El Salvador celebrates one hundred days under a state of emergency to quell a wave of violence

MADRID, 4 Jul. (EUROPA PRESS) -

El Salvador celebrates this Monday its hundredth day under the state of exception decreed at the end of March to quell a wave of violence that was plaguing the Central American nation and through which the Executive is empowered to suspend certain freedoms and guarantees to facilitate the deployment of military and policemen in the streets.

Thus, since March 30 there have been several imprisonments of alleged gang members, specifically 43,567 captured, accused of belonging to criminal groups. These massive arrests have aroused criticism from opponents and human rights defenders, who see arbitrary arrests in this practice.

Likewise, internal sources of the Institute of Legal Medicine have put the deceased inmates at 56, according to the Salvadoran newspaper 'La Prensa Gráfica', which also records that more than 2,200 complaints of rights violations have been filed, as well as 409 'habeas corpus' ', mostly unresolved.

The Salvadoran president, Nayib Bukele, and his Executive have repeatedly defended that the authorities have launched a "war against the gangs", although considering the high number of detainees, homicides continue to be registered in the country, more than 62 deceased since the end of April.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has shown its concern about the situation of the Salvadoran population while this state of emergency is being carried out, which has already been extended up to four times, the last one until the end of July.

In addition to the arrests, taking advantage of the state of emergency, the Government of El Salvador has also carried out other measures such as the reform of a law that penalizes the illegal reproduction of messages alluding to gangs in the media, or the creation of a law of rewards for those who rat suspected gang members.

President Bukele has reported that the authorities will maintain the measure until they ensure that all gang members in the country are "behind bars" and has already announced that his government will "grow harder" in the fight against criminal groups.

The Salvadoran head of state also pointed out last week that what has been experienced to date "is nothing" compared to what will happen in the future. "What is coming is much greater," said Bukele, who announced that he will reinforce security in the streets and the capacities available to both the Police and the Armed Forces will be squeezed to the maximum.