Human rights organizations demand the end of the emergency regime in El Salvador

Six human rights organizations in El Salvador called on Thursday for the end of the emergency regime in the country, and highlighted their concern about the thousands of complaints of alleged human rights violations and the more than 240 deaths in prisons under state custody.

Since the measure was implemented on March 27, 2022, at the request of the Nayib Bukele government to combat gangs, until March 15 of this year, 6,305 complaints of human rights violations were registered, with a total of 16,289 incidents. or effects, published Efe.

This call is based on a report prepared by Cristosal, the Passionist Social Service, the Human Rights Institute of the Central American University (Idhuca), the Salvadoran Network of Human Rights Defenders, Amate and the Foundation for Studies for the Application of Rights ( Fespad).

According to Gabriela Santos, director of Idhuca, the emergency regime is “an unsustainable bubble that gives us this feeling of security for a time but that, deep down, due to its immediate and repressive nature, does not go any further.”

Nataly Paz, of the Salvadoran Network of Women Defenders, expressed concern about the possible criminalization of human rights activists, journalists and community leaders under this regime. At least 34 cases of arrests of defenders from different sectors have been documented, including environmentalists, unionists and defenders of LGTBIQ+ rights.

Rina Monti, from Cristosal, highlighted the persistence of the criminalization of youth, with more than 50% of the people arrested being young people between 19 and 30 years old, and a notable increase in arrests of adolescents between 13 and 18 years old. There have been 203 reports of arrests of adolescents.

With official figures indicating that 79,184 people have been captured during the emergency regime, according to Bukele called the “war against gangs,” the prison situation is alarming. In El Salvador’s prisons, approximately 109,519 people are deprived of liberty, with a rate of people detained per 100,000 inhabitants of 1,728, the highest worldwide.

Verónica Reyna, from the Passionist Social Service, explained that overcrowding reaches 335% in the country’s prisons, with 12,500 detainees in the Terrorism Confinement Center and 97,019 in other prisons. These data highlight the urgency of addressing the prison situation in El Salvador from a human rights and social justice perspective.

Keep reading:
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• Almost 4,000 human rights violations reported during war against gangs in El Salvador
• El Salvador, two years under an emergency regime: Bukele’s declared war against gangs