El Salvador extends state of exception that leaves 50,000 detained

By Laura Gamba

BOGOTA, Colombia (AA) – Lawmakers in El Salvador approved a one-month extension late Tuesday to a state of exception that has allowed the imprisonment of 50,000 alleged gang members since March.

The 84-seat unicameral assembly voted for a fifth time in favor of maintaining the measure through mid-September.

The state of exception suspends certain civil liberties, including the right to association, to be informed of the reason for an arrest and the assistance of a lawyer. It also extends the period of preventive detention from 72 hours to 15 days and allows authorities to tap the correspondence and mobile phones of those deemed suspicious.

The measure called by President Nayib Bukele in March to combat gangs after more than 80 people died in one weekend, has been heavily criticized by rights groups that said human rights violations are being committed.

​​Amnesty International reported that many have died in custody and claimed authorities are committing torture under the emergency regime.

The Alliance for Peace movement said it had received 500 complaints of arbitrary arrests.

Family members of those detained gathered Tuesday at the Legislative Assembly in San Salvador to ask Congress not to extend the measure and demand the release of relatives arrested “arbitrarily.”

But the government has defended the measure. It reports the daily decrease in homicides and extortion following massive arrests of what it claims are gang members.

"No one can deny the transformation we are carrying out in El Salvador. The Emergency Regime has allowed us to intensify the war against gangs and take thousands of terrorists off the streets who no longer terrorize,” the president's office wrote on Twitter.

The Distributors Association of El Salvador recently said that extortions in retail stores have been reduced by 80%.

"The results of the exception regime have been convincing, we have strongly impacted these terrorist structures," Justice Minister Gustavo Villatoro said Tuesday.

The so-called maras, which have some 70,000 members, are involved in drug trafficking and organized crime.