El Salvador recorded on Saturday the most violent day in its recent history with 62 murders in the midst of an escalation that began on Friday, as confirmed by the National Civil Police (PNC) this Sunday.
The PNC made this information official, which had already been advanced by unofficial sources, when the start of an extraordinary plenary session in the Legislative Assembly was expected to vote on an emergency regime.
The escalation of murders this weekend reached 76 homicides in two days, with the 14 on Friday. The closest figure to the 62 murders on Saturday is the 51 homicides in a single day recorded in August 2015, when the country experienced its deadliest year since the end of the civil war (1980-1992).
“We will not back down in this #GangWar, we will not rest until the criminals responsible for these events are captured and brought to justice.“, published the PNC on Twitter.
This label of “war” has been adopted by government officials, such as the Minister of Security, Gustavo Villatoro. The predecessor of President Nayib Bukele also adopted a strategy of direct confrontation with the gangs after the breaking of a truce promoted by former President Mauricio Funes (2009-2014).
Bukele asks for a state of emergency
The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, asked the Legislative Assembly on Saturday night to decree “today” the exception regimeafter the arrest of dozens of Mara Salvatrucha gang members, accused of perpetrating 62 homicides in a single day.
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Faced with the wave of violence, the president asked the members of Congress, controlled by the ruling party, to meet to “decree emergency regime today“, by which constitutional guarantees are annulled, in order to confront the gangs.
The Salvadoran Constitution establishes the exception regime, by which some established guarantees are suspended, it can be applied “in cases of war, invasion of territory, rebellion, sedition, catastrophe, epidemic or other general calamity, or serious disturbance of public order“.
intense police operation
A wave of violence shakes El Salvador, where since Friday night they have been registered “more than 20 homicides and femicidesRicardo Martínez, deputy attorney for the Defense of Human Rights, had said earlier when the information about the murders began to be known.
The Police and the Army of El Salvador maintained an operation on Saturday in which, according to the National Civil Police (PNC), several leaders of the Mara Salvatrucha (MS) were arrested accused of being “responsible for the homicides registered in the last few hours.
“Since yesterday [viernes] we have a new spike in homicides, something that we had worked so hard to reduce. As we fight criminals in the streets, we try to figure out what is happening and who is behind financing this,” El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele said in a statement.
Bukele urgently gathered his security team, along with the Attorney General, to address the issue, the PNC reported on Saturday afternoon.
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let them do their job
The president said that the Police and the Armed Forces “they must let the agents and soldiers do their job and must defend them from the accusations of those who protect the gang membersyes.”
Bukele asked the Prosecutor’s Office “to be effective with all the cases (of gang members that it processes) and warned that it will be aware of” the judges who favor criminals.
Attorney Martinez called on the government and public security authorities to “redouble efforts” to “prevent and investigate all acts of violence and apply the full weight of the law, respecting the principle of innocence and due process.”
He also asked the population to “keep calm” and contribute to promoting “a culture of peace” in the country.
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Last November the country suffered another spike in homicides, which in three days claimed the lives of some 45 people.
The Mara Salvatrucha and Barrio 18 gangs, among others, have some 70,000 members in El Salvador, more than 17,000 of them incarcerated, according to authorities, and operate through homicides, extortion, drug trafficking and other illegal activities.
El Salvador closed 2021 with 1,140 homicides, an average of 18 deaths per 100,000 inhabitantsless than the 1,341 registered in 2020 and the lowest figure since the end of the civil war in 1992, according to official data.
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