights Observatory, explained that this is “the result of beatings in prisons or prison cells, physical aggression from other inmates and negligence in medical care by not providing proper treatment.”
The deplorable medical conditions that inmates have within their reach is consistent with the state in which prisons live. The text also highlights that there is an overcrowding of 247.6%.
In exposing the document, Flores exemplified the case of a 14-year-old adolescent detained by the National Civil Police “after several visits to his residence” and who was taken to a delegation. “There they beat him and tortured him to make him confess that he belonged to a gang. They submerged his head in water and pressed his hand with pliers, ”he listed.
Later, the young man “was taken to a gang cell despite not being a member of any and was beaten by those people.” Flores indicated that he spent 12 days in that situation, being punished by police and prisoners.
#EventOUDH || The total number of violent deaths from March 27 to July 4 corresponds to 123, with the highest number observed in the period from March 27 to April 25, a total of 48 violent deaths in that period of time pic.twitter.com/E1sm2A1IkR
— OUDH El Salvador (@oudhsv) August 10, 2022
He was eventually released after a hearing in a state where he was “vomiting blood.”
“It is an emblematic case of the events that are occurring in the country,” Flores concluded.
Ponce indicated that “based on the analysis of journalistic notes” they identified 63 victims of “cruel, inhuman and degrading” attacks by the security forces between March 27 and July 4.
The researcher stressed that “the UN qualifies as torture any act by which pain or suffering, physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person in order to obtain information.”
While he added that the Human Rights Ombudsman (PDDH) documented 306 cases related to violations of the right to personal integrity between the end of March and June.
Of these, 231 cases are of refusals by public officials or security agents to provide details to relatives about the location of a person’s detention.
with EFE
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