Photo: MARVIN RECINOS / AFP / Getty Images
The Congress of El Salvador approved a new extension of an emergency regime initiated on 27 March to launch an offensive against the gangs that already leaves some 35,000 arrested.
“It is extended throughout the national territory for a term of thirty days from the day 26 of May 2022, under the same conditions, the effects of legislative decree number 333” that contemplates the exceptional regime, indicated the decree approved with the votes of 67 deputies.
“The extension of the emergency regime is approved”, stressed the president of Congress, Ernesto Castro.
The decree that was proposed by the government of President Nayib Bukele stated that “ it is necessary to prolong” the exception regime because there is still a “wave of insecurity”, despite the arrest of thousands of alleged gang members.
Early, the Salvadoran Presidency published on Twitter that Bukele was “meeting with the Security Cabinet . After analyzing the results of the two months of the Exception Regime, they will ask the Council of Ministers to ask the Legislative Assembly for its extension”.
The President @nayibbukele is meeting with the Security Cabinet. After analyzing the results of the two months of the Exception Regime, they will ask the Council of Ministers to ask the @AsambleaSV for its extension. #GuerraContraGangs pic.twitter.com/BAqWxvXh6E
– Presidential House 🇸🇻 (@PresidenciaSV) May 25, 2022
The Congress of El Salvador decreed the regime, which suspends constitutional rights, at the end of March after a wave of violence that claimed the life of 87 people in the deadliest days of the Bukele administration, close to three years in office.
Constitutional liberties suspended
The exceptional regime suspends the constitutional freedoms of assembly, association, inviolability of correspondence and telecommunications, in addition to the right to defense. According to the police authorities, under the emergency regime, more than 34,500 alleged gang members.
Although the Constitution states that the extension by 30 days can only be authorized if the causes that generated the declaration are maintained and that the escalation of murders was controlled in the first days of said state of emergency, Parliament approved the 25 from April passed its extension.
According to an opinion poll published this Wednesday, half of Salvadorans approve of the expansion of the emergency regime, but consider that the Government should take “another type of different measures” to confront the phenomenon of violence.