Two years have passed of an emergency regime in the country that was once considered the most violent in the world. On March 27, 2022, the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, decided to implement this measure, after a massacre that shocked the Central American country. Since then, it has been his card to gain popularity and even achieve a new mandate. The results: reduction of crime to minimum levels, but with serious complaints of violation of human rights. After two years of this measure, its popularity is growing, as are complaints about arbitrary arrests, deaths in state custody and criminalization in rural areas.
North of Chalatenango, in El Salvador, two activists from the Tamarindo Foundation were detained by the military. In addition, they took a woman and her 7-year-old daughter, whose whereabouts are unknown. It all happened on the weekend of March 23 and 24. They are part of a long list of detentions denounced as arbitrary and that have occurred since the emergency regime began two years ago. The president himself, Nayib Bukele, highlighted the sending of 5,000 police officers and a thousand soldiers to four northern regions.
Two years have passed since Bukele issued the Legislative Decree No. 333. With it, he established, for the first time, a state of exception that has been extended 24 times, with the favorable vote of the National Assembly, with a pro-government majority, despite criticism for an alleged violation of human rights since its validity.
El Salvador has been militarized for more than 700 days and in a war against gangs that has frightened its inhabitants for several years. In Bukele's second term, in which he won overwhelmingly last February, the human rights crisis could deepen, according to several local and international organizations, such as Amnesty International.
“We are deeply concerned about the deterioration in respect and protection of human rights under the Government of Nayib Bukele and the likelihood that this trend will consolidate during his second term. In the last five years we have observed the serious crisis caused by a government model that promoted massive human rights violations and the evasion of accountability mechanisms, both nationally and internationally,” said Ana Piquer, director for the Americas of Amnesty International, after Bukele's re-election.
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However, the Government defends the measure with figures: more than 78,000 arrests, the confiscation of 3,939 firearms and 8,000 vehicles from the gangs.
“Two years ago we lived one of the darkest days in the history of our country, more than 60 Salvadorans were murdered by these cowardly terrorists,” published the Minister of Justice and Public Security, Gustavo Villatoro, when remembering the massacre that led to the implementation of the state of exception.
In a couple of weeks, this area will become the safest place in the safest country throughout the entire Western Hemisphere.
In a few weeks, this area will become the safest place in the safest country in the entire Western Hemisphere. pic.twitter.com/5qwEN6gJGT
— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) March 26, 2024
“The emergency regime came to transform El Salvador in terms of security. Now, our population lives in true peace and freedom,” Villatoro added. A peace and freedom that has not reached more than 6,000 people who have filed complaints with local organizations about the arbitrary arrests, disappearances and relatives of the more than 200 dead in state custody. However, the Bukele Government, said by Villatoro, is clear: “This war against these terrorists will continue.”
Violation of rights: collateral damage?
El Salvador is part of the so-called Central American Northern Triangle, along with Guatemala and Honduras, considered one of the most violent areas in the world, due to both the increase in drug trafficking and the presence of allies of the Mexican cartels, as well as the weakness of state institutions, according to United Nations.
In 2015, El Salvador became the most violent country in the worldwith a homicide rate of 103 per 100,000 inhabitants and, after this escalation, the numbers began to decrease in 2016, but the most marked drops in these crimes occurred since 2019, the year in which Nayib Bukele came to power.
The reduction in violent deaths, even having several days without any murder, has been another justification for the Government to continue with this measure. For the Minister of Defense, René Francis Merino, the “collateral damage” of this strategy “has been minimal.”
What he calls “collateral damage” have been the thousands of complaints of rights violations, especially in rural areas. According to Amnesty International, until February 2024, 327 cases of forced disappearances have been registered, more than 78,000 arbitrary arrests, with nearly 102,000 people deprived of liberty in the country. In addition, they warn of prison overcrowding of almost 148%, and at least 235 deaths in state custody.
We invite you to stay tuned for this coming April 3rd. We will present our report for the two years of the #RegimendeException . We have many things to say and absolutely nothing to keep quiet, attentive to the time and place so that they can join us. pic.twitter.com/JNBwJ2VQoK
— Humanitarian Legal Aid (@SJHumanitario) March 22, 2024
The organization expressed its concern, precisely, about statements such as those of the Minister of Defense. A tendency that the Salvadoran Government has maintained to “minimize, hide, delegitimize and deny the allegations coming from various actors, both national and international, regarding the serious violations that have been documented.”
The authorities insist that it has been one of the greatest achievements of their Government to reduce crime to minimum levels, with a view to being the safest place in the Western Hemisphere.
But the state of emergency, as a permanent measure, was also questioned by the United Nations. In March 2023, one year later, the spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Marta Hurtado, asked the State “to guarantee that people are not arrested without sufficient legal authorization.”
Two years after his arbitrary capture, Óscar R. still must travel every Thursday from Oratorio de Concepción, in Cuscatlán, to a court in San Salvador, to sign a book that guarantees his conditional freedom.https://t.co/71wRdWu1tU
— El Faro (@_elfaro_) March 24, 2024
Local and international organizations warn that the concentration of power, without the counterweight of any national institution, deepens the concerns of the civilian population. Amnesty International warned that “reducing gang violence by replacing it with state violence cannot be a success.”
Gangs, a phenomenon considered a legacy of the civil war (1980-1992) and which was strengthened with the deportation of gang members from the United States, have resisted different Salvadoran plans of mass incarceration, direct confrontation and dialogue of recent governments.
With EFE and local media.
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