El Salvador’s congress on Tuesday voted to extend for a third time emergency powers that have suspended some fundamental rights and led to the arrest of more than 41,000 people in the past three months.
The government says the extraordinary powers are necessary to confront the powerful street gangs that control neighborhoods.
Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele first requested the state of exception in late March, a day after gangs killed 62 people, shattering one of his most touted achievements — a decrease in murders.
Photo: Reuters
The proposal passed with votes from 67 of the 84 lawmakers in the unicameral Legislative Assembly.
While the proposal was debated, Bukele wrote on Twitter that construction had started on a massive new prison.
Under the state of exception, the time that people can be held without seeing a judge has been increased to 15 days from 72 hours.
They also do not have to be informed of why they are being arrested or given the right to speak with a lawyer, and authorities can tap telephones without a judge’s order.
The constitution allows for the suspension of rights to be extended only if the circumstances that justified it in the first place continue.
Civil rights organizations say that the state of exception was never justified, because authorities already had the ability to investigate and make arrests.
Critics say that many of the arrests have been arbitrary, violate due process and have resulted in innocent people being locked away.
Judges have been practically automatic in ordering people held in jail for months, while authorities try to build cases against them.
Salvadoran Minister of Justice and Public Security Gustavo Villatoro on Tuesday said authorities were winning the war against the gangs, but there was more to do.
“The mission that Salvadorans are giving us is clear, eradicate these terrorists from Salvadoran territory,” he said.
Bukele’s approval ratings have remained high and the measures have been popular among a public tired of living in constant fear.
Jose Heriberto Hernandez, a 51-year-old laborer, on Tuesday said that he supports the measures, but added: “I also think that they need to take steps to free the innocent more quickly.”
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