El Salvador declares state of emergency after gang killings
El Salvador’s parliament has approved the state of emergency that temporarily suspended some constitutional protections in the Central American country following a wave of killings attributed to criminal gangs.
Police reported a total of 62 homicides on Saturday, making it the most violent day in nearly three decades.
“We approve the exceptional regime, which will allow our government to protect the lives of Salvadorans and confront criminality head-on,” said Ernesto Castro, the congress’s president, said after an extraordinary session early on Sunday.
The country registered 1,140 murders in 2021 – an average of 18 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, but still considerably lower since the end of the civil war in 1992.
In 2015, El Salvador, home to some 6.5 million people, recorded a rate of 103 homicides for every 100,000 people, one of the highest in the world.
The emergency measures will lead to restrictions on free assembly. It will also curtail the right to be informed of the reason for arrest and access to a lawyer upon being detained, in addition to allowing for administrative detention of more than 72 hours.
President Nayib Bukele, who asked parliament to approve the emergency measures, praised the move after the vote.
“The measures to be taken will be implemented by the relevant institutions and announced only when necessary. For the vast majority of people, life continues normal. God bless us all,” Bukele wrote on Twitter.
He also said he was ordering the head of the country’s prisons to carry out an immediate 24/7 lockdown of gang inmates in their cells.
Source;al jazeera
