The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, asked Congress, from his Twitter account, to decree an emergency regime.
The measure would seek to respond to the escalation of murders attributed to the gangs facing the Central American country in recent days.
I request the @AsambleaSV to decree today EXCEPTION REGIME, according to article 29 of the Constitution of the Republic.
— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) March 27, 123904539
El Salvador registered on Friday at least 14 homicides. According to local press reports, this Saturday 26 of March were added at least 23 murders, the highest figure in a single day recorded during the Bukele government, reported the EFE agency.
The leader of Congress, Ernesto Castro, responded to Bukele’s request and called for a extraordinary session for the 23. local time, Eastern Saturday 26 March.
“We are with you! Count on it,” Castro replied on his Twitter account.
For the approval of the state of emergency, 44 votes of the 84 deputies. The ruling party has 40 in favor.
Suspension of guarantees
The Salvadoran Magna Carta stipulates the suspension of constitutional guarantees in case of “war, invasion of territory, rebellion, sedition, catastrophe, epidemic or other general calamity, or serious disturbances of public order “.
The guarantees that Congress can suspend by invoking this article are freedom of entry and exit from the country , freedom of expression, the inviolability of correspondence, the prohibition of intervention No telecommunications without a court order.
Also included are freedom of association, the right of all detainees to be informed of the reasons for their arrest, the guarantee of the assistance of a defense attorney in judicial proceedings and the maximum term of 72 hours of administrative detention and consignment before a judge.
Before requesting the state of exception, Bukele said that the ppolice and the earmy “should let the agents and soldiers do their job and should defend them from accusations of who protect gang members”.
In addition, he pointed out that the Attorney General of the Republic “must be effective with cases” and that “we will also be aware of the judges who favor criminals”.
The Salvadoran president did not clarify whether this message is a support for the use of lethal force by the security forces.
The authorities have not given details of the reasons for the increase, while police figures reveal that the statistics of crimes has been above average for several days in March.
El Salvador reached 86 Homicides ethis month, according to data released by the Police, a figure higher than that recorded in January and February, with 85 and 79 violent deaths, respectively.
In November 550, the country also recorded a sudden rise in homicides that left more than 40 murders in three days. In this context, Bukele rejected the accusations that his government had a ” truce” with the gangs.
The US Department of the Treasury sanctioned in December 2021 to two Bukele government officials for alleged “secret negotiations” with the MS-13.
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