Upset families in El Salvador are seeking information on the fate of their loved ones after nearly 6,000 people were arrested in an unprecedented security crackdown last week.
Men, women and children were arrested across the Central American country after the government declared a state of emergency on March 27th, suspending constitutional rights, including the presumption of innocence.
President Naib Bukele, an authoritarian populist who uses Twitter to announce policies and expose his enemies, said all detainees were gang members and would not be released.
The state of emergency was declared after three days of violence left 87 dead, which Bukele blamed on the Mara Salvatrucha gang, known as MS-13.
While police say they have captured MS-13 leaders who ordered the killings, there is growing evidence that ordinary people living or working in gang-dominated neighborhoods have been arrested arbitrarily.
In the capital, San Salvador, hundreds of wives and mothers gather in front of a naval base that houses one of the largest police stations. Minibuses loaded with handcuffs arrived throughout the week as evangelical church members handed out small cups of sherbet to weeping relatives camping in the hot sun.
Carmen Rodriguez, 33, does not know why her husband, brother and nephew were arrested a week ago while unloading a second-hand clothes truck for their business at the city’s main market in the historic district.
“When we asked the police why they were taking them, they just insulted us,” said Rodriguez, who is struggling to find the money to pay for their food. “They take the righteous for sinners. “It’s good for the police to do their job, but it’s unfair to take away working people as well – and even worse, to treat them like animals,” she said.
The women reacted when they recognized their detained relatives, who were transferred to a prison in San Salvador last week. Photo: Jose Cabezas / Reuters
Last week, Bukele announced on Twitter that food for the gang’s prisoners would be given to feed the new detainees, as he was not ready to take money from the education budget to feed “terrorists.”
The 30-day state of emergency allows detainees to be detained for 15 days – instead of the usual three – without access to a lawyer and without prosecutors prosecuting a judge. The decree, which also allows police to search mobile phones and messages, could be extended.
The National Assembly, which is controlled by Bukele’s allies, has also passed legislation extending the terms of imprisonment for minors and allowing indefinite detention for suspected gang members.
Zaira Navas, a lawyer with the Salvadoran human rights group Cristosal, said: “Detainees have lost their right to defense and have no right to know the reasons for their arrest.
Despite the wide scope of the new emergency powers, reports indicate that other constitutional rights are being violated.
Rosa Lopez said police forcibly broke into her house in Santa Tecla in the La Libertad area on Saturday (March 26th) and arrested her 20-year-old cousin, who suffers from heart disease. He was due to be assigned a lawyer and appear in court three days later, as he was arrested the day before the state of emergency, but he remains without communication.
“The police didn’t ask, they just went into the house and took him away. They were crazy that day, they caught everyone … It’s awful what they do to him and us. This is not only unfair, but also illegal, “said Lopez, 26.
The crackdown is popular with many voters who are fed up with gangs, but has blocked entire neighborhoods.
An alleged MS-13 gang member was escorted to a detention center. Photo: Camilo Freedman / Sopa Images / Rex / Shutterstock
At a military checkpoint last afternoon in Santa Tekla, soldiers armed with an AK-47 inspected vehicles and checked people’s IDs and proof of address before letting them into or out of the neighborhood. Anyone considered suspicious was forced to undress so that troops could check for gang-related tattoos.
Only those who are considered to have a legitimate reason to be outside can pass.
“Builders and informal workers cannot leave. They’re closed, prisoners. Fortunately, I have a formal job and [my employer] has issued a letter. But if we want to shop after work, we can’t. There is nothing we can do, “said a 35-year-old woman who chose not to give her name.
Astrid Valencia, a Central American researcher at Amnesty International, said: “We are concerned not only that the measures are hampering key elements of the due process, but also of President Bukele’s confrontational discourse that stigmatizes and attacks human rights defenders, civil society, international non-governmental organizations and independent media to express their concern about these measures. “
Bukele is taking an increasingly militant stance against anyone who dares to question his government, and recently said that human rights NGOs, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and George Soros’s Open Society Foundations – which provides subsidies of non-governmental organizations and independent media in El Salvador – are partners of the gang.
It became clear who the partners of the gang members were.
Everyone came out to defend them:
Financiers, drug traffickers, corrupt politicians and judges, human rights NGOs, the international community, the IACHR, journalists and Open Society media, and more.
They took off the mask.
– @nayibbukele (@nayibbukele) April 4, 2022
Even before the mass arrests, El Salvador had one of the most overcrowded prison systems in the world, with about a quarter of those detained under pre-trial detention.
While mayor of San Salvador, Bukele said he supported socially oriented crime prevention and rehabilitation programs to tackle the country’s rampant gang violence. After coming to power in 2019, he returned to the same manure or repressive tactics of previous governments, while secretly negotiating a truce with gang leaders, according to the United States.
Bukele denies the allegations, but journalists’ phones announcing the truce have been hacked using Israeli spyware.
The names of the victims and their relatives have been changed
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